From Japan to SL

Kazumi the owner of the plane kindly let me take pictures of the flight. The one set at the bay was a decoy only for presentation, so she took out the flyable one. I got a rare shot where two giant planes set next to each other.




Engines started roaring with black smoke. The eight engines were started one by one in sequence.




Hughes H4 Hercules coming out on the sea. It is planning smoothly but soon reached the end of a SIM hitting a dry land. This was a maiden flight of H4 for Kazumi and the first attempt was a failure. The real H4 also was not able to fly but only lifted up a little within the ground effect.




H4 floating above the SIM. This was not the world greatest but I think the most beautiful flying boat.




Above the Baba Meeting area. From this close distance, the huge size like the Jumbo-jet can be felt.




Did you notice that I used words “floating” and “above”? It was impossible to fly on the day and this was set still in the air for photo shooting. Thank Kazumi for the cooperation. I wish there would be another chance to shoot the plane flying. But if it were made as real as the original, it would not fly. ^-^




There was a plan of a huge flying boat in Japan too, Kawanishi KX-3. Comparing with the Hercules of 97.51×66.6m, KX-3 was 180×162m, almost double size of H4. I saw the Hercules at Los Angeles when I was at the high school, and the small engines and slim propellers looked not enough to fly this body. KX-3 had twelve propellers and six jet engines, but still, it could be underpowered for this huge plane. You know, this picture is a composite.