Yokosuka D4Y Judy Public Rollout

[GregP]

Hi everyone,

Next Saturday (Dec 1) we will have the public rollout of our restored Yokosuka D4Y Judy Dive Bomber / Reconsissance plane at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. This will not be a flying restoration, but is able to start and taxi under its own power. We rolled it out today and started painting it for the program. It will be finished with typical Japanese green upper surfaces and gray lower surfaces, as many Japanese aircraft were painted. There are VERY few surviving pictures of a Judy in color, and the paint scheme was chosen to be as repreentative as possible.

The program is about Japanese aircraft and starts at 10:00am. All our Japanese stuff will be on display except for our A6M5 Model 52 Zero fighter ... it is currently in Japan at a Museum just outside Tokyo for about 4 months.

Hope to see you there next weekend!

- Greg

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

Hi everyone,

Next Saturday (Dec 1) we will have the puyblic rollout of our restored Yokosuka D4Y Judy Dive Bomber / Reconsissance plane at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. This will not be a flying restoration, but is able to start and taxi under its own power. We rolled it out today and started painting it for the program. It will be finished with typical Japanese green upper surfaces and gray lower surfaces, as many Japanese aircraftw ere painted. There are VERY few surviving pictures of a Judy in color, and the paint scheme was chosen to be as repreentative as possible.

The program is about Japanese aircraft and starts at 10:00am. All our Japanese stuff will be on display except for our A6M5 Model 52 Zero fighter ... it is currently in Japan at a Museum just outside Tokyo for about 4 months.

Hope to see you there next weekend!

- Greg

I am more than ready for them to premier that lovely lady too Greg but you are one week early. You gave the correct date for the Judy's public rollout but December 1st is two weekends from now. 8)


The Zero was shipped to the "Tokorozawa Aviation Museum" in Tokyo, Japan.


Wheels

 

[kettbo]

AWESOME! Take some pictures!

 

[msxyz]

Wonderful!

Is it a model 1 (or 1 Kai) or the late war model 3 with a Mitsubishi radial engine?

...and is the engine an original Japanese specimen?

 

[Crimea_River]

Very cool.

 

[GregP]

I said Dec 1, but did also say next week, sorry!

Our airframe was in very bad shape when we got it. The entire nose was missing, the fuselage was broken behind the cockpit, the canopy was crushed, the belly was crushed, one landing gear was bent, etc.

We believe it originally had the liquid-cooled inverted V-12, but it now sports a radial like the -3 had. Unfortunately we don't have the correct Japanese radial, so it has a Wright in it at present. If we manage to come up with a Mitsubishi Kinsei 62, it will be retrofitted. Meanwhile, we at least have a plane that can move under it own power. If we had new longerons, we would replace the ones we made and maybe make it flyable ... it would also require a new wing spar. You never know what the future might bring. At present we have concentrated on the exterior of the aircraft, but restoring the interior more thoroughly may in the cards, too, depending on interest in same by the powers that be.

The restoration was done because Ed Maloney, our founder, wanted to save the wreckage from the scrap heap, and it was down to scrap it, sell it, or restore it. He chose restoration and funded it himself. A friend and I started on it, but we went back to the Bell YP-59A Airacomet project and another friend, Duane, took over. He is a genius at Aluminum and steel and it only took him about a year and a half to get the project to the point where it is now. Now that it is in relatively good shape, perhaps it will get more attention in the future, can't really say. This IS a very nice aircraft however, and is certainly one of the rare ones.

We will get pics. I could have yesterday, but wanted to get the pics AFTER paint. No sense getting the pics and then having them be outdated the same day they post ...

 

[tomo pauk]

Great news. Looking forward to see the pictures

 

[Gnomey]

Looking forward to seeing shots of it!

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Excellent! Can't wait to see it!

 

[bobbysocks]

hope the parts you need are found and you can make her fly again.....that would be awesome!