When the Airbus-Boeing duopoly is finally broken, as eventually it must be, the third competitor just might be called Combardier. Or Bomac. In an exercise that seems to fall not far short of forming a joint venture, Canada’s Bombardier and China’s Comac are moving ahead with a potentially far-reaching outline agreement to see how they can bring commonality to their jet airliners and help each other to sell aircraft.

The first Mitsubishi Regional Jet, whose parts are now taking shape in Nagoya, will follow a design that in key areas shows unusual features in the quest for fuel economy. Above all, program managers have bet on higher fuel prices justifying a design whose wing is much more slender than usual for a regional jet.

Across the northern half of the main Japanese island of Honshu, aerospace managers are bringing factories back online, working around problems left by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and sending parts out the door. The hardest hit of the big manufacturers, IHI Corp., has resumed some production at its two aero-engine factories in Soma and hopes to get its whole operation in the city back online by May. Fuji Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries say most of their suppliers are also working again.