GregP
Major
At the Planes of Fame we have been restoring a Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" for about 2 years or so. It was recovered in very bad shpe many years ago in New Guinea, and has been languishing in obscurity until a couple of years ago when the owner decided to do a static restoration.
Today the wings were mated to the fuselage and now it is sitting on the gear with fuselage, wings (minus wingtips), horizontal and vertical tail in place. The canopy has also been reconstructed and has been plexiglassed in, with the unique rolling rear position that rolls under to allow the rear gun to swing up. We don't have an engine mount made yet, but it is basically complete as an airframe and we are delighted with the progress. We still have to make wingtips, and engine mount, a cowling, a spinner, and wew il put our spare Zero prop on it.
Thre are no engineering drawings left, so we could never convince any airworthiness organization it would be flyable, so we did a static restoration. The Sakae 21 engine is our spare for our A6M5 Model 21 Zero and we will be able to start the Judy and taxi it under its own power when we are done with it. If you get to Southern California, please stop in and see it in the restortation hanger. When it first started restoration, I did some work on it, but is has been under the care of a dedicated restorer for nearly a year and a half since then.
An altogether neat aircraft that is not duplicated anywhere except in ONE museum in Japan.
Today the wings were mated to the fuselage and now it is sitting on the gear with fuselage, wings (minus wingtips), horizontal and vertical tail in place. The canopy has also been reconstructed and has been plexiglassed in, with the unique rolling rear position that rolls under to allow the rear gun to swing up. We don't have an engine mount made yet, but it is basically complete as an airframe and we are delighted with the progress. We still have to make wingtips, and engine mount, a cowling, a spinner, and wew il put our spare Zero prop on it.
Thre are no engineering drawings left, so we could never convince any airworthiness organization it would be flyable, so we did a static restoration. The Sakae 21 engine is our spare for our A6M5 Model 21 Zero and we will be able to start the Judy and taxi it under its own power when we are done with it. If you get to Southern California, please stop in and see it in the restortation hanger. When it first started restoration, I did some work on it, but is has been under the care of a dedicated restorer for nearly a year and a half since then.
An altogether neat aircraft that is not duplicated anywhere except in ONE museum in Japan.
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