Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Boeing Co. said Wednesday they are in talks about collaborating on Mitsubishi's project to develop a new passenger jet.
Mitsubishi Heavy, Asia's biggest aerospace company, is developing a 70- to 90-seat plane called the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, with the first flight planned for 2012. Chairman Takashi Nishioka asked for Boeing's help last month.
"We're discussing the possibility of cooperation," Naoko Masuda, a spokeswoman in Tokyo for Chicago-based Boeing, said Wednesday. The U.S. plane maker won't invest in the project, she said, declining to say what is being discussed.