Taiwan's AIDC to make parts for MRJ

By Leithen Francis

Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft has confirmed that Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) will design and manufacture parts for its Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) currently in development.

The aircraft-maker says in a statement AIDC will be designing and making slats, flaps, belly fairings, rudders as well as horizontal stabiliser rotating blades.

AIDC president Shiah Yeau-yi is quoted in the statement as saying "producing technologically-advanced materials requires working with superior business partners [and] as such we are fully committed to making this into a model project that will meet the world's demand in structural aircraft parts and do so in a timely fashion".

Mitsubishi Aircraft president Nobuo Toda says: "With the participation of AIDC, we have just about assembled all of our primary partners required for development and production of the MRJ.

"With Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) , Mitsubishi Aircraft and our other first-class partners from around the world, the MRJ has transitioned smoothly into the design and technical evaluation stage."

The MRJ is scheduled to enter service by early 2014 and will come in 70- and 90-seat variants. The launch customer is All Nippon Airways which has ordered 15 of the 90-seaters.

A Mitsubishi Aircraft spokeswoman in Tokyo says AIDC will be a single-source supplier for the parts.

She says Mitsubishi Aircraft sees Taiwan as a potential market for its MRJ and the aircraft-maker's sales team has already started pitching the aircraft to airlines there.

The spokeswoman also says Mitsubishi Aircraft's parent, MHI, is continuing to talk to Vietnamese authorities about outsourcing MRJ manufacturing work to Vietnam but she declines to comment further on this matter.

Mitsubishi Aircraft told ATI earlier this month that it plans to freeze the MRJ's design in September-November.

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