Nakajima Aircraft Company
5 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
The Nakajima Aircraft Company (中島飛行機株式会社, Nakajima Hikōki Kabushiki Kaisha) was a prominent Japanese aircraft manufacturer and aviation engine manufacturer throughout World War II. The Nakajima Aircraft company was Japan's first aircraft manufacturer, and was founded in 1918 by Chikuhei Nakajima, a naval engineer, and Seibei Kawanishi, a textile manufacturer, as Nihon Hikoki (Nippon Aircraft). The company was renamed Nakajima Aircraft Company in 1919. Visited by Emperor Shōwa on November 16, 1934. Critically damaged by American bombardment on February 10, 1945. Critically damaged by American bombardment on April 3, 1945.
Aircraft Types
Nakajima B5N Kate
The Nakajima B5N, known to the Allies as the Kate, was the Imperial Japanese Navy's standard carrier torpedo bomber of the Pacific War. Designed in the mid-1930s and first flown in 1937, it attacked with a torpedo or with bombs, from carriers and from land bases, and it led the torpedo and high-level bombing at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Production totalled 1,149 aircraft. Replaced in front-line service in 1944, the type ended the war in secondary roles and kamikaze attacks. No intact example survives; the most complete remains are on display at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum.
Nakajima B6N Tenzan Jill
The Nakajima B6N Tenzan, code-named Jill by the Allies, was the Imperial Japanese Navy's standard carrier torpedo bomber of the final years of the Second World War and the successor to the B5N. Its first flight came in 1941, but its Nakajima Mamoru engine proved unreliable and delayed service entry until 1943; the main production model, the B6N2, switched to Mitsubishi's Kasei engine, and Nakajima built 133 B6N1s and 1,133 B6N2s and B6N2as. By the time it arrived in numbers, Japan had lost most of its large carriers and its experienced aircrews, and the type fought its biggest actions from a shrinking carrier force and then from land bases.
Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi
The Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi was a single-seat special-attack aircraft built by Nakajima in the last months of the Second World War. Ordered by the Japanese Army in January 1945, it was designed for cheap mass production by semi-skilled workers, from steel, wood and aluminum, with a landing gear that dropped away after takeoff and a single bomb of up to 800 kg. It first flew in March 1945; 104 were built by Nakajima and one by the Mitaka institute, but none was used operationally. The Smithsonian's example, displayed on loan at the Pima Air & Space Museum, is believed to be the only survivor.
Nakajima Ki-27 Nate
The Nakajima Ki-27, the Army Type 97 Fighter codenamed "Nate" by the Allies, was the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's first monoplane fighter and still its most numerous fighter when the Pacific War began in December 1941. It won the Army's fighter trials on manoeuvrability rather than speed, and Nakajima built 2,005 of them; a wider accounting that adds Tachikawa and Manchurian production totals 3,368. It gave Japanese pilots their first combat experience over China and against the Soviet Union at Khalkhin Gol in 1939, but it was lightly armed and unprotected, and it ended the war as a trainer and kamikaze aircraft. One Ki-27 survives, at the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum in Japan.
Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate
The Ki-84 Hayate ("Gale"), Allied reporting name "Frank", was a single-seat fighter built by the Nakajima Aircraft Company for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service in the last two years of the Second World War. Fast, heavily armed and, unusually for a Japanese design, fitted with armour and self-sealing fuel tanks, it is generally regarded as Japan's best fighter to serve in large numbers; 3,514 were built. A single example survives, on display at the Chiran Peace Museum in Kagoshima, Japan.