Mitsubishi delays Regional Jet
JF Mezei
TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd
(7011.T) said it was delaying delivery of its first passenger jet by
three months to the first quarter of calendar 2014 due to design changes.
...
Mitsubishi Heavy will change the material used in the wings to aluminium
instead of carbon fibre for better fuel efficiency, and will widen the
body of the jet and expand cargo space.
It is also considering making jets that will seat 100 passengers, in
addition to the 70-person and 90-person jets now planned.
The design changes will not affect development costs for the jet, it said.
##
Just a 3 month delay for those changes ? Imagine how much of a delay
Boeing would have if it were to annnounce it was dropping carbon in
favour of aluminium for the 787's wings and widening the fuselage !
It would be interesting to know if the experience with 787 prompted
Mitsubishi to rethink use of carbon for wings.
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Uwe Klein
> Just a 3 month delay for those changes ? Imagine how much of a delay
> Boeing would have if it were to annnounce it was dropping carbon in
> favour of aluminium for the 787's wings and widening the fuselage !
"The changes are being made after discussions with potential customers
in Europe and the USA, and the final design will now be frozen
in _mid-2010_ instead of the _third-quarter of 2009_.
"
First delivery is still four years away.
If you are well organised changing ( even basic ) things
should not produce endless delays at this stage.
>
> It would be interesting to know if the experience with 787 prompted
> Mitsubishi to rethink use of carbon for wings.
Remember Airbus the leader in composite materials utilisation for
the larger commercial airliners having to be dragged towards
providing another Plastic Wonderliner like the B787
by its potential customers?
( And managed to stay away from being taken over the barrel, so to speak )
I think the customer experience with the Blastic Liner ( nice new word, isn't it ;-)
enabled Mitsubishi to return to the preferred materials.
The Boeing marketing "coup" will have repercussions for some time to come.
I am uncertain if Boeing will be surfing this wave to its (bitter?) end.
uwe