N1K1-J - A Match for the Hellcat?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- The Kawanishi N1K1-J Shiden was a single-engine fighter that entered service in the closing stages of World War Two. It became one of Japan's most successful land-based fighters despite its unlikely origins. Facing overwhelming odds, it didn't get the recognition it perhaps deserved.
Game footage and aircraft models
War Thunder - / warthunder .
00:04 History
05:55 Head to Head
10:39 Conclusion
Disclaimer - This channel is apolitical. We do not endorse any kind of political view.
Corrections
None
Music by order of appearance
History:
- Beautiful Oblivion by Scott Buckley ssoundcloud.com...
Music promoted by httpswww.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
screativecommon...4.0
Head to Head:
- Music: www.purple-pla...
Conclusion:
- Imperial Forces by Aaron Kenny | UA-cam Audio Library
Sources
- J2M Raiden and N1K1/2 Shiden/Shiden-Kai Aces - Yasuho Izawa and Tony Holmes
- Hellcat vs Shiden/Shiden-Kai - Pacific Theater 1944-45 - Tony Holmes
- Japan 1944-45 - LeMay's B-29 Strategic Bombing Campaing - Mark Lardas
For the comparison:
- Flying Guns World War II - Anthony G. Williams & Dr Emmanuel Gustin
- Fighter Aircraft Performance of WW2 - A Comparative Study - Erik Pilawskii
- TAIC 107 A1 report : Kawanishi N1K1-J
- Kawanishi Kyofu, Shiden and Shiden Kai Variants - Aircraft in Profile 213 - René J. Francillion
I do not own any of the images used in this video. The owners of such images are identified in the video itself.
Good video. My Dad flew both the F6F-5 and the F4U-4 during the war, the former in combat, the latter in training for the invasion of Japan that never happened. Everything I've read suggests that both the George and the Frank were quite capable opponents of both the Hellcat and Corsair, and in those accounts, it sounds like American pilots were unpleasantly surprised by the performance of either/both of the new Japanese fighters - they'd gotten used to being able to handle Zeroes without too much trouble. Not the case with the new Japanese fighters, especially when the new planes had competent pilots.
True. The ‘Aces’ researchers interviewing veteran survivors both sides. Post war testing by OUR Aces reported that the Japanese Had begun mass producing 4-5 fighters ‘clearly’ superior to our best.
Italy had two and Germany several.
Fact: towards end of war we lost all but 2 of the 24 airbases we could bomb Japan with. Like Hetmany 1943, we had actually cancelled daylight big raids over Japan due to losses. Our firebombing at low altitude at night also called off BEFORE Emperor ordered surrender, we were slaughtering more civilians than impeding production, like Germany Japan had developed cost effective both piston engine, rocket and Jet from both mineral coal and Alcohol vegetable even ‘weeds’ our own scientists were silenced in warning us about reliance on foreign (not Canadian always best friends after WW2).
We were NEVER guaranteed victory. That demeans our veterans. Especially USSR had betrayed us, British Empire furious FDR betrayed our Allie’s, it is possible had Japan not surrenders, as Churchill himself elected out of power warned, there was already an ‘Iron Curtain’ and Cold War with communism Europe and Asia.
Did you know that the British asked the Emperor to leave his military in SE Asia right up to 1949? It gave us time to both slowly replace and learn from Japan, ONLY Japan was ever able to suppress communist Revolution in China.
Why?
Miller historian correctly points out that 100x Chinese could not possibly be dominated by Japanese involvement in their Civil War if they (civilians) didn’t hate them less than KMT, CCP, Russians or us.
And the British/Dutch never lost to communist Revolution like France and America did in Indo China/China.
N1k2, Ki84, Ki100, Ki83(copy RAF Mosquito) and our propoganda lies Japan was way ahead of us in jet/rocket even without end war German offers.
Until Clint Eastwood we taught generations the ‘Japs’ we’re lion cloth starved idiots using outdated weapons. That demeans and disrespects our veterans too.
George and Frank were no doubt better for Japan, but Hellcats and Corsairs were still built far bett and more powerful and USN/USMC pilots were far better trained with many Aces by 1944-45' !!
@@jamiejones7325 Are you done?
@@jamiejones7325 You're talking nonsense.
German jet fighters disappeared post WWII, even the countries that took 109s and operated them didn't touch the 262 nor any other German jet.
British meteor was in service around the world until 1980.
Germany's rocket fighters were a last gap clutch at straws.
The had no range and could only be used for overhead attacks.
They killed more German pilots than the allies.
Japanese jet and rocket planes were meaningless, they had none of their own design flying and only copied german designs for which they did not have the materials to manufacture them.
@@jamiejones7325 yeah, but practical considerations often trump innovative but unproven technologies. The Lockheed L-133, for example, would likely have outclassed any other fighter out there, but would have impacted production of other aircraft. At that time, numbers were overwhelming the enemy, so it didn't make sense to invest in better technology that might have disrupted that.
I didn’t know this plane also received combat flaps! The later variants with four cannons and two MGs really made the Shiden somewhat like a Japanese Fw-190, but was more nimble thanks to those combat flaps.
All in all, thanks for covering this plane.
85 octane? Wow. That's a huge handicap. A good, informative video. Thank you.
85 octane aka spicy water.
@@MrHermit12 lmao
@@MrHermit12 Lol - cat pee.
Russians mainly used 76 octane and germans 87 so
@@tedarcher9120 Russian got 100 octane from allies
And i make Germany dies
The contemporary Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (Jack) was also a great fighter, or rather interceptor aircraft. I really would love to see video about that aircraft if you would do sometime. :)
I'll certainly get around to it!
@@AllthingsWW2 The J2M had best late war kill ratio of Japanese fighters.
The Jack was more of a B-29 killer than a fighter vs fighter.
I remember hearing about a relative who flew the Shinden Kai against B29 at the end of WWII. He told my father who was a second cousin that he shot down P38 planes because the Shinden Kai could dive as fast as P38. I know that Japan did not have the resources to fight against the US and produced good planes at the end of WWII but in small numbers.
Good to hear you discussed the important fuel quality issue 👍
Great video, with a lot of nice detail for twelve minutes. Top marks. Last year I read Prof. Eri Hotta's terrific Japan 1941, and it was amazing to read in detail about how NO ONE in the Japanese government or military had any confidence in the ability of Japan to prevail in a war with America. In the end, all of their nightmares came true. Industrial capacity and quality, logistics, fuel issues. They got the result that they all expected. Doom.
Thank you!
You really have to wonder at their decision to initiate the war KNOWING they weren't going to win.
It was never about the plane but the pilot who made the difference. Saburo Sakai was jumped by 15 Hellcats and through skill, he dodged every bullet and survived.
AMEN!!!
IIFR, Saburo Sakai was shot down when he mistook TBF Avengers for Grumman fighters. He was approaching them from the tail and was surprised when the gunners on the Avengers opened up on him...
@@rokuth - Sakai was not shot down. His A6M was damaged and he was badly wounded, blinded in one eye, but he made it back to his base.
@@scootergeorge7089 ; You are correct. My bad. Thanks for clarifying.
@@rokuth - I read his book, Samurai. A great book.
I love the editing of your videos, they really help to explain things
Thank you mate! High praise coming from you!
A beautiful aircraft... potent, and deadly in the right hands. Luckily for our fighters... those capable enough to fly it were few and far between.
By all historical accounts, yes, the Kawanishi N1K1-J Shiden Kai was indeed a match for the U.S. Navy F6F-3 and -5 Hellcat, perhaps more so because the lighter Shiden could outclimb the Hellcat at low altitude and was more maneuverable at lower altitudes. The Shiden's top speed was only some seven miles slower than the -3 Hellcat. The Shiden's lethal quartet of Ho 20mm cannon were far better suited to downing Hellcats than the A6M Zero-sen's twin, 7.7mm machine guns and dual, 20mm cannon. Surviving Japanese naval fighter ace, Saburo Sakai, was certain that in the hands of a properly trained pilot, the Shiden-Kai was more than an even match for the Hellcat. Sakai felt that in the hands of a skilled pilot, the Shiden was superior. Historical combat records are sparse but of what exists tends to point to a roughly 1-to-1 win/loss ration contest between the Shiden and the Hellcat. Nonetheless at this late stage in the Pacific War, the Shiden-Kai existed in small numbers, available trained and experienced Japanese fighter pilots were few, and aviation gasoline was in short supply. Contrast the U.S. Navy could field thousands of Hellcats and trained fighter pilots and unlimited aviation gasoline of superior octane. So in the big picture, the Shiden-Kai might have been an excellent, late-war Japanese fighter plane. But it was a case of too little, too late. Even if the Shiden-Kai could have made its grand entrance a year earlier, U.S. strategic bombing of Japan's airplane factories, lack of gasoline and continuing attrition of Japanese pilots would still have limited the Shiden's total impact upon the war.
Informative video. thank you. Ki-100 would an interesting feature, as would the Mitsubishi J2M.
I'd Vote to J2M and after that Re-2005.
I'll get to the J2M definitely.
@@AllthingsWW2 The J2M and Ki100 were to share the same Mitsubishi Kinsei 60 series turbosupercharged radials that would've given them both the altitude advantage over the Nakajima Homare that powered the Ki84 and N1K2-J in going after B29s during their high altitude bombing missions. Our bombing campaign nixed much of that Mitsubishi turbocharger program though.
If the Japanese could've managed a lot more of that they could've realized how vulnerable the B29s really were with their pressurized cabins susceptible to decompression by cannon fire and unreliable remote controls of their gun turrets.
i love the ki 100,s
On March 19 1945 the US Navy did indeed lose 14 fighters in combat (some only damaged but later tossed overboard after returning). Not all of them were Hellcats and not all of them were lost to NIKs. Indeed, there were Corsairs lost on that day as well. Japanese ground fire also accounted for some of the losses. In fact, through extensive research I determined that only five F6Fs were actually downed by the 343rd throughout the ENTIRE war. On the other hand, US Navy pilots racked up more than a 5:1 kill ratio against the 343rd. This according to the book "Genda's Blade" which detailed every engagement that the 343rd was involved in, using both Japanese and American primary sources.
10:40 The Bearcat was NOT a successor to the Hellcat. The Bearcat was basically a light interceptor for a fleet defense especially for small escort carriers. Short range and only 4 .50's, but super-fast climb and excellent performance. The Hellcat had far more range, far more bombload and capacity for droptanks, far more ammo, and would probably have worked side by side with Bearcats.
It was the successor of the Hellcat
What the hell are you talking about?
@@MangoTroubles-007 The Hellcat was a general purpose fighter, capable of strikes and ground attack as well as high altitude work when necessary. The Bearcat was designed to do one thing: fight at medium altitude close to escort carriers, and sacrificed everything for 1) the ability to fly off a tiny escort carrier as opposed to the supercarriers, and 2) for the ultimate in climb ability.
Why am I re-explaining this to you? My comment a year ago would be clear enough to anyone who understands the mechanics of war, which I guess doesn't include you. You must be insane to suggest the Hellcat was being replaced with a plane with only 2/3 the firepower. What is wrong with your brain and why do the doctors let you post on the internet?
One of the American exhibits is at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, FL. I have actually touched this aircraft.
Great videos man! It's cool to see coverage of planes that don't get much attention. Would love to see videos on the second generation of Japanese WW2 dive bombers and torpedo bombers! Keep it up! 👍😊
Thank you for these videos I love the format for them!! And your voice is very relaxing! Also I can't say for sure but I think either this plane the ki-87 or the late models of ki-61 were probably the best of what Japan had to offer late in the war
That Kawasaki "Tony" would be the radial engine conversion, the Ki100. IJ Army ace Yohei HInoki was an instructor after losing a leg to a P51 in a Ki43. He had one probable claim flying a Ki100 after sneaking to to a P51's 6 oclock and there was a P51 missing and two damaged that day. HInoki went home from a sky crowded with allied fighters. That's the only account I followed up on closely involving the Ki100. With that wingspan and power to weight it probably would've made a vertical performer with an adequately trained pilot. With the two stage supercharged Mitsubishi Kinsei radial it would probably like some altitude. We bombed the factory causing a shortage of that variant but I don't know which aircraft were affected. HInoki's other kills were in the Ki43 which wound up with a surprisingly accomplished record and often wrongly identified as an A6M by allied pilots.
Ki 100s of the 244th Sentai stationed at Okinawa would've had targets of Curtis Wright R3350 stricken B29 stragglers flying from missions over the home islands out of Saipan with overheating and out-and-out burning engine issues. Of 414 B-29 losses in WWII, 267 were to engine fires. The 244th Sentai at Okinawa reportedly had a decent record, by our accounts, against US fighters escorting B29 stragglers. Imperial Japanese Army pilots with combat experience over China, Manchuria and Burma weren't yet as decimated with losses as the Navy pilots were in '44 though many were lost to overwhelming numbers, including combat seasoned allied pilots from the European theater, in the final year.
Only one prototype Ki87 was built. The A7M would've been interesting but it's only combat use was in then-Palestine by fledgling Israeli forces that acquired at least one of the prototypes via black market. Don't know it's record. Many Japanese prototypes tended to get shot up on the ground when left outside. The IJN put it's investment in the more ready Kawanishi fighter.
On the subject of distilling pine tree roots for fuel, I read that while great effort went into digging out these roots, the Japanese had insufficient infrastructure and gasoline to transport the roots to refineries. By the summer of 1945,, thousands of tons of roots lay rotting in huge piles across rural Japan.
Not sure if it was Greg or Ed Nash, but I've recently heard that Bearcat was not a generally superior plane to the Hellcat, lacking in several factors against its daddy. If I remember, Bearcat traded a LOT for its high speed and climb capability. Compared to Hellcat it was frail, fractious, and demanding.
As for Corsair, my OTHER favorite fighter of the war era, it wasn't meant to protect carriers or defend allied bombers. It was, instead, the coolest Bomb Truck EVER! As such, its means of comparison is a bit skewed. Clean, Corsair was the absolute best performer down on the deck. Its geared supercharger also gave it good performance up to 13,000'. With equal quality control and equal gasoline the N1K2 and F4U-1 were probably better suited for air war- one against the other- than were the Me109E and Spitfire IX. Both would employ boom and zoom, with the IJN plane the better turner at low speed and the USN plane its master in a dive.
Compressibility, anyone? With planes that reach high Mach numbers it's a real danger.
I think it was Ed Nash, but as I recall, the Bearcat's ridiculously short range was the most major potential problem.
The Corsair is the aero love of my life! You have great taste William.
(#2 might be the shorter winged version (still long though) of the Focke Wulf TA 152.)
The Bearcat was a kamikaze killer, and that's about it. So, more of an interceptor than a fighter, or fighter/bomber. Get up, shoot some planes, get back down before you run out of fuel.
Another great, informative video! Looking forward to a future video on the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate. Thank you.
Thank you! Will certainly cover the Ki-84.
Me too.
(Years ago I had read about the superior quality of the ki-84 especially when better octane gas was added).
I also read Saburo Sakai's book, and if I remember correctly, he mentioned how advanced the Mustang was to anything the Japanese had.
It may have been a match for the Hellcat, but the US had the F8F Bearcat in the wings. How would it have stacked up against the Hellcat replacement?
Dunno. The F8F, like the F6F were designed for Naval Air combat and were great under 20K feet. F6F could hold it's own against a George and F8F would be better. However, up where the B-29's roamed, the George would be a handful. Of course, the solution would be to let P-51s and P-47s handle the higher altitude escort. B-29s are rather "prickly" too. :-)
I enjoy your narration, very good job, many video productions don't give that aspect much consideration. The narration is very important when delivering the story.
If you have a fantastic story line and amazing photos & film, and the narrator sucks, the video tends to fail in that aspect. I throughly enjoy searching and playing your videos, keep up the good work and hopefully you will present MORE very good videos, I have watched every one you have on UA-cam. I'm addicted I need more of your videos
Wow, such a nice comment. Thank you very much!
There were some excellent Japanese fighters during the latter years of the war, & this was one of them. However, lack of skilled pilots would severely limit their effect against overwhelming numbers of well trained, highly skilled US pilots
The N1K2 was a very good plane same for the Ki-84 - great video
Thank you!
As usual, another fantastic video. A plane that IF it had come earlier COULD have been a fierce competitor. Love the technical comparisons in all your content. Keep them coming. How bout a video on the He-219???
Thank you! I've added the He 219 to the "to do" list. 👍
@@AllthingsWW2 TY. Looking forward to in and all your content.
Well done, very interesting thanks, mate. I knew very little about this fighter.
Video right up there with Greg's Airplanes!
wow, your videos are brilliant and the most thoroughly researched i have ever seen.
wow, i've never heard of pine root oil being mixed in with aircraft fuel. i'm assuming that was done to stretch dwindling fuel reserves as far as possible? and what was the reason for using pine root oil in particular?
Yea that's correct. Japan had little aviation fuel towards the end of the war.
After a long day in the cockpit, a few F6F's to fight, fuel endurance issues on the way home, you know, a normal day in the War. It was so relaxing to have a really nice smell of pine oil in the shower block adjacent to the maintenance hanger.
At the hardware store in the US you will find "terpentine" which is condensed from gently heated pine branches, chips, parts and pieces (waste wood). The fact they label the liquids origin "pine root" tells you that they had hauled away the above ground pine pieces to make charcoal, lumber or burned it directly for energy, denuding the hill sides of anything that might hold the soil. Terpentine contains a mixture of alcohols (methanol), aliphatics and aromatics. The latter two families of chemicals are the chief constituents of gasoline refined from crude oil. The issue was probably that fuel attracted and retained a lot of water. The alcohol heavy blend would reinforce that tendency. Even if you tried to "dry" it out it would quickly grab water out of the atmosphere. The engine spark plugs, cylinder walls and piston tops and rings must have had short lives.
they have some projects to develop synthetic fuel via distilled alcohol from fermentation or other means because unlike Germany than have coal to use hydrogenation process to create synthetic fuels.
1:55 the moment i realized u were using war thunder
It appears to myself the N1K1 had the advantage. I agree , other factors plagued it's potential. Thank you for the video!
🇯🇵😊🌴
The improved low wing version with 4 20mm cannon is the better choice!
Very nice video, and a well balanced analysis. Congratulations, keep your good work!!!
Thank you!
Ty for sharing...I was really looking for more content for Shiden Kai
Thank you so much for your well reseached and ver informative videos!
A match for the Hellcat, certainly, when flown by a well trained experienced pilot on a one on one basis. Dogfight with it and yes, you might get your tail waxed, as some American pilots found out when they got too cocky. It was not that much better that an untrained pilot could perform miracles though. Like a lot of late war German aircraft, it was too little too late and its nemeses were already in production (in both the USA and Britain). A dwindling few expert pilots could take down Allied pilots but the lack of every imaginable necessary resource (fuel, alloys, sufficient training, construction facilities, repair facilities, and bases that were not getting hammered on, towards the end, a daily basis, etc) meant that new, minimally trained pilots were dead before they could gain the experience or they were simply trained to fly kamikaze missions. and were generally cut to ribbons or had the occasional success (either way, one less pilot). I like its design.
Excellent and informative video. The Ki84 Frank was also a very good aircraft but hampered by many of the problems aflicting the George, Iike poor fuel and lack of experienced pilots.
Thank you! I will certainly cover the "Frank" in the future.
The real question is it a match for the F-4U Corsair? After the adoption of the Corsair by the Royal Navy most of the objections by the USN for Fleet Carrier service were dropped.
Ki-84 is definitely a match
The low winged N1K2-J was the aircraft of the 343rd Kokatai of surviving Imperial Japanese Navy aces and the one with the reputation. The midwing N1K1-J had problems,particularly with it's landing gear..
Genda’s Blade.
An excellent presentation, thank you.
Don't know the designation of a " Tony" having a radial engine mounted and reading how this modification proved to be a big surprised. A fight between those modified Tonies and Hellcats, with the Hellcats losing.
Always great information and presentation. Thank you!
I was always curious for more info on this plane, as I remember Saburo Sakai mentioning it along with the Raiden as having been introduced after the Zero.
Good video with very good comparisons. Thank you.
As a kid, I remember reading a book I really think was written by Sakai, does anyone remember it? I’d love to find another copy; a story that stands out was when the pilots were trying to see stars in the daylight (at least I think daylight - this was almost 45yrs ago).
I would say the Ki-84 is the better aircraft. A little lighter, a little faster, a little more maneuverable. It is really silly that the IJN did not adopt the Ki-84 since it used the same engine and would have been available a year earlier. The Ki-84 would have been even better if it used the Shiden propeller, which would have been possible if the Shiden was never produced.
I believe the IJN didn't adopt the Ki-84 because of the interservice rivalry between the army and navy. It also explains why Japanese take were so undeveloped in comparison to its contemporaries.
@@BlitZnGodzilla117 Yeah, and USN should have adopted the P-47 instead of Corsair...
The N1K1/2 was a Japanese Navy fighter. The Army and the Navy did not cooperate with each other. The Army had its own late war high performance fighter, the Frank. When they worked on the NiK2 it was an almost complete redesign where the part count was much reduced.
What distinguished the Hellcat from the then Japanese fighters like the Zero were self sealing gas tanks and internal armor to protect the pilot. The Hellcat could take punishment from machine gun fire without blowing up like a firecracker. That is why the Hellcat destroyed some 5,200 Japanese aircraft, the most of any Allied fighter in the Pacific theater.
By the time these newer Superior Japanese fighters were useless as most of the experienced Japanese pilots had been shot down.
SAME IN GERMANY g
No matter how good this aircraft was, it wouldn't be a match for 10 Hellcats to it's one. That was pretty much the bottom line.
Looks strongly modelled after the American P-47
It wasn't.
Well done!
Comparing a land based fighter to a carrier based one is unfair
Excellent video.
Thank you!
Very interesting production.
Thank you fir this wonderful video. Could you do one as well on the ki 84? I can’t really find a historical video like yours on it. Thank you fir the hard work on these well put together videos
Effectively after the war the Hellcats were swiftly replaced by Bearcats & Corsairs, a lot saw use against Vietmihn by French Aeronavale.
Good research.
Very informative. Thank you 🙏
Thank you!
A George was sometimes mistaken for a Hellcat during dogfights.
According to war thunder is more than a match, rated 5.3 vs. 3.3 (depending on the hellcat model)
Excellent Video analysis!
(Years go, I had read about the ki-84 being a superior Japanese fighter as well.
Supposedly when the octane of gas was brought up after the war, this aircraft also outperformed most US fighters).
😮 I think alotta axis fighter suffered this fate..
3:46 there seems to be something unusual in the air just above the mid point of the N1K2-J's rear fuselage.
It seems to be suspended from the radio antenna .
How did the Shiden-Kai compared in performance to the KI-84 Hayate? Some consider the Hayate to be the best overall Japanese fighter of WWII.
The Ki 84 Army fighter was probably a more common one. Surviving Navy aces in the 343rd seemed to use their N1K2-Js well enough to surprise some of our pilots and get their attention. As for most of the rest what I've read about were US battle reports mentioning lack of learned pilots. Most of what little I know about the Ki84 comes from brief excerpts of our assessments of the one we captured and tested in the Philippines. That was before the low wing version of the Kawanishi fighter was even operational and I don't know that we tested that one before destroying them all at the outset of our occupation.
We did that in part because just a few of the IJN pilots took issue with a little known reconnaissance flight by the US, just before the signing of surrender documents by Japan, to test if the military would abide by Hirohito's declaration of surrender and attacked it killing one of the gunners. There was also initially some debate among their brass about the "unconditional" part having to do with war crimes tribunals.
It's a bit unfair to compare a purely ground-based fighters to an air-carrier one. But, it was the realistic scenario for dogfighting over islands of Japan.
The pilot makes the difference, a good pilot on a bad plane is better than a bad pilot on a good plane.
When comparing the N1K1 (or N1K2) part of the issue is that the F6F (Hellcat) was a carrier plane and had to be heavily built to withstand carrier landings....
Wasn't the lightest plane in the Japanese air force a carrier plane?
@@sule.A Both the IJA & IJN had their own Aircraft....
I do believe that the lightest aircraft was an IJA fighter, but only had two 7.7mm (.303) machineguns, and like all Japanese aircraft at the time of its introduction no protection at all!
Also, IJN's A6M Zero had no armor, no self sealing fuel tanks, etc. This means your Wing and Fuselage has to be braced as much and this also meant that the landing gear didn't have to be as strong....
But the price you pay is high, once the US Navy started loading the .50 cal (12.7mm) belts with a lot of Incendiary and High Explosive rounds .vs. the AP rounds that they used to carry!
N1K2 is by far my favorite Japanese aircraft. While I don't think the A6M was a very good fighter by the time F6Fs and F4Us appeared N1K2s, Ki-84s and J2Ms were beasts but they were held back by lack of good pilots, fuel and materials.
Didn't know this , but too little to late .
There is a george at the air museum in pensacola florida.
Imagine this aircraft with 100 Octane fuel, pure and simple. Feed this beast with good juice, she won't perform like she is choking on Oatmeal. Good segment.
Any history of this aircraft going against USAF aircraft or just US Navy?
A nice example of the US pilots owing a debt of gratitude to the sub skippers keeping fuel from reaching the Japanese mainland.
Japan and Germany lost the war of attrition, because of the allies having greater resources. But Japan and Germany had great engineering and design, as good as anybodies and sometimes better.
No mention of the engine displacement or type of supercharger? it is sort of important! From wiki’ it was 36 litres and had a single stage two speed supercharger with a near 2,000 horse power output so it would have had good low and medium altitude performance. The B-29s largely abandoned high altitude bombing so it would have been a very serious threat. It would have struggled more against B-24s and B-29s at extreme altitude.
Wouldn't have mattered what they came up with towards the end of WWII, They were out of pilots!
That's a good looking plane
Fantastic aircraft, shame so few survived and were preserved.
The real fail for the German and Japanese air forces altimaltly came down to not rotating their combat hardened pilots back to the training schools. They flew them till death. Allied pilots returned during rotations educating/hardening the next classes of pilots to face the enemy with their experience and knowledge. Meanwhile the Axis ran short of fuel for basic training.
Great video, though I noticed one mistake (war thunder also got that wrong): N1K1-J never used type 2 cannons together with 7.7mm. The J used 2+2 (gunpod) type 1s and 2 7.7s while the Ja used 2+2 type 2 cannons (war thunder also got that wrong
All variants of the N1K1-Js had the 7.7s (J, Ja and Jb), the K2-Js hadn't the 7.7s.
@@sergioteixeira9112 Why do you think so? Because of the cowling? The K1 was a stop gap so it wasn’t redesigned until the shiden kai
@@trolski1618 All N1K1-Js variants had the same cowling, but the Jb (the last mass produced variant of the Shiden), with all cannons installed in the wings (no pods) had the 7.7mm machine guns slightly angled upwards , so the gun ports are repositioned, please take a look at the drawings on Japanese books like FAOW (Bunrindo) or Model Art and you'll notice it. The K2-J and K2-Jas (Shidenkai) had no 7.7 machine guns as they're of no value against F6Fs, F4Us, bombers... However, in the K3-J, K4-J and K-3A the nose has been lenghtened to accomodate a pair of 13.2mm machine guns; just few prototypes have been made of these three variants.
I'd say the N1K2-J was the best fighter of Japan, along with the Ki-100 and Ki-84.
A7M was going to be decent as well.
Very interesting. I heard the N1K1 had severe handling issues, and could go into "autorotation"... It increased its angle of attack unless you reacted and kept the turn constant by pushing, which is awkward and potentially dangerous)... The N1K2 was far better. Where do the 20 seconds and 18 seconds turn time figures come from?
The biggest problem with Japanese planes in general were their lack of armor plating and self sealing fuel tanks, all sacrificed to improve fuel economy and performance dynamics; i.e. it didn't take much in combat to instantly vaporize them. Japanese improvements in one iteration of fighter after another always came at that cost, without which sacrifice they wouldn't have the edge in whatever metric you're using to measure their superiority against American fighters.
I believe that the Ki-84 was superior to the N1K1. My only experience though is having flown both in 3 WW-II Air Combat simulations.
After the war, americans tested the the Ki-84 fitted with american fuel... They were deeply impressed
Good video, and the N1K1-J was probably the best fighter available to the Japanese. However, its fate demonstrates perfectly the effect of the system on success. Even the new US pilots were well trained, the mechanics were well prepared, and the factories built better airplanes as the war went on. Most importantly, compared to the Japanese the American pilots were treated as a high-value resource, efforts and risk were put into recovering them. Self-sealing fuel tanks and Armour were considered to be as necessary to protect them as the guns to a successful fighter. Whenever the military tries to cut back on training I think we should all rise up and tell congresses to fund the training and the support network behind our equipment.
You forgot the US also built 9 fighters to Japan's 1 in the factories.
Wow....Imagine if the N1K1 had to go against the F-86 Saber?
or a Gloster Meteor, that was in service with the British from 1944.
I liked the George compared to any other Nipon platform.
Another “hypothetical weapon” in the apparently endless stream of such YT videos. Around 1,500 were produced, which makes it irrelevant. The Germans fielded the Me-262, the first jet used in wartime, in roughly the same numbers, and to the same effect: nil.
I know that was only a prototype and was flowed more by American pilots than Japanese ones, but I think that the J7W1 was the best propeller fighter of WW2.
The Japanese probably should have developed the N1K1 upgrades and an improved Zero throughout the war. They knew the gamble in fighting the USA in the long run for they lacked Fuel & Manufacturing. Had Midway been like the Battle of the Coral Sea or a victory for Japan with intact Aircraft Carriers and upgraded Fighter Craft, the Pacific War would have taken much longer, for the USA to initiate the final result. Unconditional Surrender. Good Review. Thank you.
The N1K1 Shiden and Shiden-Kai were not replacements for the Zero. Oddly enough the IJN operated land based and carrier based aircraft. The land based fighters were the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden and the Kawanishi N1K1.
The carrier based fighter intended to be the A6M Zero's replacement was to be the A7M Reppu, allied code name Sam. The Reppu was supposed to enter service by 1944 but due to protracted engine development problems it didnt fly til May 1944 with a underpower Nakajima Homare 22 engine (which the Japanese design team argued against using). The test flight with the Nakajima engine was disappointing.
Jiro Horsikoshi, the Zero and A7M Reppu's designer, argued for and got permission to install the Mitsubishi HA-43 engine . The re engined A7M flew October 1944 and performed as expected and was ordered into production. Eight A7M1's were produced on 1944 and 1 solitary A7M1 was produced in 1945 for a total of nine aircraft before WW2 ended.
Production A7M Reppu would have topped out between 390-402mph and been armed with 4 x 20mm cannons. Japanese ace Saburo Sakai flew a A7M1 before the end of the war and was suitably impressed. maneuverability and handling was said to be excellent.
an excellent plane made from a floatplane. low quality fuel never helped this cool plane. was it as good as the hayate?
Aside from the hard data you present are intangibles such as tactical situation, weather, sheer numbers. But the biggest intangible was pilot quality - the US Navy was turning out thousands of skilled flyers and rotating them to avoid burning them out. The Japanese had few veteran pilots left - and many more undertrained pilots - who - while brave - were no match for the better prepared Americans.
I read the US studied one after the war and using good fuel it had better performance than the Hellcat.
This thing would actually have made a decent carrier aircraft if the Japanese had had any fuel or pilots left by then.
The side profile reminds me of the P-47
My first thought as well.
excellent video, I was thinking of making it myself, but you beat me to the punch!
Thank you! I have to compliment you on a great channel! You're doing great, keep it up! And please don't let my video stop you from making your own video, I would gladly watch it!
Interesting aircraft to come out of Japan during WW2, I prefer the Ki 100 myself.
The Japanese tactical situation was pretty bad late war. I would compare it to most allied fighters in Europe at the beginning of the war. The bf109 wasn't necessarily the best fighter at the time but with numerical superiority the Germans could attack airfields in waves. There were examples of opponents doing well in an initial intercept but their home fields were under attack and they couldn't rearm and refuel. Against superior numbers they could only get off one good sortie. The logistics of an air campaign can be brutal.
Frankly, of all the Japanese fighters that used the Homare, which one was 'Bad'? Hayate, Shiden and the projected A7M.
just subbed. great videos!
Nakashima Hyabusi. Weren't those advanced fighters for their time?
I see a resemblance to the P-47