Aviation History - January 2016

12 AH January 2016

extremes

D

uring the late 1930s and early 1940s, Europeans and

Americans tended to characterize Japanese aviation

technology as derivative, imitative or downright pla-

giaristic. Although many historians now consider that

viewpoint the result of Western bias, it had some 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. From the U.S. the

Japanese bought the 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.

Magnificent

Lightning

KYUSHU’S ADVANCED J7W

SHINDEN INTERCEPTOR LOOKED

LIKE NO OTHER AIRPLANE BUILT

IN WORLD WAR II

BY ROBERT GUTTMAN

Germany supplied

Japan with blueprints of

the Daimler-Benz DB 601

engine, which the Japanese

built under license and used

in some of their combat air-

craft, notably the Kawasaki

Ki-61 HienÅOP\MZQVQ\QITTa

UQ[QLMV\QÅMLJa\PM)TTQM[

as a copy of a German or

1\ITQIVÅOP\MZLM[QOV2IXIV

also received details of

Germany’s Messerschmitt

Me-262 jet and Me-

rocket interceptor, though

Japanese development of

those designs had not pro-

gressed far by war’s end.

But not all Japanese air-

craft design was derivative.

After the war Allied aviation

technicians discovered a

pair of extremely advanced

planes in Japan that owed

absolutely nothing to any for-

eign aircraft. They were the

XZW\W\aXM[WNIVM_ÅOP\MZ

the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden

5IOVQÅKMV\4QOP\VQVO

Designed for the Japanese

navy, the J7W1 was a fast-

climbing, high-altitude inter-

KMX\WZLM^MTWXML[XMKQÅKITTa

to defend against U.S. Army

Air Forces B-29 raids on the

Home Islands.

The Shinden, a single-

engine plane of tailless ca -

nard design, looked like no

other aircraft in the world in

1945. The wings, swept back
      LMOZMM[IVLÅ\ML_Q\P
      a pair of vertical stabilizers,
      were attached toward the
      rear of the fuselage, while
      small horizontal stabilizers
      _MZMÅ\ML\W\PMNZWV\
      The 18-cylinder Mitsubishi
      Ha-43 air-cooled radial
      engine, producing 2,
      hp, was mounted above the
      wings, close to the center
      of gravity, and drove a six-
      bladed pusher propeller via
      an extension shaft. The pilot

Imperial original

The first prototype of the

Kyushu J7W1 displays the

interceptor’s unusual canard

pusher configuration.