Japan has finally admitted that building the Mitsubishi SpaceJet, the nation’s first passenger aircraft, was not a good idea. The project appears to have been grounded forever.
Japan abandoned plans to build its first passenger jet after years of technology setbacks and costs running out of control.
According to the Guardian, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will cancel the public-private SpaceJet partnership, a decade after the aircraft was supposed to have begun commercial flights. The company said the jet had “failed to confirm sufficient business viability.”
The twin-engined Mitsubishi SpaceJet, designed to carry fewer than 100 passengers, was intended for short flights and was supposed to open a new chapter in Japan’s aviation sector.
But the 2008 project under the name Mitsubishi Regional Jet missed its 2013 rollout and was put on hold in October 2020 as demand for…
