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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0493.PDF
MARCH 15TH, 1945 FLIGHT 283 were an unblushing crib of American instruments but beautifully made. The report intimated, however, that the whole job was so light as to verge on the fragile (it had no armour), and it was not surprising that it flew to pieces when it got in the way of a burst from a P-40's 0.5m. guns. Better Protection More recently the Jap has begun to realise he could no longer afford to go rushing into the arms of his honourable ancestors with quite such heroic abandon, laudable as this may seem to the theologians of Nippon, and his combat aircraft are now designed to prolong his mortal life in the purely mundane interests of the "Son of Heaven." Not all Jap fighters, however, are yet equipped with armour and self-sealing tanks. The latest descendant of the Zero, built by Mitsubishi and Nakajima, for example, is the Zeke 52, which has neither of these protective fitments. It weighs less than 6,000 lb. in fighting trim compared with the 10,000 lb. plus of its opposite number, the Hellcat. Other Jap fighters, however, such as'Tony 1 and Tojo 2, have been given this protection for man and machine, but still scale only 6,900 lb. and 6,100 lb, respectively. Other interesting data on these three up-to-date Jap fighters is as follows: — , Zeke 52: top speed about 350 m.p.h., climb about 2,800ft. ,/min. at sea-level, maximum range about 1,500 miles, powefed by a 14-cylinder, air-cooled radial Nakajima Sakae 21 engine with two-speed blower giving 1,100 h.p. at sea-level; armed with two 7.7 mm. machine guns and two 20 mm. cannon. Tony 1: built by Kawasaki, top speed about 360 m.p.h., climb about 2,400ft. /min. at' sea-level, maximum range about 1,900 miles, powered by a 60-degree V-type 12-cylin- der liquid-cooled Kawasaki 2 engine with two-speed blower giving about 1,100 h.p. at sea-level ; armed with two 7.7 mm. and either two or four 12.7 mm. gun«. Tojo 2: built by Nakajima, top speed about 375 m.p.h., climb about 3,900ft./min. at sea-level, range with normal fuel load about 800 miles (extendible by drop tanks), powered by a 14-cylinder air-cooled radial Nakajima 2 engine with two-speed blower giving about 1,400 h.p. at sea-level; armed with two 7.7 mm. and two 12.7 mm. guns. First In-line Type Incidentally, Tony 1 is the first Jap aircraft to be fitted with an in-line liquid-cooled engine and to be built sturdily enough to try to stay with U.S. aircraft in power-dives ; most other Jap fighters will not stand the high stresses imposed by such dives. Tojo 2 is now in service mainly in the China-Burma theatre. Its armour for the pilot is good, but the attempt to make its tanks leak-proof is ineffective. Up to the present the Japanese have enclosed their fuel tanks in layers of rubber, or sometimes kapok, deal with leaks, but the benefit has been practically nil. Much of their armour plating, which varies in thickness from 6.5 mm. to 17.5 mm. has been found to be of such JACK II, a 400 m.p.h. Navy interceptor with a range ofjust over 1,000 miles. poor quality that 0.3m. bullets will shatter it; U.S. armour, on the other hand, will deflect 0.5111. bullets. Twin-engined Fighters Another recent addition to the list of Jap Army fighters is the two-seater twin-engined Nick 1 which is probably manufactured by Kawasaki. Like the Irving 11, its eii^ini's are of about 1,100 h.p. at sea-level, but in this case they are the 14-cylindei Mitsubishi 1 air-cooled radials with 2-speed superchargers and three-bladed c.s. airscrews. Nick 1, however, has a rather better performance than the multi-purpose Irving II and is a somewhat smaller machine, having a span of»5oft. and length of 34ft. com- pared with the 55ft 8in. and 40ft. respectively of the recon- naissance fighter-bomber. Actually its top speed, at about 350 m.p.h., is only some 20 m.p.h. faster, but it climbs at 2,400ft./min. at sea-level compared with 1,700ft. /min. Range, on the other hand, is less—about 1,300 miles maxi- mum instead of the Irving's 1,900 miles. Armament of Nick 1 comprises two 12.7 mm. machine-guns and a 37 mm. cannon firing forwards, and one 7.7 mm. machine-gun on top. In the Indian theatre, the Nakajima fighter Oscar 2 is now replacing Oscar 1 which was a development of the obsolescent Nate, now practically non-operational. Oscar 2 has a 1,100 h.p. engine, heavier armament and a very- much-improved rate of climb at 3,300ft. /min. One more Jap fighter currently in-service is worth men- tioning, and that is Rufe 11 (recently illustrated in Flight) which presents the unusual in being a single-seater mounted BETTY 22 is capable of about 330 m.p.h. and is believed able to carry two*torpedoes in lieu of bombs when required. OSCAR 2, with a 1,100 h.p radial engine,climbs at 3,300ft./min
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