The nature of the first Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) flight test aircraft's roll-out at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagoya Aerospace Systems plant last October, was telling. The fanfare of that day, at Nagoya Airport in Aichi Prefecture on Honshu - choral music, traditional taiko drums and speeches by government ministers - reflected the event's symbolic importance for a programme that is a flag-bearer for Japan's manufacturing sector. The MRJ is the country's first indigenous commercial aircraft, since production of the YS-11 ended in 1973. In August, Mitsubishi Aircraft disclosed more details about how the first variant, the MRJ90, would be tested. And despite the new airliner being a Japanese aircraft, there'll be an American flavour to the testing effort.
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