Tag: MU-2

The MU-2 twin-engine turboprop by Mitsubishi is a high-wing pressurized transport. There’s a short body that seats seven, and a long-body accommodating up to eleven. It’s a unique aircraft by design. There are no ailerons, instead spoilers to perform roll. This allows the aircraft to achieve clean 300-knot cruise, plus operations from short runways.

First developed in 1956, and flying since 1963, more than were 700 built, predominantly in Texas. In the 60s it was a product of Mooney, another standout design, that allowed light aircraft to shine ahead of the class.

Not unlike the P-51 Mustang, and other dream machine fixed-wing flyers that demand attention from the pilot, it is both remarkable and a beast. The MU-2 is a magnificent flying machine as its most fervent operators will attest.

Well into its life cycle, the MU-2 was consistently top rated for reliability, value and support. Though originally conceived in Japan to serve a variety of civil and military roles, the bulk of MU-2 sales were to American businesses.

This, and more, I realized having worked for many years in a marketing support role with Turbine Aircraft Services—the U.S. support organization that strived to keep these aircraft flying.

While others in its class may be easier to fly, the MU-2 has always been better at what it set out to do.

This edition of the MU-2 Magazine features an owner/operator each of you are likely to be familiar with, David Klain. If you’ve had any involvement with the Web-based MU-2 Owner/Operator Forum you’ve heard of “Dave.” If not there, perhaps you saw him in a PROP 2014 video interview. He’s is an active participant in the MU-2 community and in many ways an advocate of flying with the public at large. Dave Klain is a retired naval officer and enjoys volunteering with Veterans Airlift Command, transporting service members (and their families) undergoing rehabilitation to and from Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Rich Wall in equal parts a builder, a pilot, and a visionary. He’s the CEO of two companies, Welded Fixtures and Rack Displays, both involved in the manufacture of retail display fixtures. But it’s obvious that his current passions are consigned to the museum he founded, Wings & Rotors Air Museum in Murrieta, California which tells of the Vietnam War in honor of those who never returned. His love of flying spans over 40 years. And the museum’s history reflects back on the era when Rich first started flying.

Connect Communications produced and published MU-2 Magazine, a quarterly resource for the MU-2 aircraft owner/operator community.

Keith Ferris grew up a military brat on the grass flying fields of the 1930s. As a child, he had always hoped to fly in the U.S. Air Force. He attended college majoring in aerospace engineering and hoping for an Air Force commission on graduation.

While his father was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Keith spent part of his college freshman and sophomore years working as an artist in the Air Force Training Publications group in a building next to the airport’s flight line.

Upon learning he was not going to be able to get in the Air Force after all, he would abandon the engineering curriculum and return to the publications unit to pursue a career in aviation art.