50-Year Anniversary of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Aerospace Company 1953 Licensed production of the T-34A Mentor trainer commences  1958 Successful first flight of Japanese-made T-1 jet trainer test plane  1961 Prototype of YS-11 twin turboprop airliner, for which FHI sup- plied the empennage and main wing beams, completed  1963 Manufacture of UH-1B turbine helicopter begun  1965 Aero Subaru FA-200, the first light airplane to be made in postwar Japan, successfully test-flown  1969 Utsunomiya Manufacturing Division Aircraft Plant completed  1978 Contract received from Boeing Commercial Airplane Group for  the manufacture of Boeing 767 components  1982 FHI becomes prime contractor for AH-1S antitank helicopter  1991 Agreement reached with Boeing providing for FHI’s participation in  development of Boeing 777  1992 Utsunomiya 2nd Plant completed and operations begin  • Boeing 777 assembly plant (Handa Plant) commences operation  1996 Successful first flight of high-performance large remote-piloted  RPH2 helicopter  • Successful first flight of FHI-developed new-model helicopter main  rotor system Fuji bearingless rotor (FBR)  • Successful first flight and automated landing of ALFLEX, small-scale automated landing experimental vehicle of HOPE, the H-II Orbiting Plane being developed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)  1956 KD11 model announced  Robin mark adopted for the trademark and registered in July 1960  1960 Robin Tractor T-4 model introduced  1968 Production of EY18 Robin engine, mainly for construction equipment, begins  • Export of engines for Polaris snowmobiles in U.S. commences  1971 Robin engine export contract signed with Wisconsin Motor of Teledyne, Inc., of the United States  1975 Export of Robin RG series generators begins  1980 EY15-20 launched  1983 Subaru SG500, the lightest domestic generator for its output, launched  1992 Subaru SGV series generators with OHV engine introduced  1993 Robin America, Inc., sales company established in U.S.  1994 Local U.S. production subsidiary, Robin Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc., established through merger with Polaris Industries  1955 Official designation as a diesel railcar maker received from Japan National Railways (JNR)  1960 First Hatsukari diesel express passenger cars completed  1962 Manufacture of LP-101 Roadpacker begun using technologies from U.S.-based Gawaado Corp.  1964 Technological alliance signed on trailers with West Germany’s Karlkesboler  1973 Factory exclusively for the production of Fuji Mighty sanitation trucks completed  1974 Specialized catenary maintenance car developed for use on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line  1975 Practicality of new KRT transportation system demonstrated at Okinawa Marine Expo  1979 Ohzora (Kiha 183-type) express railcars for Hokkaido completed and delivered  1982 LE-car, a diesel-engine railway bus, introduced  1989 Three of the world’s first pendulum-type diesel express cars delivered to JR Shikoku  1993 Operational testing of Fuswton automated waste management system for high-rises gets under way  1949 Japan’s first frameless rear-engine bus, Fuji, completed  (Fuji Sangyo Co., Ltd.)  1956 Japan’s first air-suspension bus completed and delivered to JNR  1969 Tomei Highway Bus 1 delivered to JNR  1971 Prefabricated unit houses introduced  1977 R1-type full-decker bus launched  1980 R3-type full-decker bus completed  1983 Prototype of first Japanese-made double-decker bus completed  1984 Minihouse developed; launched in March as Fuji Minihouse  • FHI’s first articulated bus completed; 100 units employed at the Tsukuba ’85 Science Expo  1987 Astetope sight-seeing bus developed in cooperation with Volvo Bus Corporation  1994 Low-pollution CNG buses delivered to Tokyo Metropolitan government and other customers  1996 One-step ultra-low floor compact route bus introduced, the first in its class  Others Eco Technologies Company Industrial Products Company