TEST OF 1ST BIG AIRPLANE BUILT IN JAPAN SINCE END OF WWII IS A SUCCESS
Tokyo, Japan (JFK+50) On August 30, 1962, Associated Press reports "the first big plane designed and built in Japan since the end of World War II passed its first flight test today."
The YS-11* is powered by two Rolls-Royce turbo-jet engines and is designed to carry up to 60 passengers. The production cost of the aircraft is estimated to reach around $1 million.
Six Japanese aircraft companies collaborated on production. Designers included Jiro Horikoshi**, father of the "famed World War II Zero fighters."
YS-11 can reach speeds up to 300 mph and has a cruising range of 1,488 miles.
JFK+50 NOTE
Jiro Horikoshi strongly opposed Japan's "futile war" against the United States and her allies. He wrote in his diary in 1945..."I cannot do other but blame the military...and the politicians for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat."
*YS-11 is the only successful commercial aircraft produced by the Japanese before or after World War II.
**Jiro Horikoshi (1903-1982) was born in Fujioka Gunma, Japan & educated at the Engineering Dept. of the University of Tokyo.
JH became chief engineer of the new Japanese fighter aircraft used in WWII.
SOURCES
"First Flight Test Of Big Japanese Plane Succeeds," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 30, 1962, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
"NAMC YS-11A," www.grissomairmuseum.com/
