2008年5月15日は、航研機が木更津-->銚子-->太田-->平塚-->木更津の周回コース上で航続距離の公認世界記録を樹立してからちょうど70周年にあたります。これを記念して、当サイトでは新たに入手した記録達成当時の映像 (ノーカット版) を一般公開す ることにしました。このフィルムは当時の帝大航空研究所関係者およびそのご家族・友人の方々からご提供頂いたものですが、これらの方々のご厚情に対しては、あらためてサイト・オーナーから謝意を表させて頂きたいと思います。(2008年5月 サイト・オーナー 山本雄一)


May 15, 2008 marks the 70th anniversary of the then-world flight range record of 11,651 km (7,240 miles) established by the “Koken-ki” long-range prototype airplane. The machine was developed by the aeronautic laboratory attached to Tokyo Imperial University and became the only aircraft made in Japan to have been certified by the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale). It is widely believed that by order of Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Koken-ki was dismantled and buried in the ground while all the drawings and related documents were incinerated soon after the war defeat. The fact remains, however, that nobody saw to it that MacArthur’s directive was fully complied with. Actually, a great deal of Koken-ki-related material has been secretly preserved by mostly unidentified individuals and their descendants. These people, perhaps with the exception of those who have provided us with this digitalized film, tend to think that the material they have cached in the last six decades is nothing but their family memorabilia. It is true that by now some of the material has been collected by governmental institutions such as Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan, National Museum of Nature and Science.
(Site Owner Y.Yamamoto - May 2008)

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