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Documents
Found In Seiran Fuel Tank
These
documents were found "floating" inside an inboard-wing fuel tank
of the Aichi M6A1 Seiran during restoration. The finding contributed
toward identifying this particular aircraft as being the last
produced--possibly never flown--Seiran: Serial No. 28. The papers
apparently are discarded plant work forms: Inspection Progress
Records, Worker Time Card, and Warehouse Receipt. Even the colorful
"Sun Aluminum Co. Ltd" label had been used--in obvious paper shortage--for
the form printed on the reverse side.
Who could
have stuffed those papers into the fuel tank--for a possibly disastrous
result of clogged fuel flow--of this aircraft, probably the highest
priority project in the Japanese Navy?
On the reverse
side of one of the forms was a beautifully hand-scribbled philosophical
note title "Yesterday's Thought, Today"--copied by mistaken insertion
of a carbon sheet backward. It read "Yesterday's thought. Today's
thought. There is no difference." Did
the workers of the top secret, cutting edge, bold mission project--to
bomb the US mainland--somehow know that this Seiran might never
fly?
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