Next Gen H3 Heavy Launching System Nears Completion at Mitsubishi Heavy

 

MHI and JAXA showed the next-generation launching rocket H3 at Tobishima, Aichi, January 23,2021

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed H3, the next-generation launching rocket, for the press on January 23, 2021. They will seek demands for satellite launching from governments and corporations. The space launching market is getting more competitive with start-ups scoring more successes and Japan expects to get more orders earlier and enhance reliability records for survival.

The body section of an H3 test unit was shown to the press at Tobishima Plant of MHI in Tobishima, Aichi. Its diameter is 5.2 meters, and its length is 57 meters. Launching capacity will be 1.3 times greater than current H2A and will be able to put larger satellites for broadcasting or communication as much as 6.5 t into orbit. H3 is under development as a replacement for H2A. The original schedule of the first launch of H3 was postponed to fiscal 2021 due to defects of the turbine. After production in Aichi, central Japan, H3 will be transported to Tanegashima, a remote island off Kyushu for launching.

A key point of H3 is the cost. Unit price is to be lowered to about JPY 5 billion in order to appeal to private sector demands, a  weak spot by H2A.  For lowering the price, more off-the-shelf components and increasing the launches of more than six times a year.  The structure of the tip of the rocket has been simplified as well. Lead time from taking the order to launching would be halved to a year.

MHI looks forward to capturing more customers by the appealing previous records of reliability in addition to lower prices. In the first phase, H3 will be confirmed of its performance as well as used for optical communication satellite projects. It will be used for the planned Mars exploration.

MHI has a successful launching record of 98.1% by conventional H2A and H2B, surpassing the world standard of 95%.  Survival in the global market calls for enhanced cost competitiveness by increasing its launching record. ■

Air Asia Japan Files Bankruptcy

 

AirAsia Japan, an affiliate of low-cost carrier Air Asia, filed bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.

Air Asia Japan started flight operations just three years ago from its hub at Centrair Chubu International Airport (NGO) near Nagoya to three domestic destinations of Sapporo Shin-Chitose, Sendai, and Fukuoka as well as one international route to Taipei. Its total debt is estimated at about JPY 22 billion. With a forthcoming decision by the courthouse, the carrier will start bankruptcy processes.

However, with the overwhelming negative impact of COVID-19, the carrier saw its revenue dropping and no sign of recovery leading to cease all operations by December 5, 2020.

Its employees counting 280 are now mostly dismissed and looking for new employment opportunities.

ANA Requests Toyota to Accept Surplus Peronnel

 

ANA Holdings, expecting the largest loss in its history of JPY500 billion (USD 5 billion)  will announce its business restructuring plans on October 27.  We learned its outline as follows:

• In order to reduce its payrolls by 3,500 persons by fiscal 2022, ANA will request companies such as Toyota Motor to accept its employees on loan as well as freezing new hires

• Salary of its employees will be cut by 5% per month, no plans for winter bonuses for them

• International flights, if they restart, will be concentrated to Tokyo Haneda first

• The fleet size of larger aircraft will be reduced by 30%, deferring to accept the third example of A380 by a year

In the meantime, ANA will launch a new subsidiary to make use of data of its mileage program members for new merchandising.

Personnel expenses account for about 30% of its fixed cost. Toyota and others are reportedly starting to plan to accept excess ANA employees. 

ANA’s ambitious business expansion plans turned to backfire with the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant slowing down of the aviation market.

ANA will try to survive in the reversed business environment by securing JPY 500 billion by issuing its subordinated bond.

ANA Flies Idle A380 for Domestic Charter Service

 

ANA

Mynavi News reported that All Nippon Airways (ANA) operated its Airbus A380, called Flying Honu, for a chartered flight for paid passengers in Japan to make them feel like flying to Hawaii.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, ANA’s A380s, exclusively put in its Hawaii route, were grounded. This chartered flight was after a five-month period.

The chartered flight took place on August 22, 2020, from Narita for about 90 minutes as a special summer experience for the lucky passengers who won their tickets out of so many applications. 

A spokesperson for ANA told reporters that the carrier would offer the same flight experience and fun to passengers through precautions against the epidemic disease. 

By putting the aircraft to a chartered flight, ANA could avoid mandatory heavy maintenance for an aircraft without flying for over 90 days.

Inside the cabin, flight attendants wore Aloha shirts serving the passengers with drinks while showing the same safety video meant for passengers destined to Hawaii so that the passengers could feel like flying to Hawaii.

The fares for the flight ranged from JPY 14,000 (about USD 130) for economy class and JPY50,000 (about USD 470), quite reasonable for wide variety of passengers of aircraft and travelling enthusiasts. ANA reportedly received 150 timers greater applicants to the available seats

ANA announced it would operate another chartered flight in September thanks to such a big interest.■

 

MoD to Announce Very New Style of Contracting for Japan's Next Fighter Jet Development

Japan's Next Fighter Jet to Develop with Sole Contractor from Japan

----July 28, 2020----

The Nikkei Shimbun web edition reported today the Defense Ministry of Japan has chosen contracting with a sole company in Japan for the development of the next fighter jets for its  air self-defense force to be deployed from 2035. The Defense Ministry will announce this style of contracting very soon, the Nikkei reports.

This contractor will coordinate the development and production with participating other firms from Japan and U.S. It is intended, Nikkei assumes, to enhance development and production capabilities of Japanese firms.

The next fighter, called F-3, will replace current Mitsubishi F-2 fighters, a Japan-U.S.joint work based on F-16, that will start retiring from 2035.  With appropriation of the development expenses in Japan's fiscal 2021 budget and complete prototype examples in fiscal 2024.

Estimated production size of the fighter jets is said to be ninety with approx. JPY 5 trillion budget for the entire processes including procurement.

Under the new style of fighter jet development, Japanese corporations will undergo the entire processes of designing, development and production of its battle system as well as main parts. It is highly expected U.S. corporations will join in the development with supervision of the sole contractor from Japan.

For this sole contractor, many expect Mitsubishi Heavy Industry while Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Subaru, and IHI from Japan and Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman are expected to join as contractors.

JASDF operates F-35 joint strike fighters assembled in U.S. but its key technologies are non-disclosed and Japan is not allow any modification. Its battle system should be upgraded for convenience of U.S. side. Japanese officials have voiced dissatisfaction with lower degree of freedom in operation and little chance to accumulate technologies in Japan's defense industry.

The selection of this style of contracting is reflecting strong wishes of Japan's defense industrial sector.

Lockheed Martin once proposed a hybrid model of F-22 and F-35 for Japan's next fighter jets but this was never taken up as Japan has insisted to develop the new fighter with its own initiative. 

Some speculates U.S. will demand Japan to make the development with more American involvement after November U.S. presidential election, Nikkei reports.

Japan's Newest Carrier ZIPAIR Starts Flight Service as Cargo Only

画像：ZIPAIRプレスリリース

ZIPAIR Tokyo or ZIPAIR, a newly established low cost carrier subsidiary of Japan Airlines, inaugurated its scheduled cargo flight from Narita to Bangkok, Thailand on June 3, 2020.

ZIPAIR, a whole owned by JAL, operates two Boeing 787-8s. The new LCC aims at starting other routes to Southeast Asian destination and trans-Pacific routes.  

The carrier originally planned to start its passenger flight between Narita and Suvarnabhumi Airport from 14 May 2020 but it postponed the start due to the pandemic of COVID-19. 

Over 90 percent of scheduled international flights have been stopped, the demand for air cargo is  steadily rising and ZIPAIR has decided to launch its scheduled cargo flight at first.

ZIPAIR offers four cargo flights a week as below. 

ZG51　Narita 17:20/ Bankok 22:00 　Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat

ZG52　Bangkok 23:30/Narita 07:45（+1）　Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat

The carrier has not announced a flight schedule for its passenger flights yet.  As ZIPAIR has a plan to operate Narita-Incheon flights, it is probable that the flight to and from Korea will take place in daytime and Bangkok service will take place in night. ZIPAIR has announced its plan to start the Korean flight effective from July 1.  However, passenger service between Japan and South Korea is still under restriction and business environment is not favorable yet.

The new LCC has also announced its plans to start Narita-Honolulu flights from winter schedule of 2020.

Visit ZIPAIR website. http://www.zipairtokyo.com/en/

Mitsubishi Heavy Succeeds in Launching Spy Satellite #7

H2A #41 launched carrying the government payload of information gathering satellite optical #7. February 9, 2020, Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) successfully launched its H2A rocket #41 from Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima, Japan at 10:34 a.m. (JST) on February 9, 2020. The booster had a payload of the government of Japan: Information Gathering Satellite Kogaku (Optical) #7.

H2A launching  of the day marked 35th success consecutively and its non-failure rate reached to 97.6%.

  After the launching of ballistic missile in 1998 by North Korea, Japan started its program to develop indigenous spy satellite constellation.  Today two optical sensor satellites and two radar satellites are orbiting the globe and Japan can take photography of all points on earth once per day.

The Kogaku #7 is to succeed #5 of the same type launched in March 2015. With the successful launching of the #7, operation of eight satellites, including old generation birds that surpassed design longevity has been possible by the satellite information center under the Cabinet Office. ■

Japanese air force will be renamed Air and Space Self Defense Force

The government of Japan has started its study to rename the Air Self Defense Force to the Air and Space Self Defense Force, as an attempt to strengthen defense in outer space, a new critical domain for Japan's security. This will b e the first revision of the name of the self defense forces in ground, maritime and air since the foundation of the SDF in 1954.

The new name and organization will take effect by FY2023 after revision of the Self Defense and relevant laws.

JASDF will launch 'space operation unit' in FY2020 that will start from April 1 this year.  This unit will be expanded afterward to be able to operate fully by FY2023, expecting information sharing with the Space Force of U.S.

Japan is aware of Chinese and Russian military capability development in space by developing 'killer satellite' to attack other countries' space assets.■

Who is Best Punctual Airliner in Domestic Network in Japan?

定時運航率で見る日本のエアラインのパフォーマンス

The Editor

October 14, 2019

Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has released FY2018 data on punctual departure performance records.

Japanese fiscal year covers April to March.

Accordingly, the list below shows the performance rate compiled from April 2018 to March 2019 by respective carriers. For your information, Japan Airlines in the following data includes JAL’s affiliates of J Air and Hokkaido Air Systems while ANA data also includes ANA Wings. 

Punctuality departure performance by definition means all schedule flights that could depart within 15 minutes of the schedules. However, MLIT data only covers those aircraft with 100 or more seats.

Punctual performance of carries by rank

(Unit: %, parenthesis means FY2017 data)

1st SKYMARK　 93.91 (93.06)

2nd STARFLIER 93.88 （89.86）

3rd Air Do 90.76   (90.06)

4th ANA 90.51 (88.52)

5th JAL 89.91 (90.01)

6 AirAsia Japan 88.63 (90.42)

7 Solaseed Air 87.16 (87.75)

8 Spring Japan 85.08 (83.32)

9 Peach 82.61 (79.17)

10 Jet Star Japan 81.58 (85.17)

11 Japan Trans Ocean 80.39 (83.90)

12 Vanila Air 79.33 (80.94)

I will be pleased if you could refer to the above data when you plan domestic flight in Japan next time.

ANA-Toyota Boshoku Win 2019 Good Design Award for Cabin Passenger Seat

ANA-Toyota Boshoku Joint Designed Passenger Seat Awarded as ‘Good Design’

A new seat for domestic economy class jointly developed by ANA and Toyota Boshoku.

A newly designed passenger seat by ANA and Toyota Boshoku, a major car interior specialized firm as a Toyota Motor group, won the ‘2019 Good Design Award.’ The seat is for domestic routes and ANA will introduce the seats from Fall, 2019.

The winning seat is designed to accommodate any physiques and features of higher convenience for passengers while the slim seat design is intended to give more openness in the cabin. 

Annual Good Desing Award is now a global design competition with the participation of companies and organizations in and out of Japan for better design applications for social challenges. Its icon of ‘G mark’ is accepted as a symbol of excellent designs.　The designs reflect know-how of both ANA as experienced carrier and Toyota Boshoku for manufacturing quality it earned during decades of car seats for automobiles.

SKYMARK will launch NARITA-SAIPAN flights within this year

SKYMARK Extends its Wings Out of Japan: Its first international service is Narita-Saipan

September 24, 2019

The editor

Skymark, the third-largest airline in Japan, formally announced its plans to launch Narita-Sapan, the first scheduled international flight for the once-bankrupt airline.

  Skymark already operated chartered flights to Saipan in Mach, then followed by August and September while studying of launching scheduled flight service to the island destination, once a popular spot for Japanese travelers but now no JAL and ANA service is available.

   However, Skymark will launch its scheduled flight between Narita and Saipan starting sometime this year as daily service.

   At the same time, the airline will start domestic flight of Narita-Chubu (Nagoya) to attract those Japanese tourists in central Japan to Saipan desitnaion.

   Skymark once envisioned to launch Narita-New York line with its planned purchasing of A380s. However, the compnay soon filed bankruptcy and its expansion of network beyond Japanese borders became a pie in the sky.

   The airline has only operated scheduled passenger flights in the domestic network.

   As of today, there is no direct flight from Japan to Saipan. Japan Airlines ceased its flights in 2005.  Delta Airlines also finished passenger flights from Japan in May 2018 and Saipan has become a distant destination without direct flight service from Japan. Saipan may get the attention of those leisure tourists from japan once again.

   Skymark will announce details of the flight schedule later.

JAL's New Long-haul LCC is named ZIPAIR Tokyo

March 8) Japan Airlines’s newly launched low-cost carrier (LCC) subsidiary announced its corporate name and business plans on Friday.

According to TBL, a preparatory corporation before launching carrier service, it is called ZIPAIR Tokyo and hoping to start regular flight services from Tokyo Narita to Bangkok and Seoul as early as mid-2020, just before Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games.

The new airliner will start flight services with two Boeing 787-8s leased from Japan Airlines.

ZIPAIR wishes to enter Narita to US west coast destinations as early as 2021.

Destinations of Bangkok and Seoul were selected as high traffic routes connecting with Japan.

However, as more LCCs and legacy airlines are operating on the same routes, ZIPAIR will appeal with half the price of legacy airlines and more spacious cabin for passengers to differentiate with them.