It's a Japanese built Beechcraft similar to the T-34, but has a wider fuse, is a 4 passenger, and it's not aerobatic. It was made by Fuji Industries, used in Japanese military, decommissioned, crated, and brought over to the US and sold. It sat for a while, then in 2000 it was rebuilt and has since sat outside. Recently is had some major repairs done and is now airworthy. The people at the local airport were pretty excited to see it up in the air finally, since it has been sitting around the last 7 yrs. It is surprisingly clean for being as old as it is. No visible corrosion at all. The interior cockpit area looks the worst, probably due to the intense heat it generated sitting outside for so long.
The plane is a Japanese Ground SDF (nickname for LM-1/LM-2 Nikko) four-seat liason version. I'm not sure what liaison means when it comes to aircraft descriptions. It appears to have been equipped with a belly camera operated from the pilot's seat. An unusual feature is the rear fuselage top appears to be removable. The inside headliner in the rear is surrounded by a zipper which when opened reveals 8-10 bolts which appear to hold the aft part of the roof structure onto the body. The pics don't show the seam clearly, but the top part of the fuse aft of the "moonroof" is a separate unit which looks like it would lift off if the bolts were removed (hasn't been attempted). Any ideas what this feature would be used for? Doesn't make any sense to me.
The only mechanical problem showing up so far is an oil leak on the prop governor oil supply line. Most of the original instruments work also.
Enjoy the pics,
-marlowe
I'm having a little trouble getting the pics to post, but the link to my photobucket page appears to work.
photobucket link: http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x25/jmarlowe01/Fuji/
