JAPANESE PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1941, Page 5

JAPANESE PLANES

STRENGTH & PRINCIPAL TYPES FOREIGN LEAD FOLLOWED. PARTICULARS OF FIGHTERS & BOMBERS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. December 8. Though very .great secrecy has made it difficult to follow with any degree of certainty the detailed development of the Japanese naval and military aircraft, experts state that some trends in the policy and design have become apparent and can be roughly outlined. The Japanese have not so far brought, out any really original designs of their own, having preferred, to copy and develop foreign types. In certain cases this development has been carried to a point where the Japanese product can no longer be classed, in the same category as the foreign prototype. After being influenced in very early years by European builders, the Japanese show a very strongly-marked American influence. About three years ago the first-line strength was round 1900, of which about 1000 were naval types. Of these some 40 per cent were ship-borne, and the rest shore-based. Japan has now eight aircraft-carriers, and she claims that the strength of her air-borne aircraft is surpassed only by Britain and the United States, but to what extent expansion has been carried out is not stated.

The Japanese personnel is regarded as good. The discipline is strict and morale high. Experts, however, consider that her air arms are handicapped by slow-thinking and by text-book routine.

The modern Japanese fighters for both the navy (shore-based) and the army are single-engined, low-wing monoplanes with maximum speeds varying from 270 to 300 miles an hour at 15,000 feet. The majority are equipped with four guns—in some cases two cannons and two machineguns, and the remainder with four machine-guns. But there is a probability that a number of older-type fighters are still in use with speeds of 250 to 300 miles an hour, and carrying only two machine-guns. Included among these older types are a few biplanes with a speed around the 200 mark. The best-known of the heavy bomber type are the naval Mitsubishi T 96, and the army Mitsubishi T 97. These are twin-engined machines, the former a mid-wing monoplane showing a definite Junkers influence in design. Carrying on an average 20001 b with a range of about 1100 miles. The light bombers and reconnaissance aircraft are chiefly single-engined, low-wing planes with maximum speeds of 250 to 260 miles an hour, and maximum bornb-loads varying from 8001 b to 10001 b.

The two main reconnaissance floatplanes are the T 95 single-engined biplane with a single central float and two wing-tip floats, and the T 97 midwing monoplane with a twin float. This aircraft is very often used as a fighter, carrying no bombs. The most commonly used flying-boats are the three-engined T 96 Mitsubishi and the T 97.