Round-the-World Flights

Japanese Round-the-World Flight

Page 2w (rev: 1002)

Plane	C-8 Souvenir Sheet	Pilot	Mitsubishi G3M Nell	Nippon Plane

	The Mitsubishi Jukogyo Company began producing the Mitsubishi G3M2 Bomber for the Japanese 
Air Force in 1934.  Beginning in 1938, about 24 early G3M2s were released to Mitsubishi for 
conversion into civil transports under the designation Mitsubishi Twin-Engined Transports.  
Before WW-II Japan Air Lines (Nippon Koku K.K.) used most of these converted planes. 
	Some were flown on international goodwill flights: 
		J-BEOA flew from Tokyo to Teheran 
		J-BEOC flew from Tokyo to Rome
		J-BACI named Nippon, flew round-the-world 
	The Nippon round-the-world flight was sponsored by the Mainichi newspaper in Osaka, Japan. 
At the ceremony where the plane was named, the newspaper president, Nobutaro Okumura indroduced
the crew and its goodwill ambassador to His-Imperial-Highness Marshal, Prince Morimasa Nashimoto. 
Shortly, thereafter the Nippon would fly round-the-world.  It was captained by pilot, Sumitoshi 
Nakao (the Lindbergh of Japan) with his crew:
                           Shigeo Yoshida        Co-Pilot
                           Hajime Shimokawa      Navigator
                           Hiroshi Saeki         Flight Engineer
                           Chosaku Yaokawa       Radio Operator
                           Nobusada Sato         Radio Operator
	Takeo Ohara, the only passenger was the official Japanese envoy and goodwill ambassador for 
this round-the-world flight.  Postcard documenting their flight routing. Autographs of the
crew/passenger. Philatelic mail carried on this flight is listed by the AAMS as TO #1330.   

Itinerary:

Departed Haneda Airport (Tokyo)                    08/26/39
     Chitose Naval Air Base (Hokkaido, Sapporo)    08/27/39
     Nome, AK                                      08/29/39
     Fairbanks, AK                                 08/30/39
     White Horse, Canada                           08/31/39
     Seattle, WA                                   09/02/39
     Oakland, CA                                   09/03/39
     Los Angeles, CA                               09/07/39
     Albuquerque, NM                               09/08/39
     Chicago, IL                                   09/09/39
     New York City, NY                             09/16/39
     Washington DC                                 09/18/39
     Miami, FL                                     09/19/39
     San Salvador                                  09/22/39
     Cali, Columbia                                09/23/39
     Lima, Peru                                    09/24/39
     Arica, Chile                                  09/25/39
     Santiago, Chile                               09/27/39
     Buenos Aires, Argentina                       09/29/39
     Santos, Brazil                                10/01/39
     Rio de Janeiro, Brazil                        10/04/39
     Natal, Brazil                                 10/05/39
     Dakar, Senegal                                10/06/39
     Agadir, Morocco                               10/07/39
     Casablanca, Morocco                           10/08/39
     Seville, Spain                                10/09/39
     Rome, Italy                                   10/12/39
     Rhodes, Greece                                10/13/39
     Basra, Iraq                                   10/14/39
     Karachi, Pakistan                             10/16/39
     Calcutta, India                               10/17/39
     Bangkok, Thailand                             10/19/39
     Taihoku Air Base (Formosa Taiwan)             10/20/39
Arrived Haneda Airport (Tokyo)                     10/20/39

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