Surviving Chunk of HPR Marathon G-AMGW

The story of the two Japanese Marathons is here:

http://f-86.tripod.com/airlines.htm

Agreed: like thousands of other aircraft – scrapped and with no record of such. No great mystery, especially for such an unloved type.

I saw a programme once about the Japanese excavating entire mountains and using the material to build new harbours and such. Clearly they have no issue with going to extreme lengths to get suitable material, and in such a resource-hungry country I wager they wouldn’t have been too precious about a couple of old airframes. I’m surprised, if anything, to see the remains of the Tama Teck site given the rapid development and demand for land in Tokyo. Perhaps the biggest issue with the Marathons is that they were installed at the airport and the velodrome when they were still fairly new and just out of service. Given a decade of weathering, they would look ropey and not really be representative of either the aircraft now using the airport (and the glamour tied up in that) or enhance the scenery at the velodrome. The image in the fifth post above shows the aircraft already robbed of parts and looked a little battered in 1974; hardly the message you want to send to potential customers. This is my take on what became of those two airframes. A cursory Google search doesn’t come up with anything new.

Agreed: like thousands of other aircraft – scrapped and with no record of such. No great mystery, especially for such an unloved type.

So big question where did they go ?????

The scrappies? I imagine there would be little interest in the airframes in Japan as there is scarcely any interest in them in the UK. Anybody know of any aircraft graveyards around Tokyo?

My 1979 copy of Air Transport Hulks, by Nigel Tomkins lists

JA6009 Miles Marathon (c/n 136) Nagoya Airport – preserved – on display
JA6010 Miles Marathon (c/n 137) Tokyo Tamateck Cycle Stadium – preserved – on display

Google Earth does not recognise the last location, but Tama Teck is/was a theme park, coords 35.64209, 139.39104. On sign of any aircraft and the site was closed in 2009, then brought by the near by university.

wikimapia.org/1871597/Site-of-Old-Tama-Tech-Amusement-Park

So big question where did they go ?????

Great history and a memory jerker! I guess I would have seen all of the three Marathons at Burnaston in 1961 when nearby at an ATC Summer Camp. That hangar was like entering a crypt with the dust covered planes silently awaiting their fate.

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A photo of one of the Japanese Marathons on the roof of Nagoya terminal, supposedly from 1974.

Suspect this one is gone, but the other was at a theme park that still exists.

Sadly ‘MGW’s surviving section is smaller even than when recovered: a few years ago, someone offered to restore it, removed sections and did little else. The removed sections suffice to say were not returned.

It’s also a valid point regarding the Japanese Marathons. However, as with many thousands of other aircraft, people rarely record the scrapping of redundant airframes (or where any surviving bits go). I suspect that most/all of these aircraft were too far gone for anything to survive.

But one should never say ‘never’!

…..which gives an opportunity to raise again the the mystery of the fate of the Japanese Marathons (JA6009 and 6010), one of which, at least, is said to have survived until the seventies and some say parts, at least, survive in Japan today, possibly in a museum.

Thanks for posting this Sabrejet. Just amazing to still see significant pieces of mostly forgottten types still around today, although there’s probably some smaller items still tucked away in private collections or museum stores, as is usually the case!

Rob