Japanese POP (aka blind) rivets

[JOVE23]

Actual Aichi D3A, but without the Japanese engine. It had an R-2600 in it!

Needs a complete restoration, but will likely have to be of the "copy old parts to make new ones" type of work.

There are two Vals (including an engine now) at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and another (and a tail section of a fourth I think) at the Nimitz Museum in Texas.

I would LOVE to crawl inside them to start scanning parts but I don't have the connections. I'm just some schmoe at this point!

There are also these original documents in the collection of the National Institute of Defense Studies in Tokyo, but I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to get access to them:

ALSO, Smith's tome claims that the chief designer of the Val gave Bob Diemert copies of the original blueprints for his work, but he might have been conflating that with Jiro Horikoshi sending him blueprints for the Zero. I'm trying to hunt down those Val blueprints too.

 

[MiTasol]

There are two Vals (including an engine now) at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and another (and a tail section of a fourth I think) at the Nimitz Museum in Texas.

I would LOVE to crawl inside them to start scanning parts but I don't have the connections. I'm just some schmoe at this point!

There are also these original documents in the collection of the National Institute of Defense Studies in Tokyo, but I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to get access to them:

View attachment 822460

ALSO, Smith's tome claims that the chief designer of the Val gave Bob Diemert copies of the original blueprints for his work, but he might have been conflating that with Jiro Horikoshi sending him blueprints for the Zero. I'm trying to hunt down those Val blueprints too.

Have you got a link to that National Institute of Defense Studies site. I have Japanese relations and at least one may help even though it is many years since they were last in Japan.

 

[JOVE23]

Have you got a link to that National Institute of Defense Studies site. I have Japanese relations and at least one may help even though it is many years since they were last in Japan.

防衛研究所

I've also reached out to The North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources to see if they can provide assistance. I am awaiting a reply.