The first prototype of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) returned to its base at Nagoya Airport in Japan soon after starting its ferry flight across the Pacific Ocean to Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation’s engineering facility in Moses Lake, Washington. In a statement issued on Sunday, Mitsubishi said that the MRJ test pilots turned back to Nagoya after determining that the “monitoring function” of the twinjet’s air management system needed to be inspected. As of late Monday [Japan time], no further update had been issued as to when the MRJ might set off for the U.S.
Flight testing at Mitsubishi’s purpose-built new engineering facility at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake is due to begin during the fourth quarter of this year, but the manufacturer had hoped to bring this forward. Mitsubishi achieved a first flight of the MRJ on November 11, 2015, and has been doing some flight testing in Japan as it aims for a revised first delivery goal in the second quarter of 2018. In July, the manufacturer landed its first order from a European customer when Swedish leasing group Rockton ordered 10 MRJ90s and optioned another 10.