by geocities.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA18232 for ; Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:17:44 -0700 (PDT) From: (email address removed) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 16:17:42 +1000 (GMT+1000) To: Robert Beechy Subject: Re: Uncommon Aircraft Update: IJN Aircraft MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII (some headers removed) On Sun, 7 Jun 1998, Robert Beechy wrote: > 1. "Yokosuka" - I have seen this referenced in virtually every book I have > read dealing with Japanese aircraft. I recently purchased Robert C. > Mikesh's "Japanese Aircraft Code Names & Designations" (referenced on my > site). He mentions the following in a footnote on pg. 177 (I quote): > > "Note: For the Pacific War period, Kugisho was the acronym used for Kaigun > Koku-Gijutsu-Sho, meaning Naval Air Technical Arsenal, for aircraft designs > emitting from this facility. Because of its geographical location at > Yokosuka and the "Y" identifier, the term "Yokosuka" has become more widely > used but is inaccurate. The earlier acronym; Kusho predates 1 April 1939, > and before 1 April 1932 this was Yokosho, thus the origin of the "Y" > designation." > > I guess the correct identifier would then be Kugisho MXY-8 Akigusa. This sounds familiar - I will double-check sources. I seem to remember this distinction being mentioned by Emmerling & Dressel (Where did I put that book!?) > 2. Am I correct in assuming that the J8M was built (or designed, at least) > by Mitsubishi ("M" = Mitsubishi)? Yes. It was a Mitsubishi project from start to finish. > 3. Mikesh only references the MXY-8 in passing in his book, and the Ku-13 > not at all (at least, I haven't seen it); as a side note he does mention a > glider training version of the Ohka (Allied code name "Baka"), the MXY-7K2 > Wakazakura (Young Cherry). It gets more complicated than that even. Two sources refer to early versions of the Akigusa as the MXY-7, the version that went into production as the MXY-8 (larger, heavier), and a further development (powered by a ducted fan!) as the MXY-9 (this last machine never left the drawing board by the time the war was finished). > 4. I am afraid I have forgotten exactly where I saw the Ku-13 referred to > as being built by Mitsubishi. In other words, are you saying that it is > actually the "Yokosuka" (Kugisho) Ku-13 Akigusa? This would certainly be > interesting, as this is a Naval Depot and naval name with an Army > designation sandwiched in the middle! Yes! although I'm not sure if the Army ever ended up getting any of the aircraft. > Of course, the whole J8M / Ki-200 project is a bit unusual in the amount of > (apparent) co-operation between the Army and Navy. I think the B-29s were very persuasive about the value of cooperation... but both services seemed to have different ideas about where to go next: the Navy's J8M2 and the Army Ki-201 and Ki-202... > You wouldn't be able to > recommend any good, detailed reading material on this project would you? I > really know very little about this aircraft. As far as I can tell, there's not much out there. There's a little in Robert Green's _Rocket Fighter_, some in Emmerling & Dressel's _Me-163 Komet_, some in Jeffrey Ethell's _Komet_, and some in Maloney & Feist's _Me 163 Komet_. An interesting mystery that I'm trying to unravel at the moment is: Which U-boat carried a Komet destined for Japan but never made it? The ones suggested by published sources can't possibly be right... There's a Komet at the botom of the sea somewhere... > 5. My final point / question: Where exactly do the MXY-7 and MXY-8 fit into > the Navy's designation scheme? Does the "X" mean experimental? Perhaps they > would fall into the "M" = Special Mission category (with the "X" thrown in > for some reason); they certainly look like they would fit numerically after > the Aichi M6A Seiran. Now I really have no idea - I don't really know anything much about Japanese aircraft at all. A guy named Dave Pluth maintains what seems to be a pretty comprehensive site on WWII Japanese aviation - http://www.j-aircraft.com Another useful site: http://www.skypoint.com/members/jbp/ijna/ijnaf.htm One last comment about the J8M1 - The only complete aircraft still surviving is in the Planes of Fame museum, but there was also another fuselage that had been sitting outdoors at the Gifu airbase for many years. It's now being restored by Mitsubishi. You can see it in its unrestored state at: http://rc.succession.com/~kiyo-4/aero85.html (Top two photos). There's a photo of the Planes of Fame specimen at: http://mis.ncms.org/philc/images/Military/ww2/j8m1.jpg AFAIK, nothing remains of any of the Akigusas.