“TAKIKAWA, Hokkaido – The first test flight of a small jet plane modeled after “Moewe,” a flying device that appears in Hayao Miyazaki’s anime “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” was conducted here on July 31.”
There’s a video in the article worth a look. (EDIT: or the longer tube of you versions here:)
Actually, a very smooth landing at about the 3 min mark.
Here’s the anime aircraft that it was based on - looks very similar (apart from the VTOL of course):
And by the way, if you haven’t seen Naucica, you really owe it to yourself to do so. Skip the Disney English dubs. They suck! Watch in Japanese with subtitles. This isn’t just me being a geek. Miyazaki auditioned non-actors for the smaller roles in most of his films–and even the staring roles at times. It was as important to him as the animation. Disney used over the top actors and an overly American script. It takes away from the film. This along with Laputa are by far my favorite anime movies.
