Mitsubishi Betty Reconstruction In Japan

[CeBro]

Strange that no-one commented on the fantastic job Nobuo Harada is doing in japan in completly building a forward fuselage of a Betty to complete the original restored tail section he already had.

Another type being brought back from extinction,

Dave, do you have any more photographs?

Cheers
Cees

[Sopwith]

Didn't know about this one ,where did you hear about it?.Sounds interesting.

[Bager1968]

Strange that no-one commented on the fantastic job Nobuo Harada is doing in japan in completly building a forward fuselage of a Betty to complete the original restored tail section he already had.

As per Sopwith's comment... its hard to comment on something that one does not know is happening.

Now that we know a Betty job is under work, we can search the internet to try to find out info about it... unless you feel generous enough to give us a link to where you got your info.

[curlyboy]

Sounds like a great project i hope them the best of luck.

There are the very substantial remains of one at Planes of Fame in Chino in its as crashed condition but it has a lot of its parts i have some pics somewhere will find them.

curlyboy

[Seafuryfan]

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/g4m/12017.html

Tail section to ponder on...

[JägerMarty]

Nice one, any active work links?

[CeBro]

Sorry chaps,

Forgot to mention in my first post that it was reported in Classic Wings Magazine. Dave McDonald, can you enlighten us further?

Cees

[DaveM2]

Cees

Sorry-missed this. Nothing further at present. Mr Harada was inbetween trips to the tsunami disaster zone where he is helping out, so didn't have time to elaborate further.

Dave

[TriangleP]

Bump - Any news on Harada collections G4M3 "Betty"? The article about this work in the March 2012 issue of Aeroplane indicated they might have the fuselage halves joined by August 2012 - the month when the museum is publicly open once a year....no results yet on Google...

[CIRCUS 6]

September 2012 Aeroplane has an image of the Betty on page 11, fuselage very much in one piece. Looks impressive.

[J Boyle]

I'd seen photos of the tail section before, Haven't seen any of the front.

Anyone know if he plans on building wings to complete the airframe?

Too bad more original Japanese aircraft aren't around. A look throgh excellent books like Francillon's Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War will give you a good idea of the nation's capabilities and help refute the notrion that many have that all they built were "Zeros".

[QldSpitty]

Its stunning...
https://picasaweb.google.com/1022309...0VFYStv7JI8fdQ

[J Boyle]

Its stunning...
https://picasaweb.google.com/1022309...0VFYStv7JI8fdQ

Thanks!

[TriangleP]

I'd seen photos of the tail section before, Haven't seen any of the front.

Anyone know if he plans on building wings to complete the airframe?

Too bad more original Japanese aircraft aren't around. A look throgh excellent books like Francillon's Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War will give you a good idea of the nation's capabilities and help refute the notrion that many have that all they built were "Zeros".

Thanks for the responses everyone. The March 2012 Aeroplane article mentioned that Harada has a set of G4M wings and engines to restore - not clear what condition they are in but I'm assuming pretty horrible. It would be great to see pics of what he has to start with. The article states that Harada intends to restore the wings and engines to make a complete airframe, but the author had no time frame. Including these, his G4M would be the world's most complete airframe. Even in its current condition, I think it may qualify as such now.

QldSpitty has the same link to the picasa posting site of pics of Harada's G4M as I have. These are the best pics I've been able to find. Too bad it's not as complete as AvSpecs' build photo sequence of KA114, but what the heck!

[TriangleP]

September 2012 Aeroplane has an image of the Betty on page 11, fuselage very much in one piece. Looks impressive.

Thanks, will pick up a copy!