Kazuyuki Takahashi (age 66), a farmer in Tachibana town , Yame City, Fukuoka prefecture owns the two wheels that may have been attached to Shinden, and his hobby is collecting historical materials.
He got this wheel from a farmer in the city about 20 years ago.
The previous owner did not know the details and the wheels were left in the barn.
Mr. Takahashi speculated, "Isn't the military surplus used for the wheels of the cart immediately after the end of the war, when there was a shortage of supplies?"
Mr. Takahashi read a newspaper article about Shinden last year and thought, "If this wheel belongs to Shinden, it will be a historically valuable material.
He investigated the wheels, tire manufacturers, and specifications of various fighters, and found that the wheels matched the characteristics of Shinden.
The side of the tire says "Made by Nippon Tire Co., Ltd."
The wheel is engraved with the letters "九(Nine, Kyu)" Circled.
Nippon Tire is the company name of Bridgestone during the war.
He asked the Kurume factory, which was manufacturing military tires, about this tire, but the factory responded that "the record at that time was requisitioned by GHQ and there is no record left."
There is no historical material on the wheels of Shinden at the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Hall (Chikuzen Town).
Most of the information on former Japanese fighter aircraft was incinerated or requisitioned by GHQ.
However, some engineers secretly hid it, and in some cases information was found in the relics.
The photograph of Shinden remains a photograph of the entire aircraft, but the wheels are covered with a cover, and the shape of the wheels cannot be confirmed.
The prototype of Shinden is exhibited only at the front of the fuselage by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
He asked the museum for information on Shinden's wheels.
The answer from the museum was, "The size of the tire is 725 mm in diameter and 200 mm in width, and it can be used in place of Nakajima Aircraft's" Saiun ".
He told the museum, "I want you to send me an image of tires," but the museum said, "The coronavirus epidemic has prevented staff from entering the archives."
It seemed that all the measures had been exhausted, but Watanabe Iron Works, the successor company of Kyushu Airplane, contacted him saying, "A OB who is familiar with that time will looks at the tires."
Mr. Takahashi immediately brought the tire to Watanabe Iron Works in Fukuoka City and showed it to Mr. Masahiro Okada (age 85 years old), a technical advisor.
According to Mr. Okada, many tires were brought in in the past, but none of them were Shinden.
Shinden has no blueprints or parts.
At the age of 10, Okada looked up at Shinden, a test flight from the Mushiroda Airfield, and joined Watanabe Iron Works at the age of 20 after the end of the war.
Mr. Okada said, "The fact that the state-of-the-art Shinden was built here at that time is the pride of the engineers," while observing the wheels all over, "There are traces of the brake shoes hitting, so actually
Probably it was used. It seems that it is not a pair of wheels because the treatment of burrs and the degree of damage are different. "
After all, Mr. Takahashi could not confirm whether the wheels were from Shinden.
Mr. Takahashi hopes, "If this tire is a Shinden wheel, I would like it to be exhibited and used by many people to think about history."
