REPORT

2017 US Aviation Tour:Day4September 28, 2017

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*Visiting Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake*
This time we visited the site of MRJ's flight test, which Mitsubishi Aircraft is developing for the first time. The flight tests was taking place at a small airfield remote from the city. As soon as we arrived at the chaotic airport where large and small airplanes continuously do takeoffs, they took us to the sideway near the runway. We still remember the beauty and tranquility of MRJ that we saw for the first time descending there. After returning to the airport terminal, we heard from the Japanese engineer who worked on the MRJ about their passion for it, and felt the MRJ hold parts of their souls. We understood the significances of MRJ, which transforms from structural component manufacturing to railroad works and contributes to sophistication of domestic industries, and also its logic to challenge with regional jets outside of Boeing and Airbus. On the other hand, we felt the size of Japanese’s blank period of 50 years. After the explanation and presentation from Tokyo University students, we visited the hanger, all the four aircrafts were parked. We were satisfied with the MRJ’s near completion.

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