Japan’s first passenger jet to take off in 2012

One of the world's leading heavy machinery manufacturers Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited (MHI) and Japan's new airplane venture Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MJET) jointly unveiled their plans to fly the country's first jetliner Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) in 2012.

The manufacturing phase of the regional jet which aims to compete in the segment with major players Canada's Bombardier and Brazil's Embraer,  has begun with the cutting of aluminium material for the horizontal stabilizer's frame of the aircraft, at MHI's Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works, the companies' said in a statement.

Tokyo-based MHI's diverse sphere of products and services includes shipbuilding, power plants, chemical plants, environmental equipment, steel structures, machinery, aircraft, space rocketry, and air conditioning systems. The group reported a turnover of $35 billion in 2009.

MHI, along with other Japanese industrial giants Toyota Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, Mitsui & Co Ltd and others formed MJET in 2008 with an initial capital of $1.2 billion to design, type certification, procurement, sales & marketing, and customer support of the new MRJ aircraft.

The aircraft is being developed by MJET, based on MHI's cutting-edge technology used in the development and manufacture of both military and commercial aircraft.

MHI will produce the aircraft's major components such as fuselage, wing, empennage and core system and will also be responsible for final assembly and equipment installation.