I heard that the japanese used a bomber similar to the american B-29, but it had six engines instead of four, three on each wing. I have looked for a model kit of it, but i never found one. Does anyone here know about it?
Can’t say that I’ve seen anything like that, sorry. The most “secret” plane i’ve heard the japanese ever having in WWII was the pusher prop one that they intended to convert into a jet fighter.
yeah, i saw pics of that one, i think it’s called “hiryu” or something like that.
Could this be the Kawasaki Ki-91…?
that one had four engines, i think.
Ive never seen any Japanese 6 engined bombers. They did have the Nakajima G5N Shinzan http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijna/g5n.htm
and Nakajima G8N Renzan. http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijna/g8n.htm
Both were fairly large 4 engined aircraft.
The Germans had the Messerschmitt Me 264 that looks very close to a B-29 with the fully glazed nose and 4 engines. It had a wingspan almost as big as the B-29 but the fuselage was a lot smaller. There was also a 6 engined version of the Me 264 http://www.luft46.com/prototyp/me264.html
Germany also had the 6 engined Focke-Wulf Ta 400 in the works.
http://www.luft46.com/fw/fwta400.html as well as the Messerschmitt Me P.08.01. The P.08.01 was a 4 engined pusher flying wing with a huge bomb load and huge range!! http://www.luft46.com/mess/mep08.html
The hiryu was the Mitsubishi Ki-67. This was a twin engined medium bomber.
I think you are talking about the Nakajima G-10-N-1 Fugaku. You can check it out here:
http://www.j-aircraft.org/xplanes/
Just open the Navy Aircraft hierarchy tree on the left and select Nakajima G10N1. Hope it helps.
Greene’s Warplanes of the Third Reich shows 3 pictures of the Ju 390 recon bomber which utilized 6 BMW 801E radials - only 2 were built, one of which was used for operational evaluation by Fernaufklarungs-Gruppe 5 (long range reconnaissance group 5) operating from near Bordeaux. Apparently the evaluation included one flight in early 1944 which flew to a point 12 miles off the US coast just north of New York and back.
According to Greene, the Japanese government purchased a manufacturing license for the Ju 390A-1 but there is apparently no record of the manufacturing drawings being delivered to the Japanese government. That may be the aircraft you are looking for.
Wow! Lucky that Nakajima project did not get deveopped any further!
Yes, that looks a seriously impressive aircraft. The production version would not have been so fast thtough with the less powerful engines.
Apparently the fact that a Ju390 got so close to the US mainland was only discovered after the war, when the photos taken by a member of the crew were discovered.
More scary is the fact that during the initial U boat offensive against the US in early 1941, one U-boat captain surfaced his boat in New York Harbour and allowed his crew up on deck to view the sites of New York!!!
On a more frivolous note the artwork on Revell’s Ar555 kit shows a flight of these machines over New York.
Karl