[LINK] "Pilot of Last Japan Passenger Plane Seeks Chance to Fly New Jet"

[rfmcdonald]

Chris Cooper and Kiyotaka Matsuda at Bloomberg report on an odd lacuna in Japan's economy: Why does the country not have a thriving indigenous airplane industry, like at least Brazil or Canada?

Japan wants to break the virtual lock that Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc. have on the market for small passenger jets, as Boeing and Airbus Group SE control the market for larger passenger planes. With Montreal-based Bombardier now focusing on its bigger CSeries jets, which will be able to carry as many as 160 passengers, Mitsubishi Aircraft sees an opening it could fill.

In August, the Japanese company opened an engineering center in Seattle that will employ 150 engineers, including about 50 sent from Japan, to provide expertise on aircraft development and speed the MRJ’s production. It also has opened sales centers in the U.S. and Europe.

“I look forward to Mitsubishi using the most of Japan’s engineering technology and building a good plane,” Sakai said. “I want to see them showcase it to the world.”