A rare and exquisite vintage video features a Fokker Super Universal taking off on a mail transport flight. The particular aircraft has the civilian registration "J-BAVO" and was built in the USA, s/n: #834. The engine was a Bristol Jupiter and was operated by the Japan Air Transport (Nippon Koku Yuso) fleet originally based at Tachikawa Airport and later in Osaka.
On December 16, 1935, soon after taking off from Tokyo's Haneda Airport, the flight crew experienced trouble with the engine and decided to return to the airport. However, a lack of sufficient altitude forced them to make an emergency landing, damaging the airplane.
A month and a half later, on January 30, 1936, during a flight from Osaka to Tachiarai, it encountered a blizzard and was again forced to make an emergency landing on a beach in Fukuoka Prefecture. Unfortunately, it turned upside down and was so seriously damaged that it was removed from the register.
Interestingly, on September 14, 1939, "J-BAVO" is recorded as being pressed into a fixed flight from Tachiarai to Tsingtao (present-day Qingdao), but again was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine trouble at Hakata Bay.
This fact would indicate that either the original imported Super Universal was repaired or that a new one built by Nakajima received the same registration.
In the attached photo, the original "J-BAVO" had a smooth dark blue cowling and a two-blade propeller. In the video and in the photo on the right, it has a rough cowling, typical of Nakajima built Supers. Note also that in the video it has a two-blade prop but a three-blade prop in the photo on the right.
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