Toyo Aircraft was established in June 1952 and their first aircraft, the T-T.10 designed by Yoshio Hashiguchi, was completed by the end of the year. It is of mixed construction; the wing is built entirely from wood and fabric around two spars, with a plywood skin enclosed within fabric. The flaps and ailerons are wood framed and fabric covered. In planform the wings are straight tapered with rounded tips; most of the taper is on the trailing edge. There is 6 degrees of dihedral. The T-T.10’s tail surfaces are also straight tapered with rounded tips, generally wood framed with fabric covering. Its horizontal tail is mounted at the top of the fuselage. The elevators have a cut-out to allow rudder movement, as the latter extends down to the keel. There is a trim tab on the port elevator.

The fuselage of the T-T.10 is fabric covered over a welded chrome-molybdenum steel frame. The engine is a 140 hp (104 kW) Lycoming O-290-D2 flat four, driving a two bladed propeller. Student and instructor sit in tandem with dual controls under a multi-framed, continuous, two part sliding canopy. The rear fuselage line is raised compared with the forward section, but not to the full canopy height. The T-T.10 has conventional landing gear, with narrowly faired cantilever, coil spring damped mainlegs and a tailwheel.

The first T-T.10, registration JA3026, flew for the first time on 30 December 1952; the first production model (JA3049) followed soon after, on 11 February 1953. Production numbers are not known exactly; one report speaks of a “small batch” but only the first two T-T.10s appear in the single engine serial range JA3001 – JA3100, which covers the period August 1952 to September 1955, so they may constitute the whole batch.

One aircraft is on display at the Tokyo Metropolitan College F.A.M.E. Gallery: T-T.10 JA3026.

Engine: Lycoming O-290-D2, 100 kW (140 hp)
Propeller: 2-bladed Sensenich CSM3FM4/C374 fixed pitch
Wingspan: 8.60 m (28 ft 3 in)
Length: 7.15 m (23 ft 5 in)
Height: 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) tail down
Wing area: 12.0 sq.m (129 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 6.0
Airfoil: NACA 1415 at root, 2410 (modified) tip
Empty weight: 568 kg (1,252 lb)
Gross weight: 800 kg (1,764 lb)
Fuel capacity: 90 L (19.8 Imp gal; 23.8 US gal)
Maximum speed: 235 km/h (146 mph; 127 kn) at sea level
Cruising speed: 190 km/h (118 mph; 103 kn)
Stall speed: 80 km/h (50 mph; 43 kn) with 30° flaps
Service ceiling: 4,300 m (14,108 ft) service
Rate of climb: 3.8 m/s (750 ft/min) initial
Wing loading: 67 kg/sq.m (14 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 8.0 kg/kW (13.1 lb/hp)
Take-off distance to clear 15.25 m (50 ft): 290 m (950 ft)
Landing distance from 15.25 m (50 ft): 300 m (985 ft)
Crew: 2

Built in 1948, the A-1 Special was a Goodyear-class racer registered NX64573 and piloted by Harold Neumann and Warren Siem, and powered by an 85hp Continental C-85.

It competed in 1948 as Townsend Special, reportedly modified as a two-place with a 245hp Jacobs and re-registered N794T as Loose Racer.

The Townsend Thunderbird was assembled in 1955 from parts of at least four different planes. The fuselage structure (20′ in length) appears to be a cut-down Fairchild PT-26 with its canopy. The cowling is from a Stearman, the landing gear from a Cessna 190 or 195. Its wings, vertical and horizontal stabs are from a Vultee BT-13 or -15. The wings are just the outer panels (wing span is 25′) and the stabs have been cut down in size. Engine is a Wright R-975, which suggests BT-15.

Registered N749T, the aircraft started out fabric covered, but was later metalized.

In September 2002 Tony Pileggi purchased the home-built Thunderbird. With quite a history and, while it’s a shame to change all that, it was not safe to fly. Actually, it was really great in the air. Take-off and landing were scary. It was too short-coupled and over-powered, and it had an aft c/g or not enough horizontal stabiliser. The tail would not come off the runway until about 65 mph with full forward stick.

During flight-testing, the clean power-off stall speed was about 80 mph. At the first flap setting, the power-off stall speed was between 85 and 90, with a very abrupt snap into a spin. Attempting to recover from the spin under 100 mph resulted in a secondary stall, again with a tight spin. This was attributed to the very small flap size as they ran from the fuselage outboard only 16″. The size of the flaps created a thicker wing section at the root, and so caused the tips to stall long before the roots.

Tony Pileggi decided to disassemble the ship after the landing gear collapsed and made for a very exciting landing. When he removed the forward fuselage aluminium, he found some old cracks and some scary welding on the frame. A first impulse was to scrap the entire aircraft, but he then began thinking about redesigning it and building a replica of a WWII-era fixed-gear fighter. After extensive research, he found a plane that the Thunderbird most closely resembled, the Nakajima Ki-27.

Thunderbird
Engine: Jacobs R-755-9, 245hp
Wingspan: 27’5″
Length: 21’3″
Empty wt: 1800 lb
Max speed: 220 mph
Cruise speed: 152 mph
Stall: 75 mph
Range: 200 mi
Seats: 1