Warbird Information Exchange

Hello All,

Part two of my Day Off Tokyo Adventure took me out to Chofu Airport - pretty much due West of Tokyo about 1.5 hours out via train. In a park built around the airfield, Musashino-no-mori Park, are 2 surviving WWII hangars used during the war to protect the Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien ‘Tony’ aircraft stationed at Chofu. The hangars are labeled Former Concrete Aircraft Shelter Ōhsawa-1 and Former Concrete Aircraft Shelter Ōhsawa-2. An amazing metal sculpture of a Ki-61 in a cutaway hangar sits alongside Ōhsawa-1 as an illustration of the use of said hangar. The hangars are very low to the ground and I imagine the entrances were dug out to allow the planes to be placed inside and maintain a literal low profile, as the tops of the hangars are barely 6ft above ground.

Take a look here:

https://www.vgbimages.com/AirMuseums/Ch ... n/n-dwBkTt

Teasers:

Ōhsawa-2:









Google Maps Screenshot labelled and flipped to match Airfield Map on Plaque:



Ōhsawa-1:









Chofu Airport Pano

Amazing. Great post

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Love the bronze Tony! About how large is that, 1/8 scale?

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

It's more like 1/32nd scale, maybe a bit larger than that

Were there more of those structures during the war? Cool idea. Looks like the predecessor to the NATO type hangars I saw in Europe.

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Cheers!

Lance Jones

Interesting thread as always, it would be hard to imagine what these structures were if it wasn't highlighted.

Speaking of taking things underground, the Soviets are reputed to have had underground/covered runways in the 1930's. Not joking, they were basically a runway in an open ended tunnel. Never seen any photo evidence for them, would be interesting to see.