The Killer Plane that Could Crush the Allies if it had Arrived Earlier
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- Опубликовано: 8 апр 2023
- Although Mitsubishi’s Zero is Japan's most recognizable aircraft of World War 2, it was not the fastest or more powerful. That place belongs to a simple floatplane that evolved into Japan’s last hope against the United States: the Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai or George.
The Shiden Kai was superior to the Zero in armament, speed, armor, and, more importantly, maneuverability, making it capable of successfully engaging US Navy Corsairs and Hellcats and emerging victorious.
A unique and creative feature incorporated by the Shiden Kai’s engineers made the aircraft highly mobile and effective in combat, an idea so effective that it could have brought Japan to victory if it had arrived earlier in the war…
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Lets also keep in mind that by the end of the war japan was having trouble replacing pilot losses. Even if they could build more planes (unlikely, since the ally bombing raids were crippling production) they would be flown by people with less training than the allies. I suspect the kill stats for that plane have as much to do with the fact that they were in the hands of the few elite pilots that the japanese had left as the fact that it was a good plane.
The title of the video did say that if had arrived earlier, it could have done some serious damage to the allies
The USAF had around 2,500 planes at the start of WW 2. While taking war time casualties it's strength had increased to nearly 80,000 aircraft by the end of the war.
Look at the Navy as well. It's carrier strength went from 8 to 28 while fighting a world war.
Nothing Japan produced would have stemmed the tide.
Its, not it’s
Yes, especially once the atomic bombs were developed. One month after the bomb was successfully detonated, Japan surrendered.
@Yulis firebombing tokyo courtesy of general Curtis lemay would like a word on that distinction.
Boom there it is! Still struggle to understand how America didn't rule the whole known world after ww2 ended. We had the ships, the men bloodied in combat, the planes, the air force, the bombers to deliver nuclear weapons. Just don't make sense to me. We should literally be the star wars empire equivelant. 🤔
@yulis6055Your awareness of crimes against humanity is charmingly incomplete
Love this guys delivery, no baggage just straight to it, precise and informative to the point of flawless. A pleasant relief from other narrators.
Yea, it really wasn't it strait forward it has alot of fake information and lies in it. the N1K had very similar armament to the later zeroes and no where close to the maneuverability. And also there is ZERO way this thing would catch a corsair, Corsair has a 2400 Horse power engine and a propeller with a circumference of THIRTEEN+ feet! Corsair could push itself to nearly 500 miles per hour in level flight or 700km, And as for the armament even the lesser armed Corsairs had superior firepower consisting of 6 M2 .50s with 2400 rounds total (400 per gun) or later corsairs with 4 20mm ANM2s with 934 rounds per gun (231 per gun) which could down ANY japanese plane including the bombers in a few short bursts. Now an actually pretty terrifying Japanese plane concept during the war the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden (Magnificent Lightning) which nearly matched the speed of the corsair with 4 30mm cannons with 240 rounds (60 per gun) which would down nearly any plane with 1-2 bullet impacts but NO plane would change the course of the war in any possible way. Nothing would for Japan.
Precise, like never mentioning the actual range at approx 7:40?
I've made a note. The purpose of landing gear is to keep the propeller off of the ground.
Or bend the wings like the Corsair.
They keep they belly cleaner too.
Salesmen will tell you anything for a sale...page 4 had a whitewall tire option for parade formation flying. LOL
Longer LEGS to keep the propeller off the ground
@@navret1707 Beat me to it.
I like how they just casually lowered the wing position by quite a bit and managed to keep that much commonality with the standard Shiden. Impressive tbh.
When visiting the Smithsonian's "Garber Facility" many years ago, I saw a George being restored. A fascinating aircraft. Side note: The Enola Gay was also being restored in the same facility at that same time.
Wonderful place to visit.
they took Enola Gay to Dulles airport..
@@KateLicker It is now at the Udvar-Hazy Facility. When I saw it (about 15 years or so ago) it was undergoing restoration.
@@Kpar512 I visited 2011,summer, the day of the earthquake..it was not present then, and word was was at Dulles airport..so I was not able to see it.
Both the Enola Gay and the Shiden were on static display as of August 2022 when we stopped at the Udvar-Hazy.
The Zero was quick, because it was a light weight tin can. If a P - 38 Lightning hit a Zero(later in the war),it would blow it to pieces. Japan was ill-equipped for a long duration , war.
Your grammar is killer!
@@robertsettle2590 Thank you - my grammarical awards line my walls.
@@robertsettle2590 I'd go with punctuation before grammar
Just as China is now.
@@68Boca yeah your right. I was on a hurry.
I thought the Nakajima KI-84 Frank was the most produced modern Japanese fighter in the last years of WWII. The N1K2 Shiden and J3M2 Raiden had a lot of production delays.
Very informative but we must remember the Americans were also moving ahead with designs nearly ready to deploy such as the Grumman Bearcat and the Goodyear F2G Corsair. Thank you for your presentation. Jim
and existing US designs were already far superior to it, such as the F4U and P-51. speed was more important than maneuver, and even the late war P-40s could go over 400mph.
@@SoloRenegade Exactly! The Zero is always made out to be the uber-fighter, when it had major problems! Early on, Allied fighter pilots had the idea that twisting, turning, dog fighting was THE way to take on enemy fighters, playing into the hands of the light and fragile Zero. But when they realized they could fight in ways that used the advantages of their more rugged planes, then things started to change. Being more maneuverable doesn't make a fighter better, though it seems more glamorous. It's a combination of many attributes and using the plane you have in the best way for that type. It makes me think of Indiana Jones just pulling his pistol out and shooting the man skillfully waving his swords around. Keep it simple and deadly!
Yes, true The first Bearcats left San Francisco and where only days away from arriving at island bases in Pacific , Little known fact the Bearcats where tested vs. P-51Mustangs and beat them at every point.
My own view is they looked awefully similiar to the late German planes
2 issues - First: by the latter part of the Pacific war American seasoned pilots were regularly rotated back stateside to help train and advise student aircrew. The experienced Japanese pilots were kept flying in combat till they were lost. - Second: Just like the Germans, excellent design doesn't matter much if you lack LOTS of raw material, manufacturing facilities, and skilled labor.
@@agwhitaker 1:43 ❤
Excellent video! I was hoping you'd do one on this eventually!!!
Ive made a lot of 1/48 scale japanese ww2 aircraft model, kits , and all are very impressive aircraft as one makes these models one tends to learn alot about them
Great looking and impressive aircraft
I was thinking it would be cool if a modeler would showcase his work along with his aircraft videos.. and then link out to purchase them etc..
@@scottmoseley5122 be agood idea i just dint have them anymore sadly due to the lak of space they end up in the bin or i give them to mu nephew
Interestingly Supermarine Spitfire was a development/evolution based on the experience of Schneider Cup winning Supermarine S Series seaplanes.
It’s hard to believe that this thing was more nimble than the Zero.
Remarkable.
It wasn’t. The video is BS.
Yea, it really wasn't it had very similar armament to the later zeroes as well. And also there is ZERO way this thing would catch a corsair, Corsair has a 2400 Horse power engine and a propeller with a circumference of THIRTEEN+ feet! Corsair could push itself to nearly 500 miles per hour in level flight or 700km, And as for the armament even the lesser armed Corsairs had superior firepower consisting of 6 M2 .50s with 2400 rounds total (400 per gun) or later corsairs with 4 20mm ANM2s with 934 rounds per gun (231 per gun) which could down ANY japanese plane including the bombers in a few short bursts. Now an actually pretty terrifying Japanese plane concept during the war the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden (Magnificent Lightning) which nearly matched the speed of the corsair with 4 30mm cannons with 240 rounds (60 per gun) which would down nearly any plane with 1-2 bullet impacts but NO plane would change the course of the war in any possible way. Nothing would for Japan.
It wasn't, I'm surprised by how simplistic and poorly researched this video was.
It was only more maneuverable than the Zero at higher speeds where the Zero would start to experience aileron lock due to it's large control surfaces. At this stage in the war where speed mattered just as much as maneuverability and climb rate this is where the Shiden Kai shined, maneuverable enough at high speed to keep from being a sitting duck to the hit and dash attacks from the USA aircraft and maneuverable enough at high speeds to hit them as they tried to dash away, a lot like how the Zero / Warhawk battles went just a few years prior over Manchuria. Having well trained pilots who worked as a unit like the early war Japanese aces helped their statistics tremendously also and put them on a level playing field with the late war USA prop aircraft. The aircraft's unique high speed maneuvering capabilities would have been meaningless to less skilled pilots.
The A7M1-2 Reppu according Saburo Sakai in the book "Samurai" was an awesome maneuverable successor to the "Zero"
That's a technological marvel by the Japanese Empire, Shiden's automated flaps paved the way for improvement in aviation transport all across the world. They studied it and used it.
Didn’t the BF 109 have automated slats on the leading edge of the wings? I wonder if that’s where the inspiration for the flaps came from.
How many civilian aviation transports in widespread use have automatic flaps? I'm curious because I can't think of one at the moment. I can think of modern combat aircraft with automated flaps.
The British had flaps first in 1916. Not sure what was different about the Japanese version.
@@TheBDD1970 The difference is these flaps extend themselves automatically as a function of airspeed and G load, which was innovative for that era. Did the 1916 flaps do that?
@@gort8203 yes it did...
That "Rex" seaplane variant had beautiful lines. As others have said, how it developed into the Shiden is rememiscent of the Schneider Cup Supermarine beauties becoming Spitfires. If it looks good, it flies good!
Being a history nerd of WWII this is excellent content. Thank you!
An another great video of WW2. Thank you.
I have a photograph of an old friend (now deceased) who was sitting in one being carried on the deck of a Victory Ship returning to the states. He thought it was a Zero at the time. I have often wondered what happened to that aircraft.
Historians and archivists would find that picture to be of historical sigificance. You may want to check with a historian to see if they'd like to scan it for archival purposes. Who knows? You might be published in a history book sometime.
Have one made of me in Nagoya Nov 1945 I thing is a zero.
It was probably worn out in testing and scrapped.
Love your videos (from all of your channels). Also, great music on this one!
Damn, a late one for your channels....thanks for the content!
I recommend a very good book about WWII japanese airmen, and the insights of japanese air fleet and those of being a japanese aviator... the autobiography of the japanese Ace Saburo Sakai , named "Samurai"
After being severely wounded and partially blinded with one eye, the ace was no more sent to combat, instead in his late career he was one of the test pilots of new japanese planes , including this one as well as some more others....
The book itself is very interesting and a pleasure to read, but about these planes... By the time they were still in the testing stages, the war was already almost lost... Japanese navy had already almost been completely obliterated and admiral Yamamoto was dead already.... Swarms of anerican bombers were darking the skies and many japanese factories had been already destroyed
As admiral Yamamoto was mentioned to have said before Japan entered the war, he had visited America before and knew the unmatched economical power of the USA, as long as its easy access of plenty of resources to sustain production of war machines in huge numbers... Yamamoto was against a war with America because he knew Japan simply didn't have enough resources and economic might to build and sustain a large scale war for long time... It was the reason for which Yamamoto had been in home arrest for quite some time and by the time he was released to be put in command of the japanese fleet, war with America had already begun and as he predicted , it was impossible to beat the american economic might.
After the utter destruction of japanese fleet, there were not enough aircraft carriers to operate big enough fleets of planes to counter the american air superiority, and most land based airports were under huge bombardment raids, and access for any kind of resources to build planes was very limited, they could only built a few and that was not enough against the american swarms of planes....
It is true, if such a plane had been available a couple years before , while the japanese aircraft carriers were still there and could counter the american raids on land and keep the flow of resources comming, japan could have had an edge in the most highly pitched battles for air supremacy and could have stoood a chance... As the ace Saburo Sakai said, some of the new prototypes such as this were unbeliveably performant and flew like a dream.., while in the same time some other ones they were testing were even way faster and could climb like a rocket reaching high altitude in only a few minutes to intercept high flying american bombers, unfortunately those were very unmaneuvrable and stood no chance in combat against other fighters.... The japanese were experimenting with more models but had not enough resources to mass produce any of them , and their efforts were dilluted to all of these unmaterialised projects instead of focusing their few left resources into develloping and producing at least one ...
However, these planes came way too late to make a difference, it was all lost already....
Their late arrival is also due to japanese doctrine, very reticent to changes, and the way of military organisation ---- the navy and the airfleet were subdued by the army, which by tradition was commanded according to old feudal nobility rights.... Therefore stubborness and rigidity of officers lead to many disastruous decisions.... Such the decision of war against America itself --- and those who opposed -- like admiral Yamamoto--- were often arrested or accused of treason.....
While access to join the military ranks for the "commoners" was only in navy and airfleet, many really competent people didn't have access to become high ranking officers, that could have made the difference in a better strategy against the allies
The army traditionally favourised certain design bureaus of war planes, therefore far more performant designs from other competitors were often too long rejected, and only in desperate need got to see the green light , when it was already too late anyway ....
I still have my copy of Samurai! from the '70s and it is well worn with rereads. You bring up a good point in saying just how overwhelming the USA warmachine was, and the few proud Japanese elites could not fathom Yamamoto's warnings about how massive the USA was and it's capabilities. In truth I don't even think Yamamoto could have predicted how quickly the USA turned out war material to Zerg on two fronts. Sakai's account of how good the Wildcat pilots were surprised me also, and I developed a newly found respect for the relationship between man and machine those early USA naval aviators had and just how brave they were to fight against the Zero and excellent pilots like Sakai. No wonder once they were given the more capable Hellcat they were so effective at clearing the skies. His revelations into the military hierarchy were very telling also, reminds me a lot about the party sycophants Hitler surrounded himself with like a lord surrounded by knights, and how he just ignored the generals like Rommel and Guderian and aviators like Galland and Ruddel who were trying to give him sound advice.
Incredible book!
Another great video from this channel.
Thank you!
Question: How was Japan victorious from WWI (One)?
It was allied with the Entente, taking over German possessions on the Pacific coast.
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Great video!
The Homare did all that with a 2 stage single speed supercharger. That's impressive.
Germany had developed a jet fighter during WW2 but it did nothing to turn the tide of the war. The Messersmith 262 I think that was it’s name.
Too late to make a difference
@@pegcity4eva and the Brits and Americans had the Meteor and P-80 Shooting Star ready to be used.
Messerschmidt 262 was its designation. The name was Swallow.
@Larry Miller. That’s the point. The plane in the video was too late, so was the 262. The video is saying what would have happened if the plane was earlier.
Thank you for doing shiden kai
Excellent video.
They could never produce enough of these or train pilots for that matter for this airframe to have made any difference. But if it had been given priority it would only have slowed the inevitable collapse of the Empire.
After Midway it was only a question of how long and how painful the defeat would be.
Blah blah blah, beating a dead horse is dishonourable.
Thank you for an excellent documentary about a Japanese aircraft that l didn't know about. I didn't know they had an aircraft that could apparently more than hold its own against the Hellcat & Corsair. I agree, maybe if they could have got this aircraft in the air earlier in sizable numbers they could have held off American Ariel superiority for some time.
Amazing video!
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 always excellent vids👍
I love that the thumbnail has nothing to do wth the subject. Just... love it.
Plenty of mistakes on this utoob could make it a cult viewing 😅
Great video. Interesting idea about automated flap deployment. Some modern day STOL aircraft like JustAir do this this I believe.
Some especially amazing footage in this one.
Very unlikely that Japan could have won the war once their lightning strategy had failed to bring the US to the negotiating table. But they had (like Germany ) some very advanced and effective aircraft which would have prolonged the war. Once the industrial might of the US had cranked up and given the the huge manpower of the Soviet Union the end was pretty inevitable. Both Japan and Germany lacked the fuel resources available to the Allies. Which was one of the reasons Japan went to war.
not just unlikely, impossible. There where ways that Japan could have exstended the war but never win it, Japan made a false premise at the start of the 1930's that the USA would never stumach a war that they where weak willed cowards, ones that feel apart the war was lost.
The allies on the other hand asumed that the Japanese was stupid and anything they built must be copied from westen aircraft becase... Rasisem.
This plane, like the Me-262 in Germany, too little too late and no fuel or trained pilots.
@@spikespa5208 Exactly right.
Russia and the Nukes were still coming, Both Germany and Japan, didn't have a chance after say late 1942. Both had a shot at that time but made too many mistakes. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way knocking eithers skill or resolve. Blow up the pens and oil tanks on Dec 7 or Germany not going into Egypt and not stopping for winter or Stalingrad...who knows. Under normal conditions these planes could've made a huge difference. But in the end as I said, the Russians were coming as was the bomb.
I hate that the title of this video perpetuates the myth that the Axis could have won if they had op wunderwaffen when in fact the real reason they lost was that they were regional powers at best who could not match the industrial and economic outputs of the leading powers of the time.
The effectiveness of the George is greatly overstated in your vid. While it's accepted the George "could" match an F6F when flown by a capable pilot, by the time came out there weren't many capable pilots. Japanese production also records the real desire for these types. Of three types introduced in the same year, the Kawanishi N1K1 & 2, Kawasaki Ki-61, and Nakajima Ki-84 Japanese factories produced 1435, 3159, and 3514 respectively. Production rates during the critical periods of June-Dec. 1944 showed precisely how much the Army valued the N1k2 by producing twice as many Ki-61s and three times as many Ki-84s. Nice video though.
The Ki-61 and Ki-84 were Army aircraft. The N1K1-J and N1K2-J were Navy. The Kawasaki Ki-61 was produced from August 1942. The Ki-84 went into full production in April of 1944. The Shiden-kai only entered production that June. So the Army not valuing the plane is technically correct, it wasn't an Army plane. And given that the Navy was biased against a privately developed aircraft at first, it didn't go into production until it was very clear that the A7M would not be available in a timely manner. The importance the Navy assigned the plane changed when they realized it could hold its own with the advanced Allied types, given the fact they assigned Mitsubishi, Aichi, Showa Aircraft, and 3 Naval Air arsenals to produce the plane.
Exactly.
And as we talk of numbers: there were some 800 FW-190 D and 60+ Ta-152 German fighters produced but they have ethernal place in aviation history.
@@richarddouglas688 A6M production still doubled in the critical periods of June-Dec. 1944, and this was a point when Japan had precious few trained pilots, and essentially no longer had a carrier fleet. Most squadrons were land based. Needless to say, regardless of the claims made (reference Saburo Sakai's opinions of the aircraft), it was never considered a major asset, even after the 343rd Kokusentai's defense of Japan in Dec. '44.
It was ineffective at high altitudes (The A6M was converted to a night fighter to defend against B-29 attacks, NOT the George), and so problematic for new pilots that only 2 carrier capable examples were built (which is why I compared it to Army types).
Simply stated, all authentic historical sources point to the George as being nice, but problematic and incapable of dealing with the strategic circumstances Japan found itself in late war.
It was more than a match for hellcat and corsair.
@@jerry5876 Not according to Japanese sources. A match, at best, IF flown by a capable pilot. Which were in very short supply. You forget, not only did the US capture intact N1K2s, post-war we also have the manuals for the aircraft.
It's not the plane, it's the pilot and supply chain to support him.
thanks for introducing me to this airplane. I'm a 74 year old student of WW2 aviation, and never heard this story. Thanks again.
As they are speaking about the Shiden's "innovative combat flaps" they are showing an F6F Hellcat.
What a gorgeous plane
There is a very interesting interview, here on the tube, reporting the war experiences of Minoru Honda, a japanese ace pilot. He states, i quote by heart: "The Shiden was the first true fighter of the japanese navy. The Zero was too flimsy...what the heck, even the samurais of the old times wore armours. No one would go to combat wearing a swimsuit!" All in all, i subscribe to many of the comments i did read here: US industrial and technological superiority was overwhelming and , even if a large number of Shidens would have been produced, and a large number of skilled pilots would have been trained, nothing could have changed the outcome of the conflict.
Every time I watch a dark document video I learn something I did not know. I also appreciate that by their length they are easy to watch.
It was a good plane, poor QC, lack of supplies and very few pilots made for a nice show, but in the end, it wouldn't prolong their defeat by a day. They hit the tipping point after Guadalcanal.
Too bad that the Japs did not surrender after Midway, Guadalcanal, Okinawa, or even after the 1st atomic bomb. They were out classed and out gunned on every level. Starting a war with the USA was as dumb as it gets.
Some of the same changes like lower wing, more powerful engine, bigger propeller.. Reminds me of how the Corsair was developed.
As a fan of your channel I have to complain on the title of this episode - it could have ‘crushed’ the Allie’s if it arrived earlier? Really? If we are playing the ‘coulda’ changed the war game’ what about the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair? With a rate of climb 600fpm better and a top speed 45 MPH better than the George, Is the George that good? Then let’s look at the P-47N Thunderbolt - that airplane came out of the factory with fold down rudder pedals and an autopilot so the pilot wouldn’t be fatigued by the time he got into combat. The Thunderbolt also featured tail warning radar and had a higher service ceiling than the George. While the George was an improvement over the Zero, it hardly would have been a game changer in WWII final outcome. I understand you were illustrating the automatic flap design of the George, I think you would agree this single feature would not have altered the outcome of a war.. thanks for your great channel by the way🤙
this was an awesome plane and weapon. However, Japan severely lacked trained aviators at that point in the war and they would never had had enough men or planes to overcome the sheer number of US planes (also improved) continuing to enter the war by the time the Kawanishi was ready
Exactly
True. They sent children to fight and die. Even in kamikaze planes.
A decorated naval aviator testified to US authorities that six weeks of aerial combat was the maximum a pilot could maintain; afterwards he severely tired. Japanese naval aviators had no respite and replacements could not meet the rate of attrition.
@@scottloar Same with Germany. One of the reasons that a few German pilots achieved such insane victory totals was that they never rotated back away from the front lines (and eventually there WERE no more "front lines" as the Allies gained aerial supremacy over all of Europe). And inevitably, many of those high-victory total aces wound up killed or captured, removing them from being able to aid the German war effort. In contrast, the US rotated their best pilots (well, eventually all pilots) back to the US periodically for R&R and to train the next generation of pilots. I don't know what the British policy was, though.
Interesting but I'm going to call bull. There's no one war winning single piece of equipement.
By 45 Japan had a total tonnage of naval vessels ranging at around 4 million, while the US peaked over 30 million. Just the size of the navy alone meant that Japan could never have pulled a win no matter how many wonder weapons they used or had access too. Hell Japan could've gotten nukes quicker and it probably still wouldn't have mattered.
The bomb was that one thing
@@Hekkietoir yes, that changed the calculus of war permanently.
To be fair he did say SOME thought it would be war changing if inroduced earlier in the war
Yea.. Germany had the me262 that was widely superior. Still it hardly even slowed down the allies.
And they did produce quite a few.
You guys are top of the line when it comes to detail knowledge, one more control than any pilot. You have a reset button.
This does bring out some factors .But there's a lot more to this. For instance we did have the capability of fielding jets. But like my Dad said who was heavily evolved in aircraft. When you have your enemy on the ground beating the hell out of him. Don't change your tactics. Extreme mass production was our tactic. We were just getting started and Japan was going down.
Just getting started roflmao, no, that was the effect of Op. Paperclip.
@@GeneralZap Just getting started. US could easily outproduce anyone, even soviets. After war they had insane amounts of not-needed equipment.
@mark lee Refer to a short story by Arthur C. Clarke called " Superiority"(1951). "Don't try to get too fancy."
@Guandalar Zapato the US had a lot of technological developments that were simply not used because they weren't needed. The Germans had some impressive new tech but they didn't have a monopoly on it. We had our own geniuses.
@@oldesertguy9616 😂 sure, like the Airacomet
Like many Axis aircraft of the late war they suffered from chronic fuel shortages and other resource supply problems,
Not to mention a lack of experianced pilots, some the allies had a plethora of..
They also didn't treat their experienced pilots very well, especially if they weren't an officer from the academy. One of their best aces (67 kills) was even sent for kamikaze instead of using his talents.
Resources were shortened due to allied bombing on supply chains and factories while islands they had taken over for them were liberated
@@mantisman230 Japan had no choice but to resort to suicide attacks for the last part of the war.
@@MattKearneyFan1 The fuel shortages were mostly the result of the US submarine campaign, which had put a very large % of Japan's tanker fleet on the bottom of the ocean. The sources of fuel for Japan themselves (Borneo, Dutch East Indies) weren't taken until quite late in the war. And in some cases, after the war.
That's one good looking aircraft!
Amazing cooling on the first plane!
I inspected the model on display in Pensacola, and it’s light weight clearly amplifies the effectiveness of the engine and improves maneuverability. Then you have those 4x20mm cannon…
Great museum. Has it reopened?
@@trespasserswill7052 I wasn't aware that it had closed. Haven't been there in years. One of my favorite museums.
@@otpyrcralphpierre1742 There was a mass shooting there 3 1/2 years ago. They closed the base to the public and then the china virus hit. I think they let folks in on a limited basis.
Will visit the USAF museum this spring and will make a note to check out this innovative aircraft.
@@trespasserswill7052 / I don't know. It's been 20 years since I was there.
Looks like it pays to stay awake
...especially when you're at work...
Good 👍🏼 video.
Defintely one of the best.
Even if the Japanese could have produced them earlier, the number of experienced Japanese pilots was plummeting rapidly.
It was a superb design, but the Pacific War wouldn't have ended any differently even if the Shiden had arrived earlier. The war might have lasted longer, with heavier losses for the Allies, but that would've been it.
I have to disagree that this plane could have changed the war as you stated at the beginning of the video. Even if Japan started the war with this fighter it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. One fighter, a bit more advanced than the enemy’s fighters, can’t win a war. When Japan started the war the Zero outclassed just about every plane the allies had but by the end of the war the Zero was proving to be outclassed by the allied fighters. It’s a constantly and rapidly evolving situation as one country tries to build aircraft better than their enemies. You can be sure the Americans would have either used technology found in Japanese planes that were brought down or developed their own to counter this new fighter just like they did with the Zero. It also wouldn’t have been much good at stopping the atomic bombs. Great video as always.
And you are also forgetting that the Hellcat successor never made it into battle because the war ended and they were already working on another even more advanced fighter plane here in the US so cut the drama
How did it compare to the bearcat? …,Always something better coming down the pipe of course.
Yes jet a/c made all prop a/c obsolete overnite
@@Eric-kn4yn
The F8F- Bearcat could out climb the early jets below 10,000 ft which is vital in a scramble or point defense situation.
The US was launching about 1 Essex /Ticonderoga class fleet carrier a month by the time this bird hit the theater. Not to mention the "Jeep" carriers coming off the ways. The P51s were based on captured island. The US had literally hundreds of well trained pilots in the conduit, available for combat duty. Also, the US was using P51s in the South Pacific by this time. And the Grumman Bearcat was also ready be introduced to the theater. Both had better numbers than the Hellcats. One thing I didn't hear you mention...Armor and self-sealing tanks? Were these things deleted to shave off the 500+ pounds?
The Japanese were never able to perfect self-sealing tanks and gave up on the idea. Armour was considered a luxury and minimizing it did save a great deal of weight.
@@paulmaxwell8851 Armour a luxury? Ask the Japanese pilots. Saving weight and sacrificing pilots. Maybe they should have deleted parachutes as well. The US servicemen said that you could tell when a US plane or a Jap plane crashed into the water. US plane, no burning fuel on the water. Japanese plane, a lot of burning fuel on the water.
@@edwinclawson438 Parachutes wouldn't save much weight but the pilots often went without them anyway cause bailing out was seen as surrendering which was "dishonorable." The planes would also have had to stay together long enough to bail out...
A beautiful fighter plane to watch.
Great video but it's the F4U Corsair. You referred to it as the G4U at about the 9:15 mark
Imagine comming and saying
I shoot down a fast japanese aircraft named george
Like
Sailor: GEORGE IS COMMING MAN THE AA
Thanks... I can now hear Joyce Grenfell saying: 'George, don't do that...'! 🤪
Frankly the armament alone was lightning, 20mm is excellent antiaircraft and antitank [from the roof of tanks they're typically much weaker.]
Awesome 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🇯🇵
at 8:34, there's a reference (while showing video of F4F Wildcats) of the "G4U" Corsairs. It's "F4U".
Good Video/Info.
This is probably the best aircraft in Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator II
Love these "coulda, shoulda, woulda" videos! An advanced fighter is pretty useless without trained, competent pilots to fly them, or lubricants and fuels to power them. Both were in very short supply in Japan late in the war!
370MPH = 600 km / h. This is excellent! One of the fastest piston engines!
What's up with propellers like the ones on the last shot? I've seen so many bent back like that but can't find any info.
they are bent back from crash landing!
The way this guy narrates...that is what hooked me for all the Dark series.
It is absurd to posit that one weapon system that they could only produce in small numbers could have changed course the war. Even if it was ready for production a year earlier, the critical skilled pilots were already mostly gone and they didn't have the fuel (esp high octane fuel), infrastructure or trainers to train new pilots to the level required to fight well trained Allied pilots in competitive aircraft. The US had at least six times the war industrial capacity of Japan and the training program to produce competent pilots en masse. Japan had no chance from the get go. Simple math.
It’s not absurd, it’s just “marketing suggestions”
I wouldn’t call it click bait - that’s too harsh. But just remember advertisements where one washing powder washers whiter than another. It’s a similar puff. But a good and interesting one to watch nonetheless.
I’m off to IMDb to find the name of the Ronald Reagan war film and see if I can remember that from black and white tv of my youth in the 60’s.
@@PhilbyFavourites 'Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles' and 'Military Aviation History' are much less fanciful and more well informed/informing YT sources for information on historical military aircraft. They are also more methodical and show their source documents and math in the videos.
When Admiral Perry steamed into Tokyo Bay in November 1852 Japan was an insular feudal society with Medieval technology. By March 1860 Japan had built its own steamship and sailed it into San Francisco Bay, manned entirely by a Japanese crew. By 1905, just five decades after being introduced to modern ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy had defeated the Russian Navy, a country that had at the time one of the top five navies in the world. Even today Japan should not be underestimated. Iran has unsuccessfully trying to build a nuclear weapon for over two decades. If Japan wanted one they’d have it within months.
However, thanks to the editing the WW2 film, for us to watch its.
A single fighter could have brought Japan to victory? Hyperbole. Japan could not, in the long run, win this war short of America losing its will to fight. Pearl Harbor cemented American resolve to destroy Japan.
Your not wrong. Now if it was so suburb that it could out perform every fighter and they had alot, all they would have done was draw it out. Now if it was drawn out who knows where it would have gone! The only way to swin the war for japan was to stop the manhatten project.
@@liquidlemon3335 The Allies would have defeated Japan without the A-Bomb. The cost in lives, for both sides, would have been immense w/o nukes. August 1945 Japan was starving and its industry crushed.
If if’s and buts were candies and nuts …
We’d all have a merry Christmas.
I mean its a good aircraft but the problem wasn't the type of aircraft used, it was the fact that Japanese pilots at the middle and late stage of the war were just so massively undertrained compared to their American counterparts. The A6M and Ki-84s were amazing fighters when placed in the hands of good pilots, but as shown at the "Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot" the massive amounts of inexperienced A6M pilots were quickly decimated by their better trained American counterparts in the Hellcat which was a lot heavier and less maneuverable than the Japanese A6Ms
A plane is only as good as its pilot, and when its pilots are terrible the plane will reflect that
Put it up against a late war mustang or fw190, and it likely would have been blown out of the sky. It certainly wouldn't have changed the outcome of the war.
No specific aircraft design could have "changed the outcome" of the war.
The N1K-2 is "talked up" by this video, but like other late war Japanese fighters, it excelled in manoeuvrability and was also competitive in speed. By comparison, manoeuvrability (especially turning circle) was not one of the strong features of the Fw 190 (which could be out-turned by a Yak or Spitfire), or the Mustang (which could even be out-turned by a Bf 109).
Finally someone with brains makes a factual statement! This all was way to little to effect anything but a little skirmish here and there with the marines and U.S. navy. Now if they had gotten into a real air battle with the U.S. ARMY'S P-47, P-51's, or the RAF SPITFIRE, the LUFTWAFFE'S BF-109, FW-190 or some of the Soviet fighters, there would have been much different numbers at the end of these skirmishes, much much worse for the Japanese Navy for sure. The Japanese were extremely intelligent but it seems to me that they either dreamed alot or were on drugs like Hitler and his gang of criminal thugs were at the end of war.
@Grant Lee Depending on altitude, based on the numbers in this video it would have been over 50 mph slower than any of those planes. Not to mention being outnumbered about 3-1 on a good day.
@@robertsettle2590 The Germans got the Pervitin recipe from the Japanese.
Would not have made a bit of difference unless they found (or trained) hundreds more pilots or had an early version of Elon Musk (or more correctly, the engineering department at Tesla) build a plane without needing a pilot. I mean, we had Ron Reagan piloting our aircraft ( @ 9:21 of the video)🛩. No doubt it was a helluva plane, though.
What's a G4U Corsair (8:34)? I can only find the designation G4U at one specific model plane maker?
Thought I caught you in a mistake when you said Battle of Guadalcanal in 1943.
But, I never realized that the battle took so long.
Mostly fought in 1942, but did not end until Feb. 1943.
That was one very long battle.
It wouldn’t have won them the war. Thousands of factors contributed to their loss. Plus, if the Third Reich fell first, the US could devote their full military power to the pacific, and Japan wouldn’t have stood any chance whatsoever. Japan lost when they attacked Pearl Harbor, and that’s that. Not to mention that the N1 wouldn’t have done anything against Little Boy or Fat Man.
'Thousands of factors,' lol there'd be just as many factors helping if standards are so low for ' factors.'
@@GeneralZap there was more working against them than for them
370 MPH might be a lot against a Hellcat , whatever, but it's very slow compared to other planes of the time. The very first version of the FW-190 is already much faster. And a 1943 Spitfire would have had it for breakfast. Don't say its more manoeuvrable because it ain't.
The more accurate number I found for the N1K2 was 390 mph at 16 000 ft. He actually made plenty of mistakes in the video.
He made it sound like N1K2 replaced the A6M which really was not the case since N1K2 was land-based fighter and could not be operated from an Aircraft carrier.
He called F4U Corsair G4U.
And the video title is just wrong. N1K2 was an amazing aircraft that's for sure but it would not win a war for Japan. Allies would suffer more losses and war would possibly last longer but that's about it.
@@starly1974 I totally agree with all you say. A lot of this video didn't make any sense based on what I know, albeit I didn't know much about this particular plane. Against, say, just the two planes I mention, 390 MPH at 16,000 ft would make it constantly vulnerable to being jumped from above. Because they are faster at higher altitude and the higher they fly the bigger the speed advantage - looks like the N1K2 runs out of breath at high altitude, and that's a major disadvantage against a multi-stage supercharger enemy.
At 7:27, was that actual combat footage or something else?? It's just odd that there were camera's rolling at the time of those explosions.
It seems to me that good pilots who really know their planes, always makes the difference. The trouble is syaying alive long enough to get good.
I'm gonna say the N word!
Nice video my guy.
The final design looks to me alot like the P47… convergent evolution I guess. Great innovation with the mercury switch activated combat flaps!
JAF had some world class engineers. Still shines today in their products across the board.
7:27 Goodness!! my first time watching this footage
I suspect the impetus for the automatic flaps was their depletion of skilled pilots. A skilled pilot can multitask battle and manual flap control such that the weight and complexity (glitches) of automatic flaps were probably not worth the downsides to the skilled. Automation made the plane newbie-friendly.
The N1K2 George was more maneuverable than a Zero in the same way even an early P-40 was - at 275mph and above. The A6M Zero was nimble at low speeds, but as the Flying Tigers knew, a high speed fight was the way to defeat the A6M Zero as its "barn door" control surfaces made it sluggish at high speed but nimble at low speeds. In an energy fight, the P-40 outflew the A6M. Japan's later fighters went away from the small, light, nimble but very fragile dogfighter and went to a Western type fighter - big, heavy, well armed, high speed - more like the F6F and F4U... And while the George did well after introduction, it just missed the F8F Bearcat which went into service right as the war ended. The Bearcat was 100mph faster than the George. The Bearcat has often been described as one of the best handing piston fighter ever built. Pity it wasn't introduced earlier.
I love this guy's voice! Great vids buddy
Great vids, but do you think you could also use metric in your weights and speeds as well as MPH and Pounds, so KPH and Kgs please? Perhaps in a subtitle on the video? Cheers
Something during this informative documentary. The Zero was mentioned as not being competitive against these variants. These planes did arrive later than the Zero, though. Did the Zero ever receive upgrades, or had different evolutions ? Thank you.
Yes the Zero did receive upgrades, but it did soon maxed out its growth potential, becuse its early war performance was largely a result of a ruthless drive to remove "excess weight" Then plane like Splitfire and Me-109 did get there preformence from a ruthless drive to increase engine power, and the airframe was sufficient stong to handel the more powerful engine, hence Splitfire and Me-109 did have a large growth potential, and could be competitive the whole war.
To set it in perspective a Zero did have about 950hp then a later war Me-109 did top out at about 1700hp (Give and take a bit, depending on boost, and octane)
Great surprise this am
Admiral Yamamoto predicted the outcome!