Warbird Information Exchange

Great stuff..thanks for the link! I really appreciate Mr. Harada's efforts. Japanese warbirds tend to be very neglected, especially multi-engine types. I'd love to see some of the airframes rotting away in South Pacific jungles rescued and restored at least to static display condition, but unfortunately Mr. Harada's essentially new-build Betty is probably the closest we'll ever come.

One little tidbit of interest I ran across on that site. It mentioned that in the 1980s the Japanese seaplane pilot who dropped some incendiary bombs on the Pacific Northwest actually visited the site of the attack and planted a tree as a gesture of reconciliation, and was presented with a US flag by President Reagan.


SN

A couple of G4M Betty wrecks were recovered from Ballalae Island in the Central Solomons about 3 or 4 years ago.

I believe this recovery was sanctioned by the Solomon Islands Government but not sure what the trade off was in terms of benefit to the people of the Solomon Islands. Quite often there are very shady deals done with respect to aircraft wrecks but I'm not saying that is the case with those Bettys.

They were supposed to be going to Australia for restoration but I've heard nothing since.

Noburo Harada would no doubt love to get hold of one wing so he can 'reverse engineer' a new set for his display Betty.

Darryl

I hope those included the mostly intact Betty still sitting on her gear at Ballalae Airfield. I would be a terrible shame if this one never made it out and rotted away.

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"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903

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I hope those included the mostly intact Betty still sitting on her gear at Ballalae Airfield. I would be a terrible shame if this one never made it out and rotted away.

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Or worse and was cut up for scrap!

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.