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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0522.PDF
174 FEBRUARY 27TH, 1941. NIPPON'S AIR POWER* (Continued) JAPAN'S T.S.R. : A three-quarter front view of the Nakajima 96 carrier borne torpedo-bomber. The motor isa Kinsei radial of 950 h.p. EASTERN FURY : The KawasakiArmy 95 single-seat fighter powered by a 600 h.p. B.M.W. engine builtunder licence by the Kawasaki concern. craft performing four major duties : fighting, " dive-bombing, torpedo- bombing and reconnaissance. The last two duties are combined and carried out by a biplane designed in 1935. Fighting and dive-bombing are performed by the Mitsubishi 96, an all-metal low-wing monoplane common to both the army and naval air services. This fighter has two synchronised machine guns firing through- the airscrew disc and is powered by a 550 h.p. Kotobuki engine (Bristol "Jupiter" built under licence by the Nakajima concern). It was one of these fighters, when operating in China, that had the major portion of one wing shot away and yet got home safely. Shipborne machines, that is to say those carried on battleships and cruisers, are almost entirely of two types —the Kawanishi 94, a three-seater credited with a top speed of 140 knots, and a radial-engined two-seater single-float biplane known as the Navy 95. It is of interest to note here how these type numbers are arrived at. They are the last two numbers of the year in which they went into service. The Japanese calendar starts at 660 B.C., and thus a 1936 design, for instance, would be known as type 96, from the Japanese year 2596. Flying Boats The Japanese equivalent of our Coastal Command also comes under the authority of the navy. Of flying boats there are four main types. The Kawanishi 90 (3 Rolls-Royce Buzzard engines), to all intents and pur- poses the Short Rangoon, built under licence from Short Bros. ; the Kawanishi 91, a twin-engined monoplane boat with a Short-type hull; a third model, also all- metal and of Short-type hull construction, is a mono- plane powered by three 650 h.p. Hispano-Suiza engines built by the Mitsubishi Company. The fourth and latest flying boat type is a strut-braced four-engined monoplane. No details are available of this, but con- siderable numbers are already in service. For bomber operations from land bases the navy em- ploys the Mitsubishi 96 monoplane bomber as used by (he army. This is of modern aJl-metal design with two 1,006 h.p. Kinsei radial engines which give it a speed of between 240 and 250 m.p.h. A very considerable range is claimed for it, and the bomb load is thought to be 1,100 lb. It carries no machine guns firing forward, but has two firing aft in a turret on top of the fuselage, and one, also pointing aft, below. The undercarriage retracts into the engine nacelles and twin rudders and fins are fitted above the lailplane. A crew of five is carried. On paper the Japanese navy and naval air_ service appear to have a high potential striking power, but it must be remembered that they have very little back- ground in the way of naval battles. All this show of force has been obtained by apeing our Royal Navy. There is not, so far as we know, a single original design either in the ships themselves or the aircraft they carry. It is, therefore, reasonable to expect that there will also be a lack of original naval strategic thought. If the time should come when there is a show-down in the Pacific, some interesting actions will be fought. The wide oceans are ideal for the employment of aircraft carriers, and both Japan and ourselves—and for that matter the United States—are strong in this type of vessel. v The relative strengths in aircraft carriers of the great naval powers was dealt with in our issue of January 9th, In addition to photographs a series of outline sketches of all the carriers in commission were included. ,?*t CASTLES IN THE AIR : The Franco-German influence isvery apparent in the design of the Japanese long-range bomber of 1933.
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