Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation
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The Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (Japanese: 日本航空機製造株式会社 Nihon Kōkūki Seizō Kabushiki-gaisha), or NAMC, was the manufacturer of Japan's only post-World War 2 production airliner to enter service, the YS-11.
Company type | Joint-owned corporation |
---|---|
Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | May 1957 |
Defunct | 23 March 1983 |
Fate | Disbanded |
Products | Aircraft |
NAMC was a consortium of several manufacturing companies and university professors. It was founded during April 1957 by executives from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fuji Heavy Industries, Shinmeiwa Manufacturing, Sumitomo, Nihon Kogata Hikoki, Showa Aircraft, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to design and manufacture a Japanese civilian turboprop airliner to replace the obsolete Douglas DC-3.
The resulting aircraft, the YS-11, was the only moderately successful civilian airliner to be produced by Japan after World War 2 and the only airliner designed and produced in Japan for over 50 years until the Mitsubishi Regional Jet first flew in 2015. Achieving a production run of 182, the YS-11 was not a commercial success for NAMC; the consortium's ambitions of producing a turbofan-powered successor were unrealised, and burdened by debt, the company disbanded on 23 March 1983.