The Nation's Hangar, page 3.
Among the Smithsonian treasures is a Japanese Seran floatplane. Launched from submarines, the Serans were designed to be flown in an attack against the Panama Canal. It never happened because by the time the planes and subs were ready, World War 2 was nearly at an end. The Smithsonian has one of the planes. It took years to return it to flight condition, as people will see it in the new Air and Space annex at Dulles International Airport. A short time before Dik Daso and I wandered through the Garber restoration facility in Silver Hill, Maryland, the Seran had a visitor..one who remembered it all too well:
JS: Who was he?
DD: Mr. Asimura, who was one of the commanders of the Seran units that were training to attack the Canal during World War 2. As he was sitting in the cockpit, he was amazed to be sitting there again after so many years. But at his right knee, there was a gyro compass that's electrically powered..
and he must have said 4 or 5 times that it was the most expensive thing in the airplane and one of the most expensive things that the Japanese ever bought. Which I thought was fascinating..it just gives you an idea of how important direction finding was..how much money they were willing to spend if he remembers that now..as for the mission of this airplane, what you needed to fly over water for long periods of time was a pretty good compass.
DD: I don't know how much testing was done on it..but they didn't do a lot..it was specifically designed to attack the Panama Canal off 3 or 4 submarines. And then the plan shifted from there and came back a little closer to Japan. They were gonna attack another American depot with a port a little later after they determined it would be too risky to get as close to Canal as they needed to..and then, of course, the war ended so none of those missions were ever executed.
JS: Could the subs retrieve the plane?
DD: Not the intention. After it took off it was to jettison its pontoons. it was strictly a one way trip.
Dik says he expects the aircraft and memorabilia to begin the trip to Dulles as early as next spring. Maybe we'll ride along.
Meanwhile, here are some other shots gathered on the tour:
Who do you know who owns a Focke-Wulf FW190? YOU DO, you taxpayer, you!
A P38 in its working colors. All packed up and ready to travel.
Some of these German planes were rockets--others were jets. The engines didn't run long, but they were very, very fast.
There's a familiar shape. Corsair. Wow.
Just so you don't think the collection's all military..
it's not..
lottsa old friends out there.
