WWII-era Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft on a museum floor, tan fuselage with a red hinomaru roundel on the wing, surrounded by other historic aircraft under a Victorian iron-and-glass roof.

WWII Japanese Imperial Navy Aircraft at Aviation Museum

1 October 2019 · Manchester

A WWII-era Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft sits on the museum floor, its tan fuselage and bold red hinomaru roundel commanding the foreground. The low viewing angle flattens the wing into a clean graphic shape against the cluttered hangar behind it — blue tarpaulins, suspended propellers, and the iron ribs of a Victorian roof all competing for space. The subject holds its ground anyway. Eighty years on, the silhouette still reads as a fighter.

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