Japan plans another airliner development attempt, aims for launch by 2035

NAMC YS-11
The turboprop YS-11 produced between 1962 and 1974 is Japan’s only airliner to have entered into commercial service to date.

On March 27, 2024, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry revealed a plan to support the development of a new Japanese airliner. The government, together with private companies, plans to invest 5 trillion yen (approximately 33 billion dollars) into the project.

While Japan has a sizeable aviation manufacturing industry supplying parts to airframers outside Japan, no locally assembled airliner entered into service since the last NAMC YS-11 did so in 1974. The country’s attempt to change that with the Mitsubishi SpaceJet failed to do so when the program was canceled last year. With this project, the government hopes to launch a new airliner by 2035.

Unlike the turboprop YS-11 and jet SpaceJet, with the new airliner, Japan is looking to explore hydrogen engines and other next-generation technologies. The project will be funded primarily through climate transition bonds and is expected to involve more collaboration between various private companies, as well as the public sector, than the Mitsubishi SpaceJet did.

The government looking to also utilize the learnings from the SpaceJet project in developing the new airliner also explains previous reports about one of the SpaceJet’s prototypes being expected to be put in a museum, something that would have previously been potentially seen as a public display of failure.

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