During the China Incident the Japanese Navy had made extensive use of floatplanes to augment their land-based units. The Japanese faced a lack of suitable airfields around the coastal cities that were conquered between 1937 […]
Shortly after Nakajima had received orders for the Ki-43 “Hayabusa” fighter, they were asked to produce a design for a new interceptor fighter. Unusually for a Japanese fighter the need for manoeuvrability was relaxed in […]
In 1935 the Japanese Navy issued their 10-Shi requirements for two new carrier based aircraft, a torpedo bomber and a reconnaissance plane. The torpedo bomber design created by Nakajima became the famous B5N, but the […]
Requirements were issued by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in 1937 for a replacement for the Ki-27, which was just entering squadron service. The new fighter was to have the same manoeuvrability as the […]
USAAF Training film on identification of the Japanese Fighters 96 (Mitsubishi A5M Claude Type 96) and 97 (Nakajima Ki-27 Type 97). Notable for inaccurately claiming that both are the same aircraft, and that it is […]
In 1935 the year’s 10-Shi requirements included a request by the IJN for a new torpedo bomber to replace the B3Y Type 92, and the interim B4Y Type 96, which were both considered to be […]
Ki-27s and Ki-10s (posing as Chinese aircraft) appear in dogfighting scenes from the September 1940 film Moyura Ōzora, or in English “The Burning Sky”. This film shows some of the excellent formation flying and combat manoeuvring […]
The Nakajima Ki-27 was a follow up to the unsuccessful Ki-11 monoplane, which lost out to the biplane Kawasaki Ki-10 in a competition to design a new fighter for the Japanese Army. The Ki-27 was […]
The Nakajima A4N was a development of the company’s earlier A2N biplane fighter, and was intended to improve that aircraft so that it could serve as an adequate stopgap until better, more modern fighters like […]
Designed as a replacement for the E4N Type 90, the Nakajima E8N was a derivative of this older plane but featured a more powerful engine, slimmer wings, and a taller tail. A prototype was entered […]
Copyright 2015-2023 Pacific Eagles