Great irony of history that the Japanese never seemed to survey their conquests to see what they contained. Japan had little petroleum, and should have been looking for gas spews and oil seeps at the surface that indicate oil fields below. It's amazing that Japan never discovered the huge Daqing field in Manchuria. Had they done so, their fuel problems would have been solved, and no need to grab land toward an eventual war over the Dutch East Indies.
Yes that's all true. Easier said than done in the 1930s and 40s especially during a three front war. Japanese annual oil requirements (1941): Civilian economy: 27 mil bbl Army: 17 mil bbl Navy: 18 mil bbl Japanese domestic annual production: 1.5 mil from Hokkaido 1.5 mil from Synthetic oil That oil field produces 600,000bbl a DAY. Or 219mil a year. Japan did incredible things in our timeline with measly resources in the first half of the Pacific War, and won nearly every battle up until Midway. I am certain that if Japan had discovered this it could have changed the course of history, but only barely. Since Japan also lacked metals for shipbuilding, but that did not become as severe until 1942. Japan sought to go guns blazing in the first 6 months of the war. If Japan could not negotiate peace during that time they considered the war lost.
@@user-pn3im5sm7k being a very very small tiny tiny island nation lacking in natural resources, Japan still did a good job of challenging the US of A, the richest, most monstrous industrial country in the world for more than a year up to the mid of 1943. Moreover, Japan only started industrialization in 1868, a mere 73 years in 1941.
I suppose the priority for the Zero was because the naval fighter could help win them the war at sea. By the time the Americans were so close that Japan needed an interceptor and bomber destroyer, the war was already as good as lost. Realistically Japan was doomed to lose the war after losing at Guadalcanal (some would argue they were doomed right from the start).
True. Japan bit off more than they could chew. No naval superiority, no secure supply lines, no industrial base. Airplanes would not have helped without those fundamentals.
Agree 100%. I suspect they knew they could not win a protracted war with the U.S. thus the "bold stroke" of Pearl Harbor. They were hoping to hit us so hard we would roll over and give up. Instead all they did was make us so mad we would not settle for anything short of abject, total and unconditional surrender. Google "Operation Downfall" to see how determined we were to defeat the Japanese. Especially look at the expected casualty numbers. It's scary!
A few things about drag to unpack here. While it's true that in-line engines had a smaller frontal cross section, they did require radiators, and radiators had large frontal areas and contributed quite a bit of drag. While you could recover some of that through thrust generated by the Meredith Effect, with proper design you could also recover some thrust in the same way from a radial engine. The drag caused by frontal area of a radial can be mitigated by the use of a large spinner blanking off parts of the engine's frontal area, and the use of a tight cowl, leaving a narrow annular space between the two. This was really all the frontal area needed for the cooling air, you can see this on the Raiden, the FW-190, the Sea Fury, the later Lavochkins and racing conversions of the Bearcat. For some reason Grumman, Chance-Vought and Republic never seem to have used this even post-WW2, though you did see it on the XP-72. Cooling fans were also used in the FW-190 and the Sea Fury, and possibly others as well.
Right, I was thinking that as well. Engine cooling is THE problem that all of these designs face and wether that are liquid or air cooled the amount of heat still has to be rejected out into the atmosphere somehow. There are some efficiency gains in using thicker radiators but those are offset by the weight of coolent. The FW190’s cooling fan trick makes good sense in that design because the fan ran air directly over a pressurized/armored oil reservoir between the engine and the prop. The air from the fan would have had negligible cooling without such an effect. All in all though it makes the 190 one of the best fighters of WW2 IMO.
@@JimmySailor I remember having an argument about this many years ago on Usenet - there was a thread where there were people making the other argument - that because inline engines used radiators and radial engines had NO radiators, radial engines would therefore have less drag.. 😂 The truth, I think, lies in between somewhere - both have parasitic drag caused by frontal area and wetted area - which come out ahead depends on specific cases. One might also note that liquid-based cooling systems also weigh something.
There's a few other factors to consider - first, you can make much bigger radials reliable than inline engines. No replacement for displacement was still very much a thing in WW2, and japan had great troubles making a reliable inline. Second, radials are generally a third less in weight, cost, and materials used - if high maneuverability is a design consideration, then it makes a lot of sense to take the weight reduction bonus by using a radial engine, drag be damned (or for the same weight you can get a much bigger displacement radial engine).
The design philosophy is for what would called a “Point Defense” fighter. A duration of just 1 hour was all that was required. You could consider that the early BF 109’s and even early Hurricanes and Spitfires fit into this category. The Me-163 is an extreme example of a point defense fighter.
The wing shape, fuselage chunkiness reminds me of those golden age air racers. I have this 1/32 kit awaiting after the lesser Revvell kits went in the trash building them as a teen. At 60 I will prevail this time! It'd wonderfully detailed.🥰
The great Japanese ace Saburo Sakai writes about seeing the Raiden for the first time, in his memoir. He felt they would finally be on equal terms with the enemy.
My fav WW2 Japanese Aircraft. The speeds for Japanese Aircraft can be very misleading, the quality of fuel used was low and build quality of the aircraft varied wildly. The early aircraft built were probably the best examples. When the US tested the J2M3 using 92 octane fuel, speeds between 407-417 mph were recorded.
"Couldn't find info about combat over the Philippines." As it happened, Tommy McGuire was looking to increase his score, 38 kills, second highest scoring AAF ace, over the Philippines and ran into a Japanese ace flying a Raiden. Unfortunately, he got the jump on McGuire's wingman. Ironically at low altitude, McGuire tried a tight turn to save his wingman, with drop tanks still attached, something he always taught less experienced P-38 pilots to never do, and he got into a high speed stall and died in the resulting crash. The Raiden driver got his wingman cold. A bad day for the USAAF P-38 community...
Interesting that you mention Raiden in reference to video games twice, but didn't note that the main character from MGS2 is explicitly mentioned in-game as being named after the aircraft. I guess if you know, you know, but it might not come up in research when you're not familiar with the franchise. Also, as others have noted, the correct pronunciation is ~'rye-den'. Japanese phonology is actually really simple and consistent; it sounds like what it looks like (in romaji), and seeing as you'll likely be discussing a lot of Japanese topics, it'd be well worth the ten or fifteen minutes to familiarise yourself with how to pronounce it. Great video as always, I'm really not trying to be pissy, just hoping to help.
The Raiden isn't as big and bulky as it initially looks, it's obviously bigger than a Zero, but the weight is comparable to a Shiden, Hayate, or Reppu. There are a few factors that make it look bigger than it is. First, the engine, the Kasei was wider than even the larger Homare engine because it was a 14 cylinder engine rather than 18, so each cylinder had to be larger. Even so, the cowling was tight around the engine, and was no wider than the Shiden (which used a Kasei in its seaplane guise). Second, the fuselage widens a bit after the engine, this was to minimize drag by making the fuselage as aerodynamic as possible. This worked in a windtunnel, but didn't work out as well in real world because they didn't account for the effect of the prop wash. Third, it's a razorback. As you mentioned, most Japanese fighters used bubble tops to improve visibility, but since the Raiden was trying to minimize drag, they went with a razorback, which makes the plane look bigger from the side. Fourth, the fuselage section behind the pilot is actually quite short, which combined with the height of the razorback makes the plane look rather bulbous. Also worth noting, just like the Fw190, that fan in the intake is primarily for cooling the engine, not for intaking more air into the engine itself. An opening that size is more than enough to provide the engine with enough air to run (see any liquid cooled V engine) but not enough to keep an air cooled engine cool without the help of a fan. It also has the secondary benefit of giving a little more pressure to the supercharger intake. The downside is that it obviously robs the engine of some power to run the fan. Still, like the Fw190, it was determined that the benefits to drag reduction outweighed the the power loss in the most important flight regimes. I'd argue that this also explains why they went with the Kasei over a V engine. Through clever engineering, they were able to reduce the drag of the Raiden to less than that of many liquid cooled V engined fighters, and at that point, why not take the extra power it offered? Other errata: they also drew up plans for a turbosupercharged variant of the Raiden, similar to what they were doing with the Reppu. It likely would have make an excellent interceptor if they could pull it off, but we'll never know.
@@Arthion It looks pretty chubby, but has lower wingloading than a spitfire mk9. Even when making interceptors, japan still made wonderfully flying aircraft.
One plane model was never going to save Imperial Japan. The problems in the empire ran much deeper than sticking with an outdated fighter design until the end of the war.........
Totally agree with you, The Raiden could no more save Japan than the ME-262 could save Germany. IF this plane proved a threat to the B-29s then I can easily see P-long range 51's being rapidly transferred to the Pacific theater. Or maybe being escorted by P-38 Lightnings
@@neighborhoodturnt Yes, when discussing what could've happened as opposed to what actually happened, you are always talking HYPOTHETICALLY. He didn't even have to say it, as the discussion could've been nothing but hypothetical in nature, my friend.
I’m always amazed at the pilots ability to think out of the box in an emergency. I’m in an uncontrolled dive. Let’s drop the landing gears.. it saved the day
The big difference between US and Japanese, German pilots, was the US removed Top aces from active duty to train new pilots. While Axis powers kept their Aces in combat roles, eventually losing them to combat fatalities. Running out of qualified pilots.
I think another consideration in favor of the radial engine might have been that it would have been more robust in surviving battle damage and not be hindered by the possibility of engine coolant leaks due to cooling system damage. Another interesting feature of the plane was in the use of laminar flow design principles of its wings, similar to that of the P-51 Mustang, that would further reduce drag and increase performance.
@@HughBond-kx7lythe old Airfix box art was also very good, with some of the box art now very rare, not sure if it's valuable but it is rare😊, I used to repurpose my boxes so I could justify keeping them, consequently I still have quite a few from the good old days.
I believe the drag argument in favour of inline engines is largely irrelevant. Inline engines need radiators and cooling plumbing etc etc., thus increasing drag. They are also more vulnerable to enemy fire due to increased length and all that plumbing. And they are heavier for a LB/Kg per hp ratio.There are numerous examples of radial-engine WW2 aircraft easily surpassing 400mph. In short, fit what you've got as long as it can function satisfactorily in a particular airframe. Which is what happened, obviously.
I think the Schneider trophy series influenced designers, but the problems that looked difficult turned out to be soluble. Increasing horsepower also played a role.
15:15 I don't know if this is a photo of a prototype because if you look closely the port side Oleo strut or it's hinge is already bent forward. Or is the starboard oleo bent back?🤔Either way it obviously had weak landing gear!
Yup, this plane was Barely faster than a Zero, but still vastly slower than allied fighters. and with less maneuverability than lighter Japanese planes, this leaves it overall even more vulnerable and less effective as a fighter in WW2. If more had been used, it would have made no difference to the war.
wrong. The japanese never could have won the war. NEVER. Their economic disadvantages, including logistic desaster from the get go means they never could have won a real war with the US of A. But to beat the sh1t out of UK and take over the dutch and french colonies, it could have worked. this is just not the point. The point is - a plane planned in 1938 and with some more support ready to engage (say the most problems solved around the time of Pear means the japanese could have produced say 200-400 of them, each iteration better. So a well performing fast and stable heavily armed (4x20mm) japanese fighter who is superior to most of the allied planes around Guadalcanal - with a good range - could cause a lot more allied casulties, casulties that could have a huge impact. Say - the allies lose next to wasp and hornet ALSO the enterprise and the japanese do not gut their best pilots, losing only half of them. That is realistic, because most japanese casulties were based on the weak airframe of the then absolute inferior Zero. Think about how long they kept the Zero-2 and Zero-3 versions, who had - against half competitive american and allied pilots no chance and every damage meant "sure death" - and then think about it if these pilots - more important - the less "elite" ones sit in the Raiden J2M-4 version. That plane is BETTER then the hellcat and heavily armed and armored. So less AA casulties - again more japanese carrier planes reach their targets (getting slaughtered, but if 50 instead of 10 reach their goal....) and propably higher american ship losses. This could be a battleship, cruisers, oilers or destroyers... That create a cascade of other impacts. Americans getting higher casulties mean they act more cautious or do not - for example get the chance of the slaughter in the bismarck-sea, these troops reach the area, means 3 months more of battle, etc. The end is always the same, with F7F and F8 coming around even the best japanese fighter planes will be obsolete, the same with more and more P47 and P51. But to say "no effect" would be a lie. By the way - you could do the same about the Aichi D7 Grace. Already start to production was late 1942, a vastly superior and much better naval bomber, with torpedo- and bombing capabilities, a large range and very good speed. F4Fs would be helpless, even a F6F has to get full throttle to catch it (and is then not the best plane). So, if this plane had been produced in numbers - so instead of only 1 in dec 1942 and through 1943 6 and around 40 in 1944 - lets play with numbers. Say 30 in 1942, 300 in 1943 and 600 in 1944. They could not operate from the old carriers, but they are a pain in the a§§ for attacking carrier forces if they engage from land bases. The next plane - even if not as good as these two (and still navy plane) was the D4 Suisei, already in production in 1940! It was around 100km/h faster as the older Stuka, the Val and could carry 300kg heavier bombs. With some more production early on (the mass production started way to late - a smart japanese empire could have build it from 1941 on (basically replacing the Vals from mid42, so casulties from midway in planes could have been replaced, instead of waiting for more Vals comming online) It had the same deficits and failures as the other naval planes, but it was faster, had a greater range and a heavier load. With modifications (and some "rethinking") i bet 1000kg-bombs in a version could have been possible. So instead of 1000pounds per bomb 2000pounds could hit an allied ship. More damage for the bucks, right? And there is the Ki-84 and the N1K1-J, both planes that could have been produced MUCH earlier in larger numbers. The real bottle neck of the imperial japanese a§§holes government was that they produced way to little up to the point it was to late. And this is good, because even the nazi crimes look harmless if you compare them to the monster crimes the japanese committed. But basically spoken from the military pov, the japanese could have performed MUCH better, with a.) some real existing planes being produced much earlier (The N1K1-Js from Day 1 parallel to the float plane design give the japanese a long distance superior fighter (that could compete in late 44 with the most modern american designs, so think about what it could have done to the older and less performant planes) b.) produce MUCH more of the planes they have, produce much more numbers. They could do that, in worse economic and military situations, so it was their "wilL" and not their abilities.
@@steffenjonda8283I think he means almost since it’s an absolute and there is a chance for everything. I do agree with you that Japan could never have won as do I think with Germany but again absolutes are extreme by definition
An advanced plane just coming into production meant nothing… if this conflict had extended into 1946 you would have seen both P80 shooting stars and British Gloster Meteors( jet fighters) there. The Americans also were already building Grumman Bearcats and Tigercats. There was just little chance of Japan not becoming a radioactive wasteland with a communist north if the war had continued
Great video, one of my favorite aircraft among less know or less popular ones. Looks weird yet very cool in the same time. But there is a big question what I cannot solved for years, even decades: Why the hell they put two different 20mm cannons in the same time on the same aircraft, and only on this type? Yes, I know that pre-A6 Fw-190 models had MG-FF/M and MG150/20 mixed, but that's a rare example and the case maybe that the MG151/20 was still on the running up production. But what is matter with the J2M? Just like the MG-FF/M vs. MG151/20 the Type 99-I vs. Type 99-II (or Mark 1 and Mark 2) had little in common except the working principle a general layout, but the ballistics and most importantly the ammunition were very very different (20×72RB vs. 20×101RB). As for Japanese the logistics always was a nightmare. So providing not only one type, but two different type of 20mm ammo. Or was this the intended goal? If you cannot serve both because the supply chain gaps at least you can serve one of the pairs? Because if this would be the case why only the J2M had this configuration, why not the N1K, and other IJN (Naval Air Force) tpyes? Big question for me and I could never had the answer, if you know it, please enlighten me. Thank you! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_J2M en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_99_cannon
You can fit almost every other major fighter inside a P47, maybe aside from a Corsair since they are similar in weight. For specs, it depends on the P47. A P47M beats every other propeller fighter in speed, with trials giving a 475-480mph but crews reporting straight line speeds in excess of 500mph. A P47D is around 430-440mph. Off the top of my head, I think the P47M is around 3,500-3800fpm. I don’t remember the P47D’s climb ratte
O)fc they could never had built or fuelled enough of these bad boys to make a differences. Very happy our RAAF Beaufighters didn't meet these in the air going about their business. The trim problem may have been MCAS, but it's not Boeing...
The US should have codenamed the J2M "Fatty", 'Chunky", or "Chubb Rock". Even had they produced them in quantity, the lack of range the J2M had would have made them kind of useless in the South and Central Pacific, which is why the IJN still wanted Zeroes, even for land based IJN fighter units and the carriers, because everything the IJN did doctrinally was built on outranging the USN. The J2M might have been the Japanese Corsair had they modified it by lengthening the fuselage and adding more fuel, but that would probably have delayed it to infinity and also killed the top speed, so not really a solution, unless the IJN had developed a radial comparable to the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp.
Allies had broken Japanese encryption codes, and were sinking their tankers like hotcakes with their low grade oil. Japanese required the reporting of where their ships were every 24 hours, thank you very much! Subs were waiting. No fuel? Hard to fight a war.
Inline engines needs cooling system. For high performance it has to be designed, built and then serviced with great care and precision. Japanese lacked all of that. That would affect reliability of whole plane. Guess choice of simplier radial solution was smart way to go.
It isn't, though it looks like it in the OG photos. That's just the way they hand-painted with brushes green camouflage in the field over the standard factory paint, leaving streaks and squares of the undercoat exposed, which was usually a grayish color. Guess shipping paint sprayers to island airfields just wasn't a thing.
I mean no offense but, from the moment they decided to hold territory in China ca. 1937, Japan couldn't win. They ensured their utter defeat by attacking Pearl Harbor. The relative effectiveness of weapons is irrelevant when a small country attacks a big country or two or more. And? Japan didn't build a single airplane, much less a production model, that could seriously compete with American planes at high altitude. They were a whole generation behind in superchargers. Some of them, like the Jack, could struggle up to B-29s but they were, at best, marginal at that altitude and helpless against a P-51 or P-38 or P-47N. The Jack was a pretty good interceptor but NOTHING could save Japan.
@@steffenjonda8283no he is kinda right. The XF4U Corsair is generally agreed upon to be the first radial and single engined fighter to fly in excess of 400mph in level flight. The experimental P38s could also achieve speeds excess of 400mph. For planes that never made it to service the He 100 with one briefly breaking the speed record
@@apersondoingthings5689 The He 100 was in service, even if only in a small batch. Forget all the BS you read about the "superior" american planes, the german AND british ones were better. And the Do335 - with its incredible high cruising speed was the best of them all. It was as fast CRUSING as others were at max speed. You know what this mean, right?
@@steffenjonda8283 the He 100 was literally rejected by Germany. The only use of them was the defense of Heinkels factories by heinkel themselves. The Do 335 also never went into service and was also a Fighter/bomber. Sure it had a fast cruising speed and top speed but that means next to nothing if your plane is a maneuverable as a brick. It also doesn’t mean anything if an enemy dives on you or if it is a P47M which beats a Do-335 in speed. German fighters were good for their intended roles but were not great outside of them. Bf 109s and FW 190s were considerably worse at high altitude performance than P51s, P47s, and griffon and late powered Merlin engined spitfires. The best high altitude fighter Germany had in number was the FW-190D and Bf-109Ks which had their performance drop above 20,000 feet which didn’t happen for allied fighters. The best places the German fighters performed was at medium to low altitudes but even still allied fighters like the Corsair and Tempest were better there
@@apersondoingthings5689 Again, a lot of crap from american focused guys. Nope and nope again. The Do335 had a higher cruising speed as most allied planes max speed. So to catch a Do335 you need to be in the bette position AND to dive on them. The chance to achive this is VERY small. And if the Do335 accelerate, it can easily run away. It do not need to manouver, it uses zoom and boom, just like the americans did with most of the slower japanese planes, that otherwise could outmanover any american plane. And you miss the point i made. The Do335 was much better then anything the americans had. Worse, the germans could have them 2 years earlier, even if the performance then would be a bit worse. The germans best fighterplane was the the FW190D, replaced by the even MUCH better TA-152H, but all these planes had no impact because the air war was long lost. But we do not talk about "how could germany win the air war in western europe" but who had the best planes. The problem is, the american planes were vastly inferior to the Me262, all of them. And the Me262 was only the first "try", with engines quite crappy (because the germans could not use much of the rare metals they needed, but they overcome that problem in early 1945 and the final production run had quite a good maintanence time for them), the Do335 was perfectly usable to kill bombers, removing the need to slow down all the Bf109s that had to carry more armor (against the defence fire) and the very heavy guns they had to carry - because the american 4mots needed 30mm-guns to get killed, these were slow firing and were heavy. But also for that the germans had found the solution - you know it (maybe, if you watch british planes post-war) as the Aden-gun, the best cannon post-ww2. It was the 1:1 copy of a german mauser cannon, in 20 and 30mm. so add this best gun with the superior german planes and - voila, nothing the allies could bring into the air could compete. Still - no change in the end of the war. That was my point. But i do not tolerate lies and BS from people who propably had to google the names of foreign designs, belive in "our boys were the best" - they weren´t, germans, finns, romanians, italians, russians had much better pilots then them, in all aspects. What the US of A had, tenthousends of good planes and 100.000 average trained pilots, able to shoot and fly. But there was no honor, no "good achivements" by them. Just material superiority in numbers. So what upsets you and all the other fanboys is the fact that all your movies are wrong and you know it. The enemy had these aces, the good pilots (who did not kill helpless enemy pilots after bailing out) then your bunch did it - by order and propaganda. The enemy had the vastly superior pilots who could kill at will your pilots, even in vastly inferior planes - because Maverick is right - it is the pilot stupid. The tenthousend average pilots, flying against german untrained ones, who - by fuel restrictions got only 10hours in their planes, barley able to fly their planes encountered massivly superior numbers of bette trained pilots in much better planes. That won the air war. But again, no heroes, no wonder guys. Just a simple game-of-numbers. Still, the germans finally got the better planes, better weapons - but way to late. And here, with the question what could change, this was answered.
This was too little too late Japanese industries couldn't produce in any significant numbers and by 1944 there was shortage of experienced pilots to operate it.
Already in early 1942 the ubiquitous 7.7 mm MG was showing itself less than efficiently effective against US planes. I'm surprised it took so long to go to all 20 mm guns, especially since bombers, the plane's intended target, tended to be fairly robust.
Heh I got a Hasegawa model with damn near identical box art to the thumbnail :D Only different is mine have a yellow lighting strike on the side and different tail number
Raiden pilots could not see s.... at night. USAAF B-29s moved mostly to low level night ops in early spring 1945. They could fly at under 10.000 feet altitudes over Japan, because Japanese didnt even had radar controlled flak. :facepalm: LeMay ordered B-29s to fly without defensive ammo, because blue on blue incidents would had caused more losses than flying without defensive armament. Tells something about level where Japanese night fighter force was... Japan was in many ways developing country, and Allied Germany first policy was warranted. Germany being 10 times tougher enemy. US allocated about half of its armed forces resources against Germany, Brits vast majority, Soviets all. In addition of lend lease program to reinforce GB and USSR. Same time United States crushed Japan with its left hand.
Engine reliability, Germans have a great word for that. Autobahnfest. When your car or motorbike can withstand high power and high speed, for entire days, then it is Autobahnfest. That is similar to the fighter planes, your life depended on the quality of that engine.
In my opinion Japan was way too overconfident in the zero. Sure it was an amazing fighter in the 30s and early 40s. But come the mid and late war and it was hopelessly outmatched by the hellcat and Corsair. And unlike the BF-109 weight was far too much of an issue to continue upgrading it to remain competitive. They really should’ve seen it as more of a stopgap and focused on designs like the raiden and began developing the A7M reppu much sooner than they really did.
@@solarflare623 that was possible in the early days of the war. But the US submarines effective unrestricted warfare against the Japanese shipping lanes, Japan started to run out of iron ore, metal alloys and oil supplies starting mid of 1943.
@@VIDEOVISTAVIEW2020 they’d still be able to produce a more effective naval fighter under those conditions. Think of it this way: A carrier only has so much space to carry aircraft. If you produce cheaper less effective planes you are still limited by the limited space onboard your carriers. On a land based airfield you can choose between 200 expensive planes or 500 cheap planes. However on a carrier you can only choose between 200 cheap planes or 200 expensive planes due to your limited hangar space and the fact the planes you have are essentially the ones you’re stuck with until you return to your home port which could potentially be months or even years. So you it only makes sense to choose the more expensive but better preforming planes to get more value out of your limited capacity. Thus with naval fighters you essentially have a bottleneck on how many planes you can produce. The US knew this when they designed the F8F bearcat.
if you actually read Zero pilot accounts and accounts of japanese commanders, they were under no illusions about the Zeros shortcomings throughout the war. The Radien was barely faster, and less maneuverable. it was not going to make any difference. Also, the Zero was a NAVY fighter, the Raiden an ARMY fighter. literally two wholly different roles.
This narrator ignores Japan's lack of resources. Which was a large part of Japan's strategy for their territorial expansion. They lacked the material supplies (oil, iron, steel, aluminum, rubber, factories, food) for all the things they needed to build. By 1944 America was building ships in around 42 days, and by the end of the war the just the Ford Willow Run plant, was building the B-24 in less then two days with one bomber coming off the line ever hour., Japan was struggling to build ships and planes. Japan was loosing hardware at a much faster rate than they could replace them. That is not even counting the loss of pilots, sailors, they could not sustain the needed war time production. At the end it was a combination of bad tactics and attrition.
@@steffenjonda8283 When Japan occupied French Indochina in 1941, America retaliated by freezing all Japanese assets in the states, preventing Japan from purchasing oil. Having lost 94% of its oil supply and unwilling to submit to U.S demands, Japan planned to take the oil needed by force.
@@acerx203 I know that. But - japan could raise its production with LESS ressources in a brutal war extremly. So, instead of building 5% replacement for the carrier force, they should have planned 400% casulty rate. So with around 600 carrier planes, produce 2400 in 1939, the same in 1940 and doubling in 1941. WIth this they could have restart their production for the Grace (already in build in 1940!), Judy and Myrth. Ad the J1M, you increase the performance of the japanse naval airforce (with not even touching their harsh training pool and limited pilots) Also, upgrades for the Zero-2 should have been started already in early 1942, then in mid 1942 and early 43. So basically plan to improve your core plane every 6 months. Just like - for example the british did with their Spitfire. Again, look at the japanese engine production. They had magnificent engines, overlooked is that these engines very often run on "sh1t", with 68 octane and still worked good. Instead of corruption and infights, they needed a streamlined job, with scientists to develop engines, like germany did with the Daimler-Benz-600ers, and then produce as much of them as possible. The japanese failed, because they planned the engines for their limited airplane row. If you plan only 100 Vals in 1942, you need only 110 engines for it... such BS did they. Yes, no victory possible, but a japanese production system producing numbers in 1940 as they started in 1943 and the numbers of 1944 in 1941, they could have at least produce SOME numbers, fill up all their carriers all the time with planes and these planes aren´t the last outdated ones but the most modern. Just like all others did. Basically, the japanese system meant, that if germany had done that, they had flown BF109-E2s in 1945. Just to make a point. But at that stage, germany produced the BF109Ks. And they produced thousends of them, per month. Even with bombardment round the clock. Japan lacked that, because they never thought about it up to the moment it was to late. So, change that attitude, raise production early (as i say, with start of the war against china, 1937) and you get at least the production numbers in 1941 you got in 1944. So after producing enough Zero-2, they can switch to Zero3 and Zero3a, produce tons of them, replace the older ones for backyard duties (instead of the outdated sh1t they were forced to use even in frontline units at Coral Sea) and then produce the Zero-5, not in late 1943 but in mid1942. This reduce your casulty rate dramatically, because your enemy still lack the ability to field its total superiority. Also, if you remove the hostilities between Army and Navy (yeah, nearly impossible, just want to point another improvement), you get the best anti-submarine-plane with the best gear, so the chance to detect and fight the most deadiliest enemy (american subs) would be dramatically improved. Add in that the navy denied the army convoy protection and vice versa, that means sometimes merchants from the navy had no protection, sometimes the army, that is NOT good if your enemy has material superiorities, this all give japan a lot of "improvements". Also, the bomber capacities of japanese planes was a joke, a bad joke. So a nation limited by fuel needed a lot bombers to put some tiny bombload to the enemy. A joke. I once heared the germans offered the japanese plans of their 500kg, 1000kg, 1800kg bombs, the japanese arrogantly denied, they said they had no need for them. Later, they lacked high penetration bombs to destroy carriers and battleships. Some hits by japanese bombs were less destructive, most bombs were 125kg and 250kg bombs, not 500 and 1000kgs, worse, they even did NOT plan their newer bomber to carry such bombs. Now look at UK. They had at the beginn of the war tiny 250pounds and some 500pounds, later added quickly 1000 and then 2000pound bombs, then the 4000pound bombs, that were able to hurt any ship. The different mindset of the japanese was so weired, in the same time these brutal butchers slaughtered merciless in a way, not even the brigade Dirlewanger would have done (and these were the most evil and brutal bastards in europe, ever) So, simple thing: If you start a war (in china), start your economy into war mode, produce enough of everything you need, in acceptable numbers. This means, you need LOTS of planes, the actual and more modern ones. Japan HAD such planes, the J1Ms were ready in 1940, but lack of research costed them 3 years and more and then they produced only SOME. The same with the N1K1, they had the best naval plane, but they were fixed on a floatplane. Just remove the float and you get the best japanese naval airplane. This could have happened in 1941. So, with enough production, the J1NK2 could have been in combat above guadalcanal instead of outdated Zero mark2 at guadalcanal. The range was - with drop tanks as good or better as that of the Zero3, so air cover for bombers, even carrier based bombers could be possible. No good info for the americans in the slot, right? Suddenly the operation could be to risky for them or - if they had landed the marines already, they suffer high casulties without getting high japanese casulties, too.
@@steffenjonda8283 You need fuel for all those engines, and they had a noticeable drop in fuel quality as the war dragged on. Fuel quality degrades engine performance.
this plane was Barely faster than a Zero, but still vastly slower than allied fighters. and with less maneuverability than lighter Japanese planes, this leaves it overall even more vulnerable and less effective as a fighter in WW2. If more had been used, it would have made no difference to the war.
@@steffenjonda8283 not wrong. J2M: 361mph A6M: 331mph P-40E: 361mph P-39Q: 389mph J2M was barely faster than the A6M and was as slow as fighters the US began WW2 with.
@@SoloRenegade It had more firepower, could absorb more damage, had a much higher cruising speed (a huge advantage) and could kill bombers. That is a huge improvement. For the carrier based planes it was no choice, the p39 was flying shi1, the P40 was a land based army plane. Just like the japanese, the americans had huge problems with Navy and army. So if you face the F4F, you have a plane with - wait for it 310 miles per hour... so what do you try to hide? By the way, the P39Q came online in - 1944. Yeah, at this time that flying sh1t had zero chance agaist a then competitive japanese plane... so try again honey :D
@@steffenjonda8283 The P-39 scored a positive kill ratio against the Zero in the South Pacific in 1942/1943, and served into Korea with the Soviet Air Force. US pilots admitted being overly harsh on it and it served with the US in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, South Pacific, Philippines, etc. at least until 1944. It was a far better plane than given credit for and even proved it could takeoff and land from carriers. And it was better than the J2M. Most Soviet top Aces scored most of their kills in the P-39. The P-39, P-40, and P-51A were stated by the USAAF to be the best turning fighters of WW2 in the US inventory. F4F was 330mph same as the Zero. But yes, slower than the J2M. But by the time the J2M was ready the F6F and F4U were already the main US Navy fighters. So you basically admit that with the J2M, Japan finally built an airplane on par with US fighters from 1941 and earlier. Combat records don't lie, the P-39 was a good aircraft. It only sucks in the minds of fools like you who are repeating myths and lies.
@@SoloRenegade The credit was zero, so any comment saying "it is no shi1" is better. That is simple. But first, you lied about the original P39s speed, in fact the british found it very slow, with barly 550km/h in a mid-war-setup and nobody could kill an enemy plane with that slow firing 37mm-gun. The russians loved the plane because it had a working system to shoot, was reliable and had for a ground attack plane a good load out. Still - there they died in numbers. It wasn´t a good plane at all. For the numbers against the Zero, mostly Zero2-late war, the conditions for the japanese were terrible, few planes, bad trained pilots against numerical superior numbers So, instead of accepting a what-if, based on historical dates (and explanaitons) you cling to BS because you cannot or want not to accept that the japanese could have performed MUCH better as they did. Not by handwaving, just by producing the right planes The same is true for the germans, the He219 was superior to the BF110, but both weren´t as good as the Ju-88, that is often overlooked as a night fighter. Still, more BF110 were build. Stupid. They had a vastly superior twin engine fighter plane, the FW187, they crippled and ousted because Messerschmidt used his influence for the MUCH worse BF110. So instead having a fast, nimble, long range fighter, that had a 50-100km/h speed advantage against the Hurricane, Spitfires I and II and Bf109, but could reach areas deep into UK (without drop tanks, heck, with drop tanks they could have give escort to bombers from Norway), they decided NOT to build them and allow the british quite often to massacre their bomber forces. And NO, against some planes were did not exist a counter at any time. Just like the germans -after losing their advantage in radar technology NEVER could close the gap, even after they pushed hard, the same is true for the allies and airplanes. A Do335 with a little bit less performance (with DB600 and DB601-engines) would still outperform ANY allied plane at its time, reaching around 700km/h max and 630km/h at cruise speed, with a range of 2500km. In 1941-1942. The plane and its design was basically "finished", but then stopped for 3 years. Only to be restarted in 1943, mid-late 1943. Again, no allied plane could have compete with such a german fighter with HEAVY armament. Worse, such a german fighter, with heavy armament would remove the necessary of overloading the small Bf109 with heavy armor and armament to challenge the heavy american bombers. For us in our TL it was good, because otherwise the nazis or japanese could have slaughtered more people, but if we talk about the war and changed things, it is still very interesting.
Ok, one plane could not have saved Japan. With no Navy left and most of their best pilots dead not to mention being greatly out produced they were going to loose no matter what.
Hypothetically? Japan's pilot training capacity was totally inadequate, and too many experienced Japanese pilots were lost long before the home islands came under significant air attack. What made the Marianas Turkey Shoot the slaughter it was - still quite a distance from the home islands - was that so many of the IJN carrier pilots and IJA pilots were 3/4 trained and lacked "stick time". The interceptor concept also did not fit well with the Japanese emphasis on one-on-one dogfighting. The interceptor model of fighting would have been almost a military cultural change. All that is aside from the problem that Japanese industry lacked the capacity and flexibility to change over to new models while producing enough of old models during the change-over to produce the immediate needs of forces in combat.
Definitely an interesting what-if. Just a minor disagreement - I have rarely found hindsight to be anything close to 20-20. Given any four people there will be at least 7 reverse-temporally-viewed interpretations of the facts. ;-)
Japan plane was fine , the problem was fuel quality , after war test show ki84 , n1k and ki100 , a7m with allied fuel would out performance p51-47 , lucky for everyone the japanese fuel was shit
Great irony of history that the Japanese never seemed to survey their conquests to see what they contained. Japan had little petroleum, and should have been looking for gas spews and oil seeps at the surface that indicate oil fields below. It's amazing that Japan never discovered the huge Daqing field in Manchuria. Had they done so, their fuel problems would have been solved, and no need to grab land toward an eventual war over the Dutch East Indies.
Germany fought in the Libyan oil fields to try to get to the suez and middle east oil but they were standing on large reserves the whole time
Japan did not have the 20/20 hindsight people enjoy today.
Be kind... they were new to Colonialism.
Yes that's all true. Easier said than done in the 1930s and 40s especially during a three front war.
Japanese annual oil requirements (1941):
Civilian economy: 27 mil bbl
Army: 17 mil bbl
Navy: 18 mil bbl
Japanese domestic annual production:
1.5 mil from Hokkaido
1.5 mil from Synthetic oil
That oil field produces 600,000bbl a DAY. Or 219mil a year.
Japan did incredible things in our timeline with measly resources in the first half of the Pacific War, and won nearly every battle up until Midway. I am certain that if Japan had discovered this it could have changed the course of history, but only barely. Since Japan also lacked metals for shipbuilding, but that did not become as severe until 1942. Japan sought to go guns blazing in the first 6 months of the war. If Japan could not negotiate peace during that time they considered the war lost.
@@user-pn3im5sm7k being a very very small tiny tiny island nation lacking in natural resources, Japan still did a good job of challenging the US of A, the richest, most monstrous industrial country in the world for more than a year up to the mid of 1943. Moreover, Japan only started industrialization in 1868, a mere 73 years in 1941.
I suppose the priority for the Zero was because the naval fighter could help win them the war at sea. By the time the Americans were so close that Japan needed an interceptor and bomber destroyer, the war was already as good as lost. Realistically Japan was doomed to lose the war after losing at Guadalcanal (some would argue they were doomed right from the start).
True. Japan bit off more than they could chew. No naval superiority, no secure supply lines, no industrial base. Airplanes would not have helped without those fundamentals.
Right from the start.
They arguably couldn't handle China, much anything else, especially with hilariously combative branches of their armed services
Agree 100%. I suspect they knew they could not win a protracted war with the U.S. thus the "bold stroke" of Pearl Harbor. They were hoping to hit us so hard we would roll over and give up. Instead all they did was make us so mad we would not settle for anything short of abject, total and unconditional surrender. Google "Operation Downfall" to see how determined we were to defeat the Japanese. Especially look at the expected casualty numbers. It's scary!
@@tstodgellthey did have naval superiority early in the war
If I'm not mistaken Raiden is pronounced as Ri-den in Japan as in the code name of the guy in metal gear solid 2
ライデン is pronounced like rye-den which is what you are saying I think
@@xevious4142 exactly
It's pronouced raiden (雷電) or Rye-den if you're hukt on fonix. To my eyes "ri-den" reads like "ree-den" if you use muricanese
@@tstodgell Mostly it just bothered me a little that IHYLS kept on pronouncing it as RAY-den like the Mortal Kombat character
@@joshpetersen5968 I think that was intentional and cheeky.
A few things about drag to unpack here. While it's true that in-line engines had a smaller frontal cross section, they did require radiators, and radiators had large frontal areas and contributed quite a bit of drag. While you could recover some of that through thrust generated by the Meredith Effect, with proper design you could also recover some thrust in the same way from a radial engine. The drag caused by frontal area of a radial can be mitigated by the use of a large spinner blanking off parts of the engine's frontal area, and the use of a tight cowl, leaving a narrow annular space between the two. This was really all the frontal area needed for the cooling air, you can see this on the Raiden, the FW-190, the Sea Fury, the later Lavochkins and racing conversions of the Bearcat. For some reason Grumman, Chance-Vought and Republic never seem to have used this even post-WW2, though you did see it on the XP-72. Cooling fans were also used in the FW-190 and the Sea Fury, and possibly others as well.
Right, I was thinking that as well. Engine cooling is THE problem that all of these designs face and wether that are liquid or air cooled the amount of heat still has to be rejected out into the atmosphere somehow. There are some efficiency gains in using thicker radiators but those are offset by the weight of coolent.
The FW190’s cooling fan trick makes good sense in that design because the fan ran air directly over a pressurized/armored oil reservoir between the engine and the prop. The air from the fan would have had negligible cooling without such an effect. All in all though it makes the 190 one of the best fighters of WW2 IMO.
@@JimmySailor I remember having an argument about this many years ago on Usenet - there was a thread where there were people making the other argument - that because inline engines used radiators and radial engines had NO radiators, radial engines would therefore have less drag.. 😂 The truth, I think, lies in between somewhere - both have parasitic drag caused by frontal area and wetted area - which come out ahead depends on specific cases. One might also note that liquid-based cooling systems also weigh something.
There's a few other factors to consider - first, you can make much bigger radials reliable than inline engines. No replacement for displacement was still very much a thing in WW2, and japan had great troubles making a reliable inline. Second, radials are generally a third less in weight, cost, and materials used - if high maneuverability is a design consideration, then it makes a lot of sense to take the weight reduction bonus by using a radial engine, drag be damned (or for the same weight you can get a much bigger displacement radial engine).
The J2M also uses a cooling fan. The real problem was that Mitsubishi Kasei engine was absolutely giant for the amount of power it produced.
Air cooled engines are also better able to withstand battle damage than water cooled.
The end commentary of "do Imperial Japan have a RUclips channel?" Is just the humor touch needed. Great!
The design philosophy is for what would called a “Point Defense” fighter. A duration of just 1 hour was all that was required. You could consider that the early BF 109’s and even early Hurricanes and Spitfires fit into this category.
The Me-163 is an extreme example of a point defense fighter.
The wing shape, fuselage chunkiness reminds me of those golden age air racers. I have this 1/32 kit awaiting after the lesser Revvell kits went in the trash building them as a teen. At 60 I will prevail this time! It'd wonderfully detailed.🥰
The great Japanese ace Saburo Sakai writes about seeing the Raiden for the first time, in his memoir. He felt they would finally be on equal terms with the enemy.
My fav WW2 Japanese Aircraft. The speeds for Japanese Aircraft can be very misleading, the quality of fuel used was low and build quality of the aircraft varied wildly. The early aircraft built were probably the best examples. When the US tested the J2M3 using 92 octane fuel, speeds between 407-417 mph were recorded.
"Couldn't find info about combat over the Philippines."
As it happened, Tommy McGuire was looking to increase his score, 38 kills, second highest scoring AAF ace, over the Philippines and ran into a Japanese ace flying a Raiden. Unfortunately, he got the jump on McGuire's wingman. Ironically at low altitude, McGuire tried a tight turn to save his wingman, with drop tanks still attached, something he always taught less experienced P-38 pilots to never do, and he got into a high speed stall and died in the resulting crash. The Raiden driver got his wingman cold. A bad day for the USAAF P-38 community...
Interesting that you mention Raiden in reference to video games twice, but didn't note that the main character from MGS2 is explicitly mentioned in-game as being named after the aircraft. I guess if you know, you know, but it might not come up in research when you're not familiar with the franchise.
Also, as others have noted, the correct pronunciation is ~'rye-den'. Japanese phonology is actually really simple and consistent; it sounds like what it looks like (in romaji), and seeing as you'll likely be discussing a lot of Japanese topics, it'd be well worth the ten or fifteen minutes to familiarise yourself with how to pronounce it.
Great video as always, I'm really not trying to be pissy, just hoping to help.
The Raiden isn't as big and bulky as it initially looks, it's obviously bigger than a Zero, but the weight is comparable to a Shiden, Hayate, or Reppu. There are a few factors that make it look bigger than it is.
First, the engine, the Kasei was wider than even the larger Homare engine because it was a 14 cylinder engine rather than 18, so each cylinder had to be larger. Even so, the cowling was tight around the engine, and was no wider than the Shiden (which used a Kasei in its seaplane guise).
Second, the fuselage widens a bit after the engine, this was to minimize drag by making the fuselage as aerodynamic as possible. This worked in a windtunnel, but didn't work out as well in real world because they didn't account for the effect of the prop wash.
Third, it's a razorback. As you mentioned, most Japanese fighters used bubble tops to improve visibility, but since the Raiden was trying to minimize drag, they went with a razorback, which makes the plane look bigger from the side.
Fourth, the fuselage section behind the pilot is actually quite short, which combined with the height of the razorback makes the plane look rather bulbous.
Also worth noting, just like the Fw190, that fan in the intake is primarily for cooling the engine, not for intaking more air into the engine itself. An opening that size is more than enough to provide the engine with enough air to run (see any liquid cooled V engine) but not enough to keep an air cooled engine cool without the help of a fan. It also has the secondary benefit of giving a little more pressure to the supercharger intake. The downside is that it obviously robs the engine of some power to run the fan. Still, like the Fw190, it was determined that the benefits to drag reduction outweighed the the power loss in the most important flight regimes.
I'd argue that this also explains why they went with the Kasei over a V engine. Through clever engineering, they were able to reduce the drag of the Raiden to less than that of many liquid cooled V engined fighters, and at that point, why not take the extra power it offered?
Other errata: they also drew up plans for a turbosupercharged variant of the Raiden, similar to what they were doing with the Reppu. It likely would have make an excellent interceptor if they could pull it off, but we'll never know.
It's actually a lot more nimble than it looks in games like War Thunder. It's no Zero of course, but it's far from clumsy.
@@Arthion It looks pretty chubby, but has lower wingloading than a spitfire mk9. Even when making interceptors, japan still made wonderfully flying aircraft.
One plane model was never going to save Imperial Japan. The problems in the empire ran much deeper than sticking with an outdated fighter design until the end of the war.........
Totally agree with you, The Raiden could no more save Japan than the ME-262 could save Germany.
IF this plane proved a threat to the B-29s then I can easily see P-long range 51's being rapidly transferred to the Pacific theater.
Or maybe being escorted by P-38 Lightnings
@@johnfisher9692Iirc the P-38 didn't have a long enough range. (I could be wrong don't quote me on that)
@@StuGLyfe P-38 had a LOT of range, easily enough to contend with a P-51.
He did say “hypothetically” but yes I agree the problems went much deeper
@@neighborhoodturnt Yes, when discussing what could've happened as opposed to what actually happened, you are always talking HYPOTHETICALLY. He didn't even have to say it, as the discussion could've been nothing but hypothetical in nature, my friend.
I’m always amazed at the pilots ability to think out of the box in an emergency. I’m in an uncontrolled dive. Let’s drop the landing gears.. it saved the day
I suppose the pilot recognised the loss of control was at the same time the undercarriage was raised.
I was surprised how large a Zero was when I finally saw one in a museum. It has a larger wingspan and length than a Wildcat, for example.
The big difference between US and Japanese, German pilots, was the US removed Top aces from active duty to train new pilots. While Axis powers kept their Aces in combat roles, eventually losing them to combat fatalities. Running out of qualified pilots.
Holy cow the "tail wheel activates the elevators” is kinda a problem.. amazing the figured it out
I think another consideration in favor of the radial engine might have been that it would have been more robust in surviving battle damage and not be hindered by the possibility of engine coolant leaks due to cooling system damage.
Another interesting feature of the plane was in the use of laminar flow design principles of its wings, similar to that of the P-51 Mustang, that would further reduce drag and increase performance.
Great video
A long awaited video, keep it up
Love that Shigeo Koikei Hasegawa box-art.
Hasegawa box art has always been the best I often wish they would print enlarged posters for framing they are so detailed.
@@HughBond-kx7ly I think you can order Koike prints from Japan.
@@HughBond-kx7lythe old Airfix box art was also very good, with some of the box art now very rare, not sure if it's valuable but it is rare😊, I used to repurpose my boxes so I could justify keeping them, consequently I still have quite a few from the good old days.
I believe the drag argument in favour of inline engines is largely irrelevant. Inline engines need radiators and cooling plumbing etc etc., thus increasing drag. They are also more vulnerable to enemy fire due to increased length and all that plumbing. And they are heavier for a LB/Kg per hp ratio.There are numerous examples of radial-engine WW2 aircraft easily surpassing 400mph. In short, fit what you've got as long as it can function satisfactorily in a particular airframe. Which is what happened, obviously.
I think the Schneider trophy series influenced designers, but the problems that looked difficult turned out to be soluble. Increasing horsepower also played a role.
I would love it if you made an episode about the J7W Shinden, the Super Corsair or the SB2C Helldiver.
she has some beautiful lines, pretty plane
A hirokoshi design!
Most of the Japanese fighters looked good .The KI 61 is my favourite..Same engine as the Bf 109 and similar performance but much better aesthetics.
Not just the Raiden but Mitsubishi was also working on A7M Reppu which just reduce the production rate of each of them
Definitely learned something!!!
15:15 I don't know if this is a photo of a prototype because if you look closely the port side Oleo strut or it's hinge is already bent forward. Or is the starboard oleo bent back?🤔Either way it obviously had weak landing gear!
The Raiden had as much of a "chance" to save Japan as the Fw-190 for Germany.
Almost none.
Yup, this plane was Barely faster than a Zero, but still vastly slower than allied fighters. and with less maneuverability than lighter Japanese planes, this leaves it overall even more vulnerable and less effective as a fighter in WW2. If more had been used, it would have made no difference to the war.
wrong.
The japanese never could have won the war. NEVER. Their economic disadvantages, including logistic desaster from the get go means they never could have won a real war with the US of A.
But to beat the sh1t out of UK and take over the dutch and french colonies, it could have worked.
this is just not the point.
The point is - a plane planned in 1938 and with some more support ready to engage (say the most problems solved around the time of Pear means the japanese could have produced say 200-400 of them, each iteration better. So a well performing fast and stable heavily armed (4x20mm) japanese fighter who is superior to most of the allied planes around Guadalcanal - with a good range - could cause a lot more allied casulties, casulties that could have a huge impact.
Say - the allies lose next to wasp and hornet ALSO the enterprise and the japanese do not gut their best pilots, losing only half of them. That is realistic, because most japanese casulties were based on the weak airframe of the then absolute inferior Zero.
Think about how long they kept the Zero-2 and Zero-3 versions, who had - against half competitive american and allied pilots no chance and every damage meant "sure death" - and then think about it if these pilots - more important - the less "elite" ones sit in the Raiden J2M-4 version. That plane is BETTER then the hellcat and heavily armed and armored. So less AA casulties - again more japanese carrier planes reach their targets (getting slaughtered, but if 50 instead of 10 reach their goal....) and propably higher american ship losses. This could be a battleship, cruisers, oilers or destroyers... That create a cascade of other impacts. Americans getting higher casulties mean they act more cautious or do not - for example get the chance of the slaughter in the bismarck-sea, these troops reach the area, means 3 months more of battle, etc.
The end is always the same, with F7F and F8 coming around even the best japanese fighter planes will be obsolete, the same with more and more P47 and P51.
But to say "no effect" would be a lie.
By the way - you could do the same about the Aichi D7 Grace. Already start to production was late 1942, a vastly superior and much better naval bomber, with torpedo- and bombing capabilities, a large range and very good speed. F4Fs would be helpless, even a F6F has to get full throttle to catch it (and is then not the best plane).
So, if this plane had been produced in numbers - so instead of only 1 in dec 1942 and through 1943 6 and around 40 in 1944 - lets play with numbers.
Say 30 in 1942, 300 in 1943 and 600 in 1944.
They could not operate from the old carriers, but they are a pain in the a§§ for attacking carrier forces if they engage from land bases.
The next plane - even if not as good as these two (and still navy plane) was the D4 Suisei, already in production in 1940!
It was around 100km/h faster as the older Stuka, the Val and could carry 300kg heavier bombs.
With some more production early on (the mass production started way to late - a smart japanese empire could have build it from 1941 on (basically replacing the Vals from mid42, so casulties from midway in planes could have been replaced, instead of waiting for more Vals comming online)
It had the same deficits and failures as the other naval planes, but it was faster, had a greater range and a heavier load. With modifications (and some "rethinking") i bet 1000kg-bombs in a version could have been possible. So instead of 1000pounds per bomb 2000pounds could hit an allied ship. More damage for the bucks, right?
And there is the Ki-84 and the N1K1-J, both planes that could have been produced MUCH earlier in larger numbers.
The real bottle neck of the imperial japanese a§§holes government was that they produced way to little up to the point it was to late.
And this is good, because even the nazi crimes look harmless if you compare them to the monster crimes the japanese committed.
But basically spoken from the military pov, the japanese could have performed MUCH better, with
a.) some real existing planes being produced much earlier (The N1K1-Js from Day 1 parallel to the float plane design give the japanese a long distance superior fighter (that could compete in late 44 with the most modern american designs, so think about what it could have done to the older and less performant planes)
b.) produce MUCH more of the planes they have, produce much more numbers. They could do that, in worse economic and military situations, so it was their "wilL" and not their abilities.
@@steffenjonda8283I think he means almost since it’s an absolute and there is a chance for everything. I do agree with you that Japan could never have won as do I think with Germany but again absolutes are extreme by definition
Good looking plane. Looks like a little sports car
I always thought the Raiden's lengthened propeller shaft in order to lengthen and streamline the cowl should have been done more.
@@alan6832 yeah it's a clever design
It's army counterpart was the Ki-44
An advanced plane just coming into production meant nothing… if this conflict had extended into 1946 you would have seen both P80 shooting stars and British Gloster Meteors( jet fighters) there. The Americans also were already building Grumman Bearcats and Tigercats. There was just little chance of Japan not becoming a radioactive wasteland with a communist north if the war had continued
To say Jiro Horikoshi was 'a designer of theirs (Mitsubishi) is a bit like saying gold is a metallic element.
You mean 100% accurate, I take it.
12:00 oh no fashbacks to flight school with the graphs :D Grüße
>Raiden
STANDING HERE
Nothing short of a miracle could've saved Japan. I really love the look of this plane. Stubby and compact, but also sleek and curvaceous.
Great video, one of my favorite aircraft among less know or less popular ones. Looks weird yet very cool in the same time. But there is a big question what I cannot solved for years, even decades: Why the hell they put two different 20mm cannons in the same time on the same aircraft, and only on this type? Yes, I know that pre-A6 Fw-190 models had MG-FF/M and MG150/20 mixed, but that's a rare example and the case maybe that the MG151/20 was still on the running up production. But what is matter with the J2M? Just like the MG-FF/M vs. MG151/20 the Type 99-I vs. Type 99-II (or Mark 1 and Mark 2) had little in common except the working principle a general layout, but the ballistics and most importantly the ammunition were very very different (20×72RB vs. 20×101RB). As for Japanese the logistics always was a nightmare. So providing not only one type, but two different type of 20mm ammo. Or was this the intended goal? If you cannot serve both because the supply chain gaps at least you can serve one of the pairs? Because if this would be the case why only the J2M had this configuration, why not the N1K, and other IJN (Naval Air Force) tpyes?
Big question for me and I could never had the answer, if you know it, please enlighten me. Thank you!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_J2M
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_99_cannon
How do the sizes and specs compare with the P-47?
You can fit almost every other major fighter inside a P47, maybe aside from a Corsair since they are similar in weight. For specs, it depends on the P47. A P47M beats every other propeller fighter in speed, with trials giving a 475-480mph but crews reporting straight line speeds in excess of 500mph. A P47D is around 430-440mph. Off the top of my head, I think the P47M is around 3,500-3800fpm. I don’t remember the P47D’s climb ratte
O)fc they could never had built or fuelled enough of these bad boys to make a differences.
Very happy our RAAF Beaufighters didn't meet these in the air going about their business.
The trim problem may have been MCAS, but it's not Boeing...
It has to be this way
Nice cigar shape, just needs a whiskey to go with it
The US should have codenamed the J2M "Fatty", 'Chunky", or "Chubb Rock". Even had they produced them in quantity, the lack of range the J2M had would have made them kind of useless in the South and Central Pacific, which is why the IJN still wanted Zeroes, even for land based IJN fighter units and the carriers, because everything the IJN did doctrinally was built on outranging the USN. The J2M might have been the Japanese Corsair had they modified it by lengthening the fuselage and adding more fuel, but that would probably have delayed it to infinity and also killed the top speed, so not really a solution, unless the IJN had developed a radial comparable to the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp.
Allies had broken Japanese encryption codes, and were sinking their tankers like hotcakes with their low grade oil. Japanese required the reporting of where their ships were every 24 hours, thank you very much! Subs were waiting. No fuel? Hard to fight a war.
...Thinks about creating "Imperial Japan" YT channel.
Inline engines needs cooling system. For high performance it has to be designed, built and then serviced with great care and precision. Japanese lacked all of that. That would affect reliability of whole plane. Guess choice of simplier radial solution was smart way to go.
I am completely convinced our guy mixes meters, pounds, and MPH together just to equally confuse every single one of his audience 😂
A modellers favourite. Just build one my self
3:14 are the propeller blades missing or spinning? If the latter, that guy's got some balls to be standing where he is
Kurt Tank tried the same fan concept on the FW190
The TA 152 or a D9 Long nose?
I think another reason they went with the Kasei engine was that the build quality of the Aichi engine was far below that of Mitsubishis own engines.
I just looked in my book on Japanese aero engines and it mentions the specification was changed to the Mitsubishi MK4 Kasei.
What's up with Japanese aircraft paint, in just about all the photos of the period it looks chipped and warn away?
It isn't, though it looks like it in the OG photos. That's just the way they hand-painted with brushes green camouflage in the field over the standard factory paint, leaving streaks and squares of the undercoat exposed, which was usually a grayish color. Guess shipping paint sprayers to island airfields just wasn't a thing.
@@picklerick8785 Ah, yes that makes sense, thankyou
I'm building the Tamiya model right now!!!!
Also, K.I. not. "Key."
I had a miniature of WW2 planes when I was a kid and this one was one of my favourites. Quite chunky!
@franciscoduarteauthor it's like a miniature P-47. At least, that's what it reminds me of.
Do you mean as in Ki-43? Japan doesn't use the Latin phonetic alphabet so it is in fact said like "Key"
No. KI is pronounced "key"
@@brothergrimaldus3836samewise! 😂
I mean no offense but, from the moment they decided to hold territory in China ca. 1937, Japan couldn't win. They ensured their utter defeat by attacking Pearl Harbor. The relative effectiveness of weapons is irrelevant when a small country attacks a big country or two or more. And?
Japan didn't build a single airplane, much less a production model, that could seriously compete with American planes at high altitude. They were a whole generation behind in superchargers. Some of them, like the Jack, could struggle up to B-29s but they were, at best, marginal at that altitude and helpless against a P-51 or P-38 or P-47N.
The Jack was a pretty good interceptor but NOTHING could save Japan.
Radial haters overlook that the first two fighters to exceed 400 mph in level flight were the F4U and P-47.
wrong.
The Focke Wulf 190... you seem to be UScentric?
@@steffenjonda8283no he is kinda right. The XF4U Corsair is generally agreed upon to be the first radial and single engined fighter to fly in excess of 400mph in level flight. The experimental P38s could also achieve speeds excess of 400mph. For planes that never made it to service the He 100 with one briefly breaking the speed record
@@apersondoingthings5689 The He 100 was in service, even if only in a small batch.
Forget all the BS you read about the "superior" american planes, the german AND british ones were better.
And the Do335 - with its incredible high cruising speed was the best of them all. It was as fast CRUSING as others were at max speed. You know what this mean, right?
@@steffenjonda8283 the He 100 was literally rejected by Germany. The only use of them was the defense of Heinkels factories by heinkel themselves. The Do 335 also never went into service and was also a Fighter/bomber. Sure it had a fast cruising speed and top speed but that means next to nothing if your plane is a maneuverable as a brick. It also doesn’t mean anything if an enemy dives on you or if it is a P47M which beats a Do-335 in speed. German fighters were good for their intended roles but were not great outside of them. Bf 109s and FW 190s were considerably worse at high altitude performance than P51s, P47s, and griffon and late powered Merlin engined spitfires. The best high altitude fighter Germany had in number was the FW-190D and Bf-109Ks which had their performance drop above 20,000 feet which didn’t happen for allied fighters. The best places the German fighters performed was at medium to low altitudes but even still allied fighters like the Corsair and Tempest were better there
@@apersondoingthings5689 Again, a lot of crap from american focused guys.
Nope and nope again.
The Do335 had a higher cruising speed as most allied planes max speed. So to catch a Do335 you need to be in the bette position AND to dive on them. The chance to achive this is VERY small. And if the Do335 accelerate, it can easily run away.
It do not need to manouver, it uses zoom and boom, just like the americans did with most of the slower japanese planes, that otherwise could outmanover any american plane.
And you miss the point i made.
The Do335 was much better then anything the americans had. Worse, the germans could have them 2 years earlier, even if the performance then would be a bit worse.
The germans best fighterplane was the the FW190D, replaced by the even MUCH better TA-152H, but all these planes had no impact because the air war was long lost.
But we do not talk about "how could germany win the air war in western europe" but who had the best planes.
The problem is, the american planes were vastly inferior to the Me262, all of them. And the Me262 was only the first "try", with engines quite crappy (because the germans could not use much of the rare metals they needed, but they overcome that problem in early 1945 and the final production run had quite a good maintanence time for them), the Do335 was perfectly usable to kill bombers, removing the need to slow down all the Bf109s that had to carry more armor (against the defence fire) and the very heavy guns they had to carry - because the american 4mots needed 30mm-guns to get killed, these were slow firing and were heavy.
But also for that the germans had found the solution - you know it (maybe, if you watch british planes post-war) as the Aden-gun, the best cannon post-ww2. It was the 1:1 copy of a german mauser cannon, in 20 and 30mm.
so add this best gun with the superior german planes and - voila, nothing the allies could bring into the air could compete.
Still - no change in the end of the war.
That was my point. But i do not tolerate lies and BS from people who propably had to google the names of foreign designs, belive in "our boys were the best" - they weren´t, germans, finns, romanians, italians, russians had much better pilots then them, in all aspects. What the US of A had, tenthousends of good planes and 100.000 average trained pilots, able to shoot and fly. But there was no honor, no "good achivements" by them. Just material superiority in numbers.
So what upsets you and all the other fanboys is the fact that all your movies are wrong and you know it. The enemy had these aces, the good pilots (who did not kill helpless enemy pilots after bailing out) then your bunch did it - by order and propaganda. The enemy had the vastly superior pilots who could kill at will your pilots, even in vastly inferior planes - because Maverick is right - it is the pilot stupid. The tenthousend average pilots, flying against german untrained ones, who - by fuel restrictions got only 10hours in their planes, barley able to fly their planes encountered massivly superior numbers of bette trained pilots in much better planes. That won the air war. But again, no heroes, no wonder guys. Just a simple game-of-numbers.
Still, the germans finally got the better planes, better weapons - but way to late.
And here, with the question what could change, this was answered.
This was too little too late Japanese industries couldn't produce in any significant numbers and by 1944 there was shortage of experienced pilots to operate it.
Already in early 1942 the ubiquitous 7.7 mm MG was showing itself less than efficiently effective against US planes. I'm surprised it took so long to go to all 20 mm guns, especially since bombers, the plane's intended target, tended to be fairly robust.
Only Mortal Kombat I ever played was X, and I actually did enjoy Raiden the most
Heh I got a Hasegawa model with damn near identical box art to the thumbnail :D
Only different is mine have a yellow lighting strike on the side and different tail number
Couldn't avoid to put the Mortal Kombat song in the background 😸
Raiden pilots could not see s.... at night. USAAF B-29s moved mostly to low level night ops in early spring 1945. They could fly at under 10.000 feet altitudes over Japan, because Japanese didnt even had radar controlled flak. :facepalm: LeMay ordered B-29s to fly without defensive ammo, because blue on blue incidents would had caused more losses than flying without defensive armament. Tells something about level where Japanese night fighter force was... Japan was in many ways developing country, and Allied Germany first policy was warranted. Germany being 10 times tougher enemy. US allocated about half of its armed forces resources against Germany, Brits vast majority, Soviets all. In addition of lend lease program to reinforce GB and USSR. Same time United States crushed Japan with its left hand.
Johnny Cage.
Also when I think of Raiden and video games, I think of the top-down shooter, not Mortal Kombat :D
I remember that
Engine reliability, Germans have a great word for that. Autobahnfest. When your car or motorbike can withstand high power and high speed, for entire days, then it is Autobahnfest. That is similar to the fighter planes, your life depended on the quality of that engine.
"Doktor turn off my cringe inhibitors."
"But Raiden you'll lose subscriber"
Like ‘key’ for ‘K-I’.
In my opinion Japan was way too overconfident in the zero. Sure it was an amazing fighter in the 30s and early 40s. But come the mid and late war and it was hopelessly outmatched by the hellcat and Corsair. And unlike the BF-109 weight was far too much of an issue to continue upgrading it to remain competitive.
They really should’ve seen it as more of a stopgap and focused on designs like the raiden and began developing the A7M reppu much sooner than they really did.
They have the good design but they lack the raw materials to build it in quantity to be effective and the fuel to fly it.
@@VIDEOVISTAVIEW2020 then how’d they build and fuel so many zeros?
@@solarflare623 that was possible in the early days of the war. But the US submarines effective unrestricted warfare against the Japanese shipping lanes, Japan started to run out of iron ore, metal alloys and oil supplies starting mid of 1943.
@@VIDEOVISTAVIEW2020 they’d still be able to produce a more effective naval fighter under those conditions.
Think of it this way:
A carrier only has so much space to carry aircraft. If you produce cheaper less effective planes you are still limited by the limited space onboard your carriers.
On a land based airfield you can choose between 200 expensive planes or 500 cheap planes.
However on a carrier you can only choose between 200 cheap planes or 200 expensive planes due to your limited hangar space and the fact the planes you have are essentially the ones you’re stuck with until you return to your home port which could potentially be months or even years. So you it only makes sense to choose the more expensive but better preforming planes to get more value out of your limited capacity.
Thus with naval fighters you essentially have a bottleneck on how many planes you can produce. The US knew this when they designed the F8F bearcat.
if you actually read Zero pilot accounts and accounts of japanese commanders, they were under no illusions about the Zeros shortcomings throughout the war. The Radien was barely faster, and less maneuverable. it was not going to make any difference. Also, the Zero was a NAVY fighter, the Raiden an ARMY fighter. literally two wholly different roles.
This narrator ignores Japan's lack of resources. Which was a large part of Japan's strategy for their territorial expansion. They lacked the material supplies (oil, iron, steel, aluminum, rubber, factories, food) for all the things they needed to build. By 1944 America was building ships in around 42 days, and by the end of the war the just the Ford Willow Run plant, was building the B-24 in less then two days with one bomber coming off the line ever hour., Japan was struggling to build ships and planes. Japan was loosing hardware at a much faster rate than they could replace them. That is not even counting the loss of pilots, sailors, they could not sustain the needed war time production. At the end it was a combination of bad tactics and attrition.
You're right. They could have had the best fighter in the world but they were sending dismally trained pilots at the end compared to the Americans
Nope. The japanese started to produce lots of planes with all these limitations, in worse situations. So this is just a myth.
@@steffenjonda8283 When Japan occupied French Indochina in 1941, America retaliated by freezing all Japanese assets in the states, preventing Japan from purchasing oil. Having lost 94% of its oil supply and unwilling to submit to U.S demands, Japan planned to take the oil needed by force.
@@acerx203 I know that.
But - japan could raise its production with LESS ressources in a brutal war extremly.
So, instead of building 5% replacement for the carrier force, they should have planned 400% casulty rate. So with around 600 carrier planes, produce 2400 in 1939, the same in 1940 and doubling in 1941. WIth this they could have restart their production for the Grace (already in build in 1940!), Judy and Myrth. Ad the J1M, you increase the performance of the japanse naval airforce (with not even touching their harsh training pool and limited pilots)
Also, upgrades for the Zero-2 should have been started already in early 1942, then in mid 1942 and early 43. So basically plan to improve your core plane every 6 months. Just like - for example the british did with their Spitfire.
Again, look at the japanese engine production. They had magnificent engines, overlooked is that these engines very often run on "sh1t", with 68 octane and still worked good.
Instead of corruption and infights, they needed a streamlined job, with scientists to develop engines, like germany did with the Daimler-Benz-600ers, and then produce as much of them as possible.
The japanese failed, because they planned the engines for their limited airplane row. If you plan only 100 Vals in 1942, you need only 110 engines for it... such BS did they.
Yes, no victory possible, but a japanese production system producing numbers in 1940 as they started in 1943 and the numbers of 1944 in 1941, they could have at least produce SOME numbers, fill up all their carriers all the time with planes and these planes aren´t the last outdated ones but the most modern.
Just like all others did.
Basically, the japanese system meant, that if germany had done that, they had flown BF109-E2s in 1945. Just to make a point. But at that stage, germany produced the BF109Ks. And they produced thousends of them, per month. Even with bombardment round the clock.
Japan lacked that, because they never thought about it up to the moment it was to late.
So, change that attitude, raise production early (as i say, with start of the war against china, 1937) and you get at least the production numbers in 1941 you got in 1944. So after producing enough Zero-2, they can switch to Zero3 and Zero3a, produce tons of them, replace the older ones for backyard duties (instead of the outdated sh1t they were forced to use even in frontline units at Coral Sea) and then produce the Zero-5, not in late 1943 but in mid1942. This reduce your casulty rate dramatically, because your enemy still lack the ability to field its total superiority.
Also, if you remove the hostilities between Army and Navy (yeah, nearly impossible, just want to point another improvement), you get the best anti-submarine-plane with the best gear, so the chance to detect and fight the most deadiliest enemy (american subs) would be dramatically improved. Add in that the navy denied the army convoy protection and vice versa, that means sometimes merchants from the navy had no protection, sometimes the army, that is NOT good if your enemy has material superiorities, this all give japan a lot of "improvements".
Also, the bomber capacities of japanese planes was a joke, a bad joke. So a nation limited by fuel needed a lot bombers to put some tiny bombload to the enemy. A joke.
I once heared the germans offered the japanese plans of their 500kg, 1000kg, 1800kg bombs, the japanese arrogantly denied, they said they had no need for them.
Later, they lacked high penetration bombs to destroy carriers and battleships.
Some hits by japanese bombs were less destructive, most bombs were 125kg and 250kg bombs, not 500 and 1000kgs, worse, they even did NOT plan their newer bomber to carry such bombs.
Now look at UK. They had at the beginn of the war tiny 250pounds and some 500pounds, later added quickly 1000 and then 2000pound bombs, then the 4000pound bombs, that were able to hurt any ship.
The different mindset of the japanese was so weired, in the same time these brutal butchers slaughtered merciless in a way, not even the brigade Dirlewanger would have done (and these were the most evil and brutal bastards in europe, ever)
So, simple thing:
If you start a war (in china), start your economy into war mode, produce enough of everything you need, in acceptable numbers. This means, you need LOTS of planes, the actual and more modern ones. Japan HAD such planes, the J1Ms were ready in 1940, but lack of research costed them 3 years and more and then they produced only SOME.
The same with the N1K1, they had the best naval plane, but they were fixed on a floatplane. Just remove the float and you get the best japanese naval airplane. This could have happened in 1941. So, with enough production, the J1NK2 could have been in combat above guadalcanal instead of outdated Zero mark2 at guadalcanal.
The range was - with drop tanks as good or better as that of the Zero3, so air cover for bombers, even carrier based bombers could be possible. No good info for the americans in the slot, right? Suddenly the operation could be to risky for them or - if they had landed the marines already, they suffer high casulties without getting high japanese casulties, too.
@@steffenjonda8283 You need fuel for all those engines, and they had a noticeable drop in fuel quality as the war dragged on. Fuel quality degrades engine performance.
The Japanese Thunderbolt.🌩
Japan had more fighter aircraft designs that reached significant production figures than ALL of the other combatant nations in WW 2.
During the war Japan only produced 76,000 planes in total, while the U.S. alone produced over 324,000 planes.
@@richardstephens5570 worse, most of them were build in 1944-1945, in 1941-1942 they produced basically - nothing.
Tail wheel retract. When you want every last bit of speed.
Thanks for the video. I know this required quite a bit of research.
For anyone who knows anything at all about the Pacific theater in WWII, your clickbaity title will induce some major eye-rolling.
this plane was Barely faster than a Zero, but still vastly slower than allied fighters. and with less maneuverability than lighter Japanese planes, this leaves it overall even more vulnerable and less effective as a fighter in WW2. If more had been used, it would have made no difference to the war.
Wrong
@@steffenjonda8283 not wrong.
J2M: 361mph
A6M: 331mph
P-40E: 361mph
P-39Q: 389mph
J2M was barely faster than the A6M and was as slow as fighters the US began WW2 with.
@@SoloRenegade It had more firepower, could absorb more damage, had a much higher cruising speed (a huge advantage) and could kill bombers. That is a huge improvement.
For the carrier based planes it was no choice, the p39 was flying shi1, the P40 was a land based army plane. Just like the japanese, the americans had huge problems with Navy and army.
So if you face the F4F, you have a plane with - wait for it 310 miles per hour... so what do you try to hide?
By the way, the P39Q came online in - 1944. Yeah, at this time that flying sh1t had zero chance agaist a then competitive japanese plane... so try again honey :D
@@steffenjonda8283 The P-39 scored a positive kill ratio against the Zero in the South Pacific in 1942/1943, and served into Korea with the Soviet Air Force. US pilots admitted being overly harsh on it and it served with the US in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, South Pacific, Philippines, etc. at least until 1944. It was a far better plane than given credit for and even proved it could takeoff and land from carriers. And it was better than the J2M. Most Soviet top Aces scored most of their kills in the P-39.
The P-39, P-40, and P-51A were stated by the USAAF to be the best turning fighters of WW2 in the US inventory.
F4F was 330mph same as the Zero. But yes, slower than the J2M. But by the time the J2M was ready the F6F and F4U were already the main US Navy fighters. So you basically admit that with the J2M, Japan finally built an airplane on par with US fighters from 1941 and earlier.
Combat records don't lie, the P-39 was a good aircraft. It only sucks in the minds of fools like you who are repeating myths and lies.
@@SoloRenegade The credit was zero, so any comment saying "it is no shi1" is better. That is simple.
But first, you lied about the original P39s speed, in fact the british found it very slow, with barly 550km/h in a mid-war-setup and nobody could kill an enemy plane with that slow firing 37mm-gun.
The russians loved the plane because it had a working system to shoot, was reliable and had for a ground attack plane a good load out. Still - there they died in numbers.
It wasn´t a good plane at all.
For the numbers against the Zero, mostly Zero2-late war, the conditions for the japanese were terrible, few planes, bad trained pilots against numerical superior numbers
So, instead of accepting a what-if, based on historical dates (and explanaitons) you cling to BS because you cannot or want not to accept that the japanese could have performed MUCH better as they did. Not by handwaving, just by producing the right planes
The same is true for the germans, the He219 was superior to the BF110, but both weren´t as good as the Ju-88, that is often overlooked as a night fighter. Still, more BF110 were build. Stupid.
They had a vastly superior twin engine fighter plane, the FW187, they crippled and ousted because Messerschmidt used his influence for the MUCH worse BF110.
So instead having a fast, nimble, long range fighter, that had a 50-100km/h speed advantage against the Hurricane, Spitfires I and II and Bf109, but could reach areas deep into UK (without drop tanks, heck, with drop tanks they could have give escort to bombers from Norway), they decided NOT to build them and allow the british quite often to massacre their bomber forces.
And NO, against some planes were did not exist a counter at any time.
Just like the germans -after losing their advantage in radar technology NEVER could close the gap, even after they pushed hard, the same is true for the allies and airplanes.
A Do335 with a little bit less performance (with DB600 and DB601-engines) would still outperform ANY allied plane at its time, reaching around 700km/h max and 630km/h at cruise speed, with a range of 2500km. In 1941-1942. The plane and its design was basically "finished", but then stopped for 3 years. Only to be restarted in 1943, mid-late 1943.
Again, no allied plane could have compete with such a german fighter with HEAVY armament.
Worse, such a german fighter, with heavy armament would remove the necessary of overloading the small Bf109 with heavy armor and armament to challenge the heavy american bombers.
For us in our TL it was good, because otherwise the nazis or japanese could have slaughtered more people, but if we talk about the war and changed things, it is still very interesting.
If Japan would have had 50 squadrons of F-18s they still would have lost the war. No pilots, no fuel, and no idea of how to run an empire or a war.
you know.
it's entirely within the realm of possibilities
that *somewhere* on the tube'y'all, there *is*
an imperial japanese channel...
Everyone was going to jets, silly title. Plane couldn't save a cupcake.
A6m = TIE Fighter J2M = TIE Defender
Audio is too sing-song to endure. Sorry.
It almost was a good fighter flying vertically, but the unreliability of that long driveshaft was its downfall.
i liked the rubber arm guy in mortal combat
Ok, one plane could not have saved Japan. With no Navy left and most of their best pilots dead not to mention being greatly out produced they were going to loose no matter what.
The plane that inspired Raiden from MGS2....
Bonjour , merci .
Hypothetically? Japan's pilot training capacity was totally inadequate, and too many experienced Japanese pilots were lost long before the home islands came under significant air attack. What made the Marianas Turkey Shoot the slaughter it was - still quite a distance from the home islands - was that so many of the IJN carrier pilots and IJA pilots were 3/4 trained and lacked "stick time". The interceptor concept also did not fit well with the Japanese emphasis on one-on-one dogfighting. The interceptor model of fighting would have been almost a military cultural change. All that is aside from the problem that Japanese industry lacked the capacity and flexibility to change over to new models while producing enough of old models during the change-over to produce the immediate needs of forces in combat.
Bro really decided to go band for band with Imperial Japan...
Japan didn't have the Industrial Capacity for Mass Production. Yamamoto warned them!!
The same thing can be told about the Ki-44 and Ki-43.
Horikoshi, of course, also led the design team that created the Zero. He was awfully good
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Horikoshi
once the marianas were taken they
could have had f14's and they still would have lost.
Definitely an interesting what-if.
Just a minor disagreement - I have rarely found hindsight to be anything close to 20-20. Given any four people there will be at least 7 reverse-temporally-viewed interpretations of the facts. ;-)
I liked Skorpion.
Sub-Zero all the way on the MK characters. :)
There was a reason that adm Yamamoto was against the war with the us he new they could not win the war
I have an un built Hasegawa kit of this.
The wind rises
And goes straight into a nosedive if it retracts its landing gear
Very sexy aircraft ❤ great video!
*No picture of my comment exists but it would probably looked like this
Japan plane was fine , the problem was fuel quality , after war test show ki84 , n1k and ki100 , a7m with allied fuel would out performance p51-47 , lucky for everyone the japanese fuel was shit
Can it build itself? Fly itself? Make its own fuel? If couldnt do these things it is not going to "save" anything.
Anyone saying "piece of hardware could have saved germany / japan" should never be taken seriously
Well, a piece of british technology saved lots of soldiers by intercepting messages
@christianl.e.l17 found the idiot
Could it catch atomic bombs and fly them somewhere safe?