(Klinkt onheilspellend, "Project Z", niet? Als het een of ander gevaarlijk project van een slechterik in een anime...
)Een aantal weken terug heb ik twee mooie setjes IJA bommen van het Japanse Ushi Models ontvangen, eigenlijk voor de Ginga, maar IJN en IJA wisselden geen munitie uit, dus dat ging niet door (en de IJN bommen die ik had besteld waren inmiddels ook op de post). Dus toen ging ik op zoek naar een IJA kit die die bommen zou kunnen dragen. Helaas vond ik alleen maar redelijk kleine bommenwerpers, en ik wilde een zware bommenwerper.
Toen kwam ik Project Z tegen. Een heus project voor een Japans superwapen, geheel in stijl van de Duitse Maus. Oversized en overpowered, en daarom eigenlijk een compleet nutteloos prestigeproject. In tegenstelling tot de Maus is deze nooit van de tekentafel afgekomen... Alternatieve naam, het "Z Bomber Project" (onduidelijk is waar de "Z" voor staat...).
Wikipedia, de Engelstalige, verteld ons het volgende:
Citaat:
The Project Z (also called the "Z Bombers Project") was a military project of the Empire of Japan, similar to the Nazi German Amerikabomber project, to design an intercontinental bomber capable of reaching North America.
The planned aircraft[edit]
The Project Z aircraft was to have six 5,000 hp (3,700 kW) engines; the Nakajima Aircraft Company quickly began developing engines, proposing twinned Nakajima Ha-44 engines (the most powerful aircraft engine available in Japan at the time).[1]
Designs were presented to the Imperial Japanese Army, including the Nakajima G10N, Kawasaki Ki-91, and Nakajima G5N. None, save for the G5N, developed beyond prototypes or wind tunnel models. Late in the war, Project Z and other heavy bomber projects were cancelled.
The planned aircraft[edit]
The Project Z aircraft was to have six 5,000 hp (3,700 kW) engines; the Nakajima Aircraft Company quickly began developing engines, proposing twinned Nakajima Ha-44 engines (the most powerful aircraft engine available in Japan at the time).[1]
Designs were presented to the Imperial Japanese Army, including the Nakajima G10N, Kawasaki Ki-91, and Nakajima G5N. None, save for the G5N, developed beyond prototypes or wind tunnel models. Late in the war, Project Z and other heavy bomber projects were cancelled.
Het onderwerp van dit topic wordt de Nakajima G10N, ofwel Fugaku (Mount Fuji), omdat Fujimi zo aardig is geweest een kit van het ding te produceren (Fujimi heeft overigens een hele rits uitgaven van Japanese WO2 onderwerpen in dozen speciaal voor de Japanse markt die soms nogal het Imperiale opspelen...).
Meer Wikipedia:
Citaat:
The Fugaku had its origins in "Project Z (bomber project)", a 1942 Imperial Japanese Army specification for an intercontinental bomber which could take off from the Kuril Islands, bomb the continental United States, then continue onward to land in German-occupied France. Once there, it would be refueled and rearmed and make another return sortie.[1][2][3]
Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: heavy bomber, transport (capable of carrying 300 troops), and a gunship armed with forty downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage for intense ground attacks at the rate of 640 rounds per second (i.e. 38,400 rounds per minute).[1]
The project was conceived by Nakajima Aircraft Company head Chikuhei Nakajima. The design had straight wings and contra-rotating four-blade propellers. To save weight, some of the landing gear was to be jettisoned after takeoff (being unnecessary on landing with emptied bomb load), as had been planned on some of the more developed German Amerika Bomber competing designs. It used six engines,[1] as with the later Amerikabomber design competitors, to compensate for nearly all German aircraft engines being limited to 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) maximum output levels apiece.[4]
Development was initiated in January 1943 and a design and manufacturing facility built in Mitaka, Tokyo. Nakajima's 4-row 36-cylinder 5,000 hp Ha-54 (Ha-505) engine was abandoned as too complex.[citation needed]
Project Z was cancelled in July 1944, and the Fugaku was never built.[1]
General characteristics
Crew: 6 to 10
Fugaku: 7 to 8
Length: 44.98 m (147 ft 7 in)
Fugaku: 39.98 m (131 ft)
Wingspan: 64.98 m (213 ft 2 in)
Fugaku: 62.97 m (207 ft)
Height: 8.77 m (28 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 352.01 m2 (3,789.0 sq ft)
Fugaku: 330 m2 (3,552.09 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 12.1
Empty weight: 65,000 kg (143,300 lb)
Fugaku: 33,800 kg (74,516.24 lb)
Gross weight: 122,000 kg (268,964 lb)
Fugaku: 42,000 kg (92,594.15 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 160,000 kg (352,740 lb)
Fugaku: 70,000 kg (154,323.58 lb)
Powerplant: 6 × Nakajima Ha-54 36-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,700 kW (5,000 hp) each at take-off
Fugaku: 6x Nakajima NK11A 18-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engines developing 2,500 hp (1,864 kW) at take-off
Propellers: 6-bladed contra-rotating constant speed propellers, 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) diameter
Fugaku: 4-bladed constant speed propellers 4.8 m (16 ft) diameter
Performance
Maximum speed: 679 km/h (422 mph, 367 kn) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
Fugaku: 779 km/h (484 mph) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
Range: 17,999 km (11,184 mi, 9,719 nmi) maximum
Fugaku: 19,400 km (12,055 mi)
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,000 ft)
Wing loading: 456.99 kg/m2 (93.60 lb/sq ft)
Fugaku: 211.89 m2 (43.4 lb/ft2)
Power/mass: 0.103 kW/kg (0.063 hp/lb)
Fugaku: 0.118 kW/kg (0.07 hp/lb)
Armament
Guns: 4× 20mm Type 99 cannon
Bombs: 20,000 kg (44,092 lb) of bombs
Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: heavy bomber, transport (capable of carrying 300 troops), and a gunship armed with forty downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage for intense ground attacks at the rate of 640 rounds per second (i.e. 38,400 rounds per minute).[1]
The project was conceived by Nakajima Aircraft Company head Chikuhei Nakajima. The design had straight wings and contra-rotating four-blade propellers. To save weight, some of the landing gear was to be jettisoned after takeoff (being unnecessary on landing with emptied bomb load), as had been planned on some of the more developed German Amerika Bomber competing designs. It used six engines,[1] as with the later Amerikabomber design competitors, to compensate for nearly all German aircraft engines being limited to 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) maximum output levels apiece.[4]
Development was initiated in January 1943 and a design and manufacturing facility built in Mitaka, Tokyo. Nakajima's 4-row 36-cylinder 5,000 hp Ha-54 (Ha-505) engine was abandoned as too complex.[citation needed]
Project Z was cancelled in July 1944, and the Fugaku was never built.[1]
General characteristics
Crew: 6 to 10
Fugaku: 7 to 8
Length: 44.98 m (147 ft 7 in)
Fugaku: 39.98 m (131 ft)
Wingspan: 64.98 m (213 ft 2 in)
Fugaku: 62.97 m (207 ft)
Height: 8.77 m (28 ft 9 in)
Wing area: 352.01 m2 (3,789.0 sq ft)
Fugaku: 330 m2 (3,552.09 sq ft)
Aspect ratio: 12.1
Empty weight: 65,000 kg (143,300 lb)
Fugaku: 33,800 kg (74,516.24 lb)
Gross weight: 122,000 kg (268,964 lb)
Fugaku: 42,000 kg (92,594.15 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 160,000 kg (352,740 lb)
Fugaku: 70,000 kg (154,323.58 lb)
Powerplant: 6 × Nakajima Ha-54 36-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,700 kW (5,000 hp) each at take-off
Fugaku: 6x Nakajima NK11A 18-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engines developing 2,500 hp (1,864 kW) at take-off
Propellers: 6-bladed contra-rotating constant speed propellers, 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) diameter
Fugaku: 4-bladed constant speed propellers 4.8 m (16 ft) diameter
Performance
Maximum speed: 679 km/h (422 mph, 367 kn) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
Fugaku: 779 km/h (484 mph) at 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
Range: 17,999 km (11,184 mi, 9,719 nmi) maximum
Fugaku: 19,400 km (12,055 mi)
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,000 ft)
Wing loading: 456.99 kg/m2 (93.60 lb/sq ft)
Fugaku: 211.89 m2 (43.4 lb/ft2)
Power/mass: 0.103 kW/kg (0.063 hp/lb)
Fugaku: 0.118 kW/kg (0.07 hp/lb)
Armament
Guns: 4× 20mm Type 99 cannon
Bombs: 20,000 kg (44,092 lb) of bombs
Overkill? De Japanse Wikipedia geeft iets meer details (Google vertaling van diverse stukken):
Citaat:
The Fugaku is a six- engine , super-large strategic bomber planned by the Japanese military during the Pacific War to bomb the continental United States . The name is named after another name for Mt. Fuji .
Citaat:
With a view to bombing the continental United States, take off Japan and bomb the continental United States across the Pacific Ocean , cross the Atlantic Ocean as it is, stop by Germany for supply, and return while reattacking the United States on the opposite course again. Or it was a grand plan to go around the world while bombing the Soviet Union . Total length 45 m ( 1.5 times the 4 - engine strategic bomber Boeing B-29 that the US military launched in the Pacific War ), total width 65 m (1.5 times the B-29), bomb loading 20 tons (2.2 of the B-29) The cruising range was 19,400 km (three times that of the B-29), and we aimed for a six-engine engine.
Citaat:
Construction of an assembly plant began in 1943 (Showa 18) on the premises of Nakajima Aircraft Mitaka Research Institute . However, 1944 (1944) April 28, the Japanese army was examined army and navy party, Ministry of Munitions, or collect the relationship between the production company to continue the study of super-heavy bomber "Fugaku" [1] . If Tomitake was produced as planned, it was expected to reduce the production of 943 Japanese Army Type 4 fighters (Gale) and 235 Navy land bombers in the galaxy . [1] Materials, machine tools , from the point of view of technology research, research of Fugaku is led to the conclusion that "regrettably discontinued inevitable]"
De IJN variant zou ook 20 (twintig) torpedo's hebben kunnen dragen. Heel erg overkill. Degenen die bij dat ding betrokken zijn geweest hadden misschien een carriere als SF-schrijver moeten overwegen...
De Fujimi kit is 1/144, met een spanwijdte van tegen de 45 cm. Nu bouw ik geen 1/144, dus ik heb het lumineuze
idee gehad een 1/72 versie te scratchen op basis van de afmetingen van de 1/144. Mijn papa (robh) denkt dat dat een slecht idee is. Meningen? De 1/144 kit is onderweg...
.