Fifty years ago, on Sept. 14, 1963, a pair of test pilots for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries pushed the power levers forward and a uniquely designed twin-engine turboprop raced down the runway then lifted into the sky. Powered by two Turbomeca Astazou turboshafts, the XMU-2, as the prototype was named, spawned the production version Garrett 331-powered MU-2 family, of which about 290 are still successfully flying worldwide.
One of those airplanes is the personal steed of MU-2 expert Mike Laver, founder and owner of Air 1st Aviation, which specializes in MU-2 sales and operations. Air 1st also includes Carolina Turbine Support, an authorized MU-2 service center, and the Aiken Aviation Enterprises FBO.
On August 25, Laver, accompanied by AOPA magazine staffer Jim Collins, who shot video and photos during the trip, departed in his 1973 MU-2K (N50ET) from his company’s headquarters in Aiken, S.C. The plan was to land in Nagoya a day ahead of festivities heralding the first flight of the XMU-2 50 years ago.
The round-the-world trip, Laver said, “was a personal desire.” After delivering MU-2s all over the world during the past 30 years, he had never done a circumnavigation. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years in the MU-2. The timing came because of the 50th anniversary of the first flight.”
Laver’s MU-2K wasn’t modified to carry additional fuel beyond its standard load. The airplane has been modified over the years and now is powered by more efficient and powerful Honeywell TPE331-10 engines. The cockpit is equipped with Garmin G600 displays and GTN touch-screen navigators, SiriusXM weather and an HF radio.
World Fuel and its Baseops flight planning and handling provider helped Laver and Collins during the journey.
Laver’s blog about the trip is available at http://www.air1st.com/around-the-word-n50et/around-the-world-blog.html, and Collins also blogged at http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?page_id=5288.
The Perfect Airplane
The 25-day trip took the two pilots from South Carolina to Goose Bay in Canada, where they crossed the ocean to Narsarsuaq on the southern tip of Greenland then to Reykjavik, Iceland. From Europe, Laver and Collins traveled to Salzburg, Austria, to visit the famed Red Bull museum, then through Turkey, over Iraq into Kuwait. Other stops included Oman, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia before the MU-2 landed in Laver’s homeland, Australia, where he began flying about 30 years ago.
The trip continued back to Indonesia, then the Philippines where the duo waited for the right weather window to arrive in Nagoya, via Taiwan, on September 13. After the first-flight anniversary celebrations, they flew on to Russia and Alaska then across Canada back to the continental U.S. and home.
Before departing on the trip, long-time MU-2 pilot Pat Cannon, president of MU-2 support provider Turbine Aircraft Services (Booth No. C7028), commented, “This is a tremendous undertaking for Mike and a very well recognized undertaking in the MU-2 community. The significance is the fiftieth anniversary of this airframe, an aircraft that hasn’t been manufactured since early 1985 when the last one rolled off the assembly line. And these doggone things are still flying, and not just flying but doing very, very well.”
Proof of that longevity was the MU-2’s performance during the journey. The trip from Frederick, Md., around the world to Frederick, where Laver picked up and dropped off Collins, covered 26,568 nm and took 98.1 flight hours. Average speed was 271 knots and the longest leg 1,232 nm (from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Minot, N.D.).
Laver admits to having some anxiety before departing about some of the long overwater legs planned for the MU-2. “I was always anxious about them,” he recalled. “But,” he added, “the airplane just took it in its stride and did so much better than I thought it would or could. I kind of amazed myself, getting the range out of it, knowing when it’s happy and on the step. It was the perfect airplane.”
The MU-2 suffered zero breakdowns during the trip, and the only anomaly was a torque gauge that suffered a high reading after torrential rains in Palembang, Indonesia. Laver pulled the circuit breaker for the gauge, reset it, then all was fine. “Apart from that it was just amazing,” he said.
Warm Reception in Nagoya
In Nagoya, Laver wasn’t expecting a special reception, so he and Collins were surprised to see a crowd waving as they taxied to the ramp. “I was doing this trip for my own reasons,” he said. “It was very overwhelming, the number of people waving flags, cheering, waving and bowing. It was wonderful. Once I got out of the airplane, and Mike followed me, there was a warm sincere welcome from all sorts of people. The press was there. A lot of people from Mitsubishi, and they were very interested that we had done that trip in support of their product. It was a very kind, very warm welcome.”
Their new friends gave Laver and Collins a tour of two aviation museums in Nagoya and of the Mitsubishi factory, then took them to dinner. Laver was impressed to see a 1968 MU-2 in one of the museums. This was Mitsubishi’s corporate airplane, which had been retired just a year-and-half ago. “For an airplane to come from America to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first flight of their airplane meant a lot to them,” he said.
Overall, the MU-2 flight exceeded Laver’s expectations. “I’ve done a lot of wonderful aviation trips,” he said, “and, boy, this one probably tops most of them.”
