“At 9:35 a.m. on November 11, the first flight test aircraft of the MRJ approached takeoff speed, easing up slowly at first, then quietly soared into the autumn sky. After its takeoff at Nagoya Airport, it proceeded to training airspace over the Pacific, with a view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. Tests confirmed the aircraft’s basic characteristics in maneuvers including ascent, descent and circling left and right. The first flight test aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 15,000ft (approx. 4,500m) and a maximum speed of 150Kt (approx. 280Km/h).
It landed at Nagoya Airport at 11:02 a.m., completing a successful first flight lasting 1 hr., 27 min. Cheers of delight and relief were heard from officials looking on from a gathering area by the runway and engineers standing ready in our office to handle possible contingencies, as well as from crowds of people watching from parks and other locations in the vicinity.
For us, for Japan, and for the worldwide aviation industry, November 11, 2015, will go down as a historic day. This test accomplished the first flight of a domestically-developed passenger airliner since the YS-11 53 years ago.
After the first (successful) MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) Test Flight on November 11, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation conducted the 2nd & 3rd flight tests of the first flight test aircraft on Thursday, November 19 and Friday, November 27 respectively.” (Mitsubishi Aircraft’s PR)
Congratulations!
The GBMC Team
More Test Flight Videos from:
and
Leave a Reply