extremes
Imperial original
The first prototype of the Kyushu J7W1 displays the interceptor’s interceptor’s unusual canard pusher configuration.
Magnificent Lightning KYUSHU’S ADVANCED J7W1 SHINDEN INTERCEPTOR SHINDEN INTERCEPTOR LOOKED LIKE NO OTHER AIRPLANE BUILT IN WORLD WAR II BY ROBERT GUTTMAN
D
uring the late 1930s and early 1940s, Europeans and Americans tended to characterize Japanese aviation technology as derivative, imitative or downright plagiaristic. Although many historians now consider that viewpoint the result result of Western Western bias, bias, it it had some factual factual basis. Japanese designers learned a great deal from foreign aircraft acquired from France, Britain, Germany and the United States. During the 1920s and ’30s, British aircraft bought from Shorts, Blackburn and Gloster were copied by Kawanishi, Mitsubishi and Nakajima. Nakajima. From the U.S. the Japanese bought the prototype prototype Douglas DC-4E airliner, which provided the basis for Japan’s wartime multi engine bomber development. During World War II the Japanese aircraft industry also produced copies of American Lock heed 14 and Douglas DC-3 transports.
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Germany supplied Japan with blueprints blueprints of the Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine, which the Japanese built under license and used in some of their combat aircraft, notably the Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien as a copy of a German or also received details of Germany’s Messerschmitt Me-262 jet and Me-163 rocket interceptor, though Japanese development of those designs had not progressed far by war’s end. But not all Japanese aircraft design was derivative. After the war Allied aviation technicians discovered a pair of extremely advanced planes in Japan that owed absolutely nothing to any foreign aircraft. They were the the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden Designed for the Japanese
navy, the J7W1 was a fastclimbing, high-altitude inter to defend against U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 raids on the Home Islands. The Shinden , a singleengine plane of tailless caca nard design, looked like no other aircraft in the world in 1945. The wings, swept back a pair of vertical stabilizers, were attached toward the rear of the fuselage, while small horizontal stabilizers The 18-cylinder Mitsubishi Ha-43 air-cooled radial engine, producing 2,130 hp, was mounted above the wings, close to the center of gravity, and drove a sixbladed pusher propeller via an extension shaft. The pilot
P R A K E V E T S : N O I T A R T S U L L I ; S E V I H C R A L A N O I T A N : E T I S O P P O
sat between the engine and the pointed nose, where he had a good view in all directions except perhaps the rear. Four 30mm cannons, concentrated in the nose, would have proved more than adequate to bring down a B-29. Due to its pusher was mounted on a retractable retractable tricycle undercarriage. ceptor was initiated early in 1943 by Lt. Cmdr. Masa yoshi Tsuruno Tsuruno at the Kyushu Hikoki K.K. Company— until that year known as Watanabe Tekkojo. Watanabe, which had a track the box, had developed the plane that was designed duced the Q1W1 Tokai (Eastern Sea), known to the airplane to specialize in Tsuruno began by building a reduced-scale proto 22-hp auxiliary engine, as an aerodynamic test vehi Called the MXY6, it was to be towed into the air behind another airplane, then power provided by the small auxiliary engine. Because its towline was attached at the wrong place, however, the attachment was relocated, the MXY6—piloted by Once the basic aerody rily tested, Tsuruno went to
initially uninterested in the radical new airplane, the B-29 bombing campaign during mid- to late 1944 made them think again. by the navy and named Shinden , the interceptor was ordered into production Completed in April 1945, that prototype had to return sons. Its air-cooled engine overheated while on the ground, requiring a redesign blades were bent during the nose rose and the tail canted back, grinding the prop into the tarmac. A new airscrew retesting on August 3, 1945, without mishap.
the j7w1 shinden was was ordered into production straight straight off the drawing board.
shima. By the time the time. Although the Shinden reportedly handled well, the strong vibrations. Shindens built, ready committed to building 30 Shindens a month, while the larger Nakajima concern -
ture 120 per month. So technically the Shinden holds the enter production. Tsuruno had planned to develop a jet-powered ver Shinden-Kai . It was to the Me-262. American servicemen discovered the two Shindens was shipped back to the still exists, dismantled, at the National Air and Space Smithsonian will one day restore this truly original place it on display.
J7W1 SHINDEN SPECIFICATIONS SPECIFICATIONS LENGTH
30 feet 4 inches WINGSPAN
36 feet 5 inches WEIGHT
7,639 pounds (empty) 10,913 pounds (loaded) ENGINE
2,130-hp Mitsubishi Ha-43 (Mk9D) 18-cylinder air-cooled radial MAXIMUM SPEED
466 mph RANGE
531 miles RATE OF CLIMB
26,250 feet in 10 minutes SERVICE CEILING
39,000 feet
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