(Mainichi)
TOKYO — The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF)’s Blue Impulse aerobatics team will fly above several landmarks in Osaka Prefecture before showcasing a performance flight above the Osaka Expo venue around noon on the global event’s opening day April 13.
According to the plan announced by the ASDF April 3, the six-jet unit will depart Kansai International Airport at around 11:40 a.m. April 13 and fly above Osaka Prefecture clockwise after passing Tsutenkaku Tower in the city of Osaka’s Naniwa Ward and Osaka Castle in Chuo Ward.
The flight will then pass by the “Tower of the Sun,” the symbol of the 1970 Osaka Expo, in the city of Suita and amusement park Hirakata Park in the city of Hirakata before temporarily heading south. It will then move north over Osaka Bay toward Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka’s Konohana Ward where the Expo is held. The route may change depending on the weather.
ASDF Chief of Staff Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura said at a regular news conference April 3, “We hope that children who are our future will look up to the sky (to see Blue Impulse), smile and have hope.” He added, “The performance flight will be based on the Expo’s theme. We’ll withhold details so that people have something to look forward to.”
The Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse unit showcases a performance flight at the Osaka Expo venue in the city of Suita, March 14, 1970. (Mainichi)
During the 1970 Expo in Osaka, a Blue Impulse unit spelled out “EXPO ’70” in the skies using colored smoke, but that’s not planned this time. It will be the first time the aerobatics team flies over Osaka Prefecture since 1990, when the International Garden and Greenery Exposition was held there.
(Japanese original by Yoshitake Matsuura, Tokyo City News Department)
AloJapan.com