The Jets Of Japan

[westvirginiarebel]

Japan did build or at least design jets during the final days of World War Two; WI they'd been used in combat (if only briefly?) The Nakajima Kikka seems to be the most likely candidate for this role:

[huojin]

I doubt it much alters the outcome of the war. Japan would need to build large numbers very quickly to have any kind of impact, but at the end of the day the war was lost for Japan much earlier than jet aircraft would have any chance to reverse. Plus within a few years America would knock out its own jet aircraft (probably the P-80) and in much greater numbers.

[mostlyharmless]

Not quite insignificant, especially if the Kikka had been ready at the time of the Okinawa invasion. The Kikka was fast enough to evade the Hellcats and Corsairs of the USN. Thus kamikaze Kikkas would have been able to hit carriers and cause quite a serious problem.

[silentrunner]

Jul 12, 2016 23:31:06 GMT mostlyharmless said:

Not quite insignificant, especially if the Kikka had been ready at the time of the Okinawa invasion. The Kikka was fast enough to evade the Hellcats and Corsairs of the USN. Thus kamikaze Kikkas would have been able to hit carriers and cause quite a serious problem.

Jets would be way too precious to waste in suicide attacks. I can see them being used to intercept B-29s, much like the Me-262 was used as a bomber-interceptor over Europe.

[crustyoldssg]

I wasn't aware that the Japanese had also produced jet aircraft,as the Germans had.But,as was the case with the Germans,they were not enough to be a game changer-perhaps jets in sufficient quantity could have put a crimp in the B-29 campaign,but doubtful that it would have affected the outcome to any significant degree.

[mostlyharmless]

Although some posters are discussing use as a fighter, the Kikka was planned as a suicide aircraft. Page 190 of "Japanese Special Attack Aircraft and Flying Bombs" by Ryusuke Ishiguro and Tadeusz Januszewski has "In parallel with the design work and preparations for series production, training of personnel continued. The 724th Kokutai, ultimately going to be equipped with Kikka aircraft, was established on 1 July 1945. The 724th Kokutai was in fact a suicide unit, where Kikka tactics were to be developed."

There was a proposed fighter, the Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_Ki-201, but it never flew and even the prototype construction may not have started. It would have required a more powerful engine than the Ne-20.

There was another application planned for the Ne-20, which was the MXY7 Ohka in its Model 33 and Model 43 versions. The Model 33, however, needed the Nakajima G8N1 Renzan as carrier and that was not available (partly because Kikka development was given higher priority). The Model 43 was to be catapult launched either from submarines or land bases. It needed a larger wing as it had to climb. Only wooden mockups were built but catapult trials were made. The 725th Kokutai was to have operated the land based Model 43. There was also a Model 53 proposed version which could be towed by a two engined aircraft (Details from Ryusuke Ishiguro, op. cit. pages 167-170).