<p>Quiet STOL research aircraft, developed by the National Aerospace Laboratory. The airframe was based on the Kawasaki C-1 design. This is the only example built and was retired in 1989. It has been part of the museum since 1996.
Kakamigahara Aerospace Science Museum
Kakamigahara City, 
Gifu Prefecture, Japan
15th March 2019
</p><p>The following info on the Asuka is from the fascinating j-hangarspace.jp website:-
</p><p>“The Asuka experimental aircraft was developed as a national project by the then Science and Technology Agency’s National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL, now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the aircraft was designed to investigate short takeoff and landing technologies, in combination with the utilization of a computer-controlled flight system, and ways to reduce aircraft noise footprints. Unlike the other test aircraft in the collection, Asuka was from the outset modelled on rather than a conversion of an existing airframe, in this case a Kawasaki C-1. The two-kanji name Asuka (飛鳥), literally means ‘flying bird’ or ‘bird on the wing’; more obscurely, it was also the name of the Imperial capital during the Asuka period (538–710) in Japanese history.
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The four Japan-produced FJR710 turbofan engines were mounted ahead of and above the main wing. The STOL performance tests centered on lift generation by means of upper surface blowing (USB), by which the jet efflux from the engines was passed over the top of the blast-protected main wing through double rows of vortex generators and redirected downwards over the flaps. This configuration had already been adopted on twin-engine designs in the mid-1970s, most notably the two Boeing YC-14 tactical transport prototypes as well as the somewhat more successful Antonov An-72. In the case of the Asuka, the test programme lasted for three and a half years, ending on March 30, 1989, with the retirement of the aircraft after 97 flights and 167 flight hours.”
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/65001151@N03">Alan Wilson</a> from Peterborough, Cambs, UK
CC BY-SA 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw1970/48183260526/">NAL Asuka ‘8501’</a>