NAMC YS-11

YS-11
A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force YS-11M in 2013
Role Turboprop airliner
National origin Japan
Manufacturer Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation
First flight 30 August 1962
Introduction 30 March 1965, for All Nippon Airways (first passenger flight with Japan Air Commuter in 1965)
Status
  • In limited service
  • Retired from military service 2021 (Japan Air Self-Defense Force)
Produced 1962–1974
Number built 182

The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet during the 2010s, roughly 50 years later. [1][2]

Development of the YS-11 can be largely attributed to Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), which had encouraged Japanese aircraft companies to collaborate on the development of a short-haul airliner as early as 1954. In 1959, NAMC was formed to design and produce an aircraft to satisfy MITI's requirements, dubbed the YS-11. On 30 August 1962, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. Deliveries commenced on 30 March 1965, and commercial operations began the following month. The majority of orders for the type were issued from various Japanese airlines. While sales to such customers were swift in the YS-11's initial years of availability, this limited market soon became saturated, leading to a slump in demand.

Production of the type came to an end in 1974 as a result of efforts to increase sales to international clients, including the creation of the better YS-11A variation. In the end, the YS-11 had shown that Japan was capable of building an airliner, but NAMC had racked up a huge debt, and the type is generally regarded as a commercial failure. Large numbers of the type continued to be in service until 2006, at which point tighter Japanese aircraft regulations imposed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism necessitated either the withdrawal or refitting of all YS-11s. By 2018, only a single example reportedly remained in commercial service.

  1. ^ Mecham, Michael; Anselmo, Joe (17 March 2008). "Mitsubishi Leads Japanese Aircraft Resurgence" (PDF). Aviation Week & Space Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ans1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).