Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum Acquired D3A2 in October 2022!

[JOVE23]

Short Video

News Story

"We received the fuselage. We'll have another shipment in a couple of weeks. We hope to get the engine, the wings. Over the next couple of months, we'll acquire as much of the aircraft as we can," museum executive director Elissa Line said.

~~~

It will take two to three years to make the Aichi Dive Bomber resemble what it looked it when Japanese pilots flew in its cockpit.

"You'll get the full profile from the engine all the way to the tail, and from the wheels all the way up to the canopy of a full 'Val' that really no one else has," Bengston said.

You can watch the aircraft take shape in the museum's Hangar 79.

It appears to me that they're going to try to restore it to static condition! Being on the other side of the country, I can't really head out there to help in person, but I can try to help in other ways.

According to the catalogue of the National Institute of Defense Studies in Tokyo, they possess the following D3A2 Materials:

Inventory Number	Title	Translated Title
⑥技術-飛行機-52	９９式艦上爆撃機２２型（Ｄ３Ａ２）資料関係綴 昭１６～１７	Type 99 shipboard bomber Type 22 (D3A2) material-related spellings, 1941-42
⑥技術-飛行機-53	９９式艦上爆撃機２２型（Ｄ３Ａ２）取扱説明書（案）	Type 99 Draft Instruction Manual for Type 22 (D3A2)
⑥技術-飛行機-54	９９式艦上爆撃機２２型（Ｄ３Ａ２）取扱説明書（案）昭和１７．１２	Type 99 D3A2 (Draft) Instruction Manual for Type 22 (D3A2), 1942.12

The National Diet Library in Tokyo possesses the following manuals on the D3A2's Kinsei engine, which can be viewed online:

Manual for Kinsei engine, Model No. 51, prepared by Naval Air headquarters, December 1941.
Data on Kinsei engine, Model No. 51, with drawings prepared by Naval Air headquarters, December 1941.

Unfortunately, these are for the Kinsei 51 and not 54, but not being a huge gearhead I can't be certain whether the difference is enough to render these manuals useless.

Furthermore, you can donate to the restoration effort here. I've just given them $100!

Does anyone have contacts at PHAM? I'd like to get as much primary source documentation to them as possible so they can knock this restoration out of the park!

 

[JOVE23]

A friend of a friend took these photos a week or two ago:

 

[SaparotRob]

That's great stuff!

 

[JOVE23]

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on more documents and making more contacts in the warbird world in the U.S. and Japan to help them restore this beautiful aircraft.

My dream is helping the PHAM Val and the POF Val teams simultaneously. I'm hoping POF will eventually rip out the shoddiness of the Diemert restoration on their Val and do a proper restoration. Tear it down to the original skeleton and start over! Maybe a restoration team can use the experience they'll gain from restoring the PHAM Val to properly restore the POF Val, and use the POF Val skeleton as a reference to build the missing stuff on the PHAM Val.

I have dreams baby!

 

[Gnomey]

Cool!

 

[Shinpachi]

Russia seems to have a D3A2.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I wish I could have seen it during my visit to the museum a year and half ago.

 

[SaparotRob]

Russia seems to have a D3A2.

View attachment 710951View attachment 710952

I am really starting to dislike this Putin fellow. How we gonna buy and ship that to Pearl now? Reparations?

 

[JOVE23]

I am really starting to dislike this Putin fellow. How we gonna buy and ship that to Pearl now? Reparations?

If the Russians keep losing equipment like they have been, that poor Val might get shot down again over Bakhmut!

 

[SaparotRob]

At least it's in better shape than what the Russians are using.

 

[JOVE23]

There's a more complete example in Texas anyway at the Museum of the Pacific War

 

[JOVE23]

I wish I could have seen it during my visit to the museum a year and half ago.

Sounds like you now have a perfect excuse to go again