Mitsubishi SpaceJet (MRJ)

Updated: October 2026 – There are aircraft you will never see in airline service, even though they were fully built, tested and even demonstrated at international air shows. The Mitsubishi SpaceJet, long known as the MRJ, is one of them. It was meant to be Japan’s big comeback in civil aircraft manufacturing, collected hundreds of orders, flew test programs for years in Japan and the US – and was still canceled in February 2023. On this page you will learn what made the jet special technically, what the test fleet looked like, why the program failed and what is left of it for spotters today.

What was the Mitsubishi SpaceJet?

The SpaceJet was a twinjet regional jet for roughly 70 to 90 passengers. It was developed by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the industrial group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), based in Nagoya. Mitsubishi had been a supplier to Boeing and other manufacturers for decades, but since the YS-11 of the 1960s it had not seen a Japanese passenger aircraft of its own enter series production. The MRJ was meant to close that gap.

It was preceded by a state-funded research program that began in 2003. On March 28, 2008, MHI announced the official program launch. At the same time All Nippon Airways signed as launch customer: 15 firm orders for the MRJ90 plus options on ten more. The schedule at the time called for type certification and entry into service in the early 2010s – nothing of that was left in the end.

Two sizes were planned. The MRJ90 was the main model, the shorter MRJ70 its smaller sister. With the renaming in 2019 the MRJ90 became the SpaceJet M90, and Mitsubishi also introduced the M100, a newly tailored variant with 76 seats in three classes, aimed specifically at the US market.

Technology: modern on paper

Technically the MRJ was an ambitious design. Mitsubishi was the first aircraft manufacturer to choose the geared turbofan from Pratt & Whitney, the PW1000G family that later also ended up in the Airbus A220, the A320neo and the Embraer E2. For the MRJ90 the version was the PW1217G. In a geared turbofan the large fan turns more slowly than the turbine through a reduction gearbox, which cuts fuel burn and noise.

A wing of carbon-fiber composite was originally planned. In 2009, however, Mitsubishi decided to build the wing box from aluminum: on such a small wing the composite did not deliver the hoped-for weight advantage. Composites remained mainly in the tail. At the same time the fuselage became somewhat taller and the cabin gained headroom – a generous cross-section for a regional jet with four seats per row.

Feature	SpaceJet M90	SpaceJet M100 (project)
Length	35.8 m	34.5 m
Wingspan	29.2 m	27.8 m
Height	10.4 m	10.3 m
Seats (one class)	88	84
Seats (multi-class)	81	76
Max. takeoff weight	42.8 t	42.0 t
Range (manufacturer figure)	about 3,770 km	about 3,540 km

The M100 figures were project data. This variant was never built, but the data shows well what it was about: a shorter fuselage, a smaller wingspan and less weight so that the jet fits the rules of US regional airlines.

The test fleet: few aircraft, a lot of history

For spotters the test fleet is the really interesting part, because it is everything that ever flew. In the first batch Mitsubishi built eight test aircraft – seven MRJ90 and one MRJ70. Added to that was test aircraft no. 10, completed in 2020 in the revised M90 configuration. The Japanese registrations followed the pattern JA2xMJ.

Most of the flight testing took place not in Japan but in Moses Lake in the US state of Washington. At Grant County International Airport there, Mitsubishi set up its own flight test center because weather, airspace and infrastructure were far better suited to intensive test programs. The ferry flights from Japan to the US – and in 2017 on to Europe – were the rare chances for spotters along the route to catch the jets away from their test base. According to MHI, the whole program added up to more than 3,900 flight hours.

How to track such ferry flights in general is explained in the article Tracking delivery and ferry flights.

Timeline: from great hope to cancellation

The history of the MRJ is a history of delays. In total Mitsubishi had to push back the date of the first delivery five times. Here are the most important milestones at a glance:

Year	Event
2003	State-funded research program for a Japanese regional jet begins
2008	Official program launch, ANA orders 15 MRJ90 plus 10 options
2009	Switch from composite to aluminum wing
2012	SkyWest agrees to buy 100 MRJ90
2015	First flight in Nagoya on November 11
2016	Flight testing begins in Moses Lake, USA
2017	Further two-year delay, trade show debut at Le Bourget
2018	Flying display at Farnborough, MHI injects substantial capital
2019	Renaming to SpaceJet, announcement of the M100, agreement to take over Bombardier’s CRJ program
2020	First flight in final M90 configuration in March, program pause in October
2023	Official end of the program in February

The jump between the cost estimates in particular shows how much the project had taken on a life of its own: in 2007 development costs of about 150 billion yen were expected, and by 2017 the estimate was already about 350 billion yen. In 2018 MHI injected another 220 billion yen and raised its stake in Mitsubishi Aircraft to 86.7 percent.

In October 2020 came the emergency stop: Mitsubishi announced a “temporary pause” for almost all work on the SpaceJet, with only the certification documentation continuing on a limited basis. Budget and staff were slashed drastically. In February 2023 MHI drew the line together with its quarterly results and finally ended the program.

Why did the SpaceJet fail?

There is no single cause. MHI itself named several points when it ended the program, and industry observers added more. The reasons can be roughly sorted into four groups.

Certification: By its own assessment, Mitsubishi had underestimated how demanding type certification to Western standards is for a completely new airliner. Systems and wiring had to be redesigned several times, which led to each delay. The last step to certification would have needed a great deal of money once more.

Scope clauses: In the US, labor agreements between the major airlines and their pilot unions regulate how large and heavy the aircraft flown by regional partners may be. The common limit is 76 seats and roughly 39 tonnes of takeoff weight. The M90 exceeded it with its takeoff weight. That is exactly why Mitsubishi designed the M100 – but the hope for relaxed rules did not come true. Trans States Holdings canceled its order for 100 MRJ90 in 2019 for exactly that reason. For the competition it was no problem: the first-generation Embraer E175 fits within these limits and dominates the US regional business to this day.

Partners and market: MHI reported that it had been difficult to keep partners around the world on board. After the pandemic came uncertainty in the regional jet market and the pilot shortage at US regional airlines.

State of the technology: After so many years the design would have partly had to be reworked, also with a view to the industry’s climate targets. A jet considered modern in 2008 would hardly have been new anymore if delivered in the mid-2020s.

The detour via Bombardier

A remarkable chapter is the connection to Bombardier. In October 2018 Bombardier sued Mitsubishi in Seattle, alleging that former Bombardier employees had taken trade secrets on certification with them. A US federal judge dismissed the allegations in April 2019.

Just two months later, in June 2019, Mitsubishi announced it would take over Bombardier’s entire CRJ program – for 550 million US dollars plus assumed liabilities. The thinking behind it: Mitsubishi gained a worldwide network for maintenance, spare parts and customer support that would ease the SpaceJet’s market entry. New CRJs were built after that only until the end of 2020. For spotters that means: the CRJ900 and the CRJ700 you see at European airports today are technically supported by a Mitsubishi company, even if some type plates still say Bombardier.

How to recognize a SpaceJet in photos

You will not see a SpaceJet fly live anymore. Identification is still exciting if you go through old photos, browse archives or stand in front of the aircraft in a museum. At first glance the jet can be mistaken for other modern regional jets.

The SpaceJet is most similar to the Embraer E-Jet family: both have underwing engines, a conventional tail and a 2+2 cabin. How to tell the Embraer variants apart is covered in the guide How to tell Embraer E-Jets apart; the article How to identify regional jets offers a general overview. Another counterpart from the Far East is the Chinese Comac ARJ21, which, unlike the SpaceJet, made it into airline service – albeit with rear-mounted engines.

What spotters still get from the SpaceJet today

Honestly: not much – and that is exactly what makes it exciting. A photo of an MRJ in flight is a real rarity today, comparable to pictures of other prototypes that never went into production. Anyone who photographed at Le Bourget in 2017, Farnborough in 2018 or during the test years in Moses Lake and Nagoya owns a piece of aviation history. How to rate the rarity of such sightings is explained in the article How rare is my sighting?, and you will find more candidates for your rarities list under Spotting rare aircraft.

The only realistic chance of an encounter is the Aichi Museum of Flight at Nagoya-Komaki Airport, exactly where the MRJ was once built and took off for its first flight. An exhibition of test aircraft JA26MJ is planned there; Japanese media most recently named the second half of Japanese fiscal year 2026 as the timeframe. Whether the aircraft is already on view is something you should clarify directly with the museum before a trip. The former MRJ museum next to the assembly hall has been closed since 2023.

If you are spotting in Japan anyway, a look at the observation decks at Tokyo Haneda Airport is worth it. There you see the current fleet of the former SpaceJet launch customer from ANA Holdings in everyday operation – with types that actually made it into airline service.

Perspective: a lesson for Japan

The SpaceJet is not the only regional jet project that failed on certification and the market or only struggled to gain a foothold. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 did enter service, but disappeared from Western Europe again. The lesson from Nagoya is: building a good aircraft is not enough. Without established certification experience, a global customer network and a design that fits the rules of the most important market, even a financially strong group does not reach its goal.

For the aviation industry in Japan the program remains formative nonetheless. A lot of knowledge from development and flight testing has stayed in the country, and the debate about a new Japanese passenger aircraft has not gone silent with the end of the SpaceJet.

Conclusion

The Mitsubishi SpaceJet is an aircraft for the archive, not for the runway fence. That is exactly why it is worth knowing: it explains why the regional jet market is so heavily shaped by Embraer to this day, why the CRJ family is now supported by Mitsubishi and how high the hurdle of type certification really is. If you want to see it, plan a museum visit near Nagoya – or search old trade show photos for the registrations JA2xMJ.