interesting fighter

[borner]

trooling around the net last night, I came across a late war fighter for Japan that appeared to have ending mounted aft. I think it was called the Shinden. Anyone have any information or pictures of this?

[FastPhil]

The only one I could find was the 'George' - Kawanishi N1K1-J and 2-J Shiden "George'

[borner]

j7w shinden

[borner]

http://www.airbornegrafix.com/HistoricAircraft/Design/J7W.htm   sorry, here is the link I found. One bad A-- looking machine IMO

[Xxzard]

Yes, a very interesting aircraft, and according to witp anyway, a very good interceptor. It has near no range, but fantastic gun value and speed. I believe in RL, it progressed to the test flight phase, and there is a grainy video of it on this or preparing for this.

However, despite the exigencies of the late war, a first flying date that late probably means that it would have hardly been in service by 1946. Furthermore, its actual combat performance has never really been ascertained.

[John 3rd]

I WANT IT NOW!  Can someone please send me about 250 production models?  Make it out to "Japanese Player--Forlorn Hopes AAR--Get those B-29!"

Thanks...  [:D][8D][:D]

[Howard Mitchell]

ORIGINAL: Xxzard
However, despite the exigencies of the late war, a first flying date that late probably means that it would have hardly been in service by 1946. Furthermore, its actual combat performance has never really been ascertained.

I think this is an important point. Especially on flight sim forums, you sometimes see people quoting calculated figures, or those achieved by carefully-manufactured and maintained prototypes without combat equipment, and assuming that the production aircraft would perform similarly.

All to often they didn’t, and the Japanese especially seem to have been often disappointed by aircraft not living up to expectations.


The Americans also produced some pusher designs, but they never went beyond the prototype stage:

[DuckofTindalos]

The Shinden was fast, had good rate of climb and heavy armament, but it was also VERY difficult to fly, and with the average skill level of Jap pilots at that stage, that would have made it less than a barn-burner...