HASEGAWA 1/48-scale KYUSHU J7W1
SHINDEN WW2 JAPANESE FIGHTER IJN KIT# J006 (1988)
OPEN BOX UNBUILT PLASTIC MODEL KIT INVENTORIED
100% COMPLETE.
Includes Original Instructions and Decals.
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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The J7W1 Shinden ("Magnificent Lightning")
fighter was a World War II Japanese propeller-driven aircraft prototype that
was built in a canard design. The wings were attached to the tail section and
stabilizers were on the front. The propeller was also in the rear, in a pusher
configuration. It was expected to be a highly maneuverable interceptor, but
only two were finished before the end of war. Plans were also drawn up for a
jet-powered version (J7W2 Shinden Kai), but this never left the drawing board.
The J designation was used by land based fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy
and the W is for Watanabe designed.
The J7W was developed for the Imperial Japanese Navy as a
short-range interceptor in a specific response to the B-29 Superfortress raids
on the Japanese homeland. For this type of mission, the J7W was armed with 4
forward-firing 30mm cannons in the nose. It was to be operated from land bases.
The canard configuration was chosen by Captain Masayoshi
Tsuruno from the technical staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy in early 1943.
The idea of Captain Tsuruno was that the aircraft could easily be fitted with a
turbojet engine in a later stage of its production life.
Captain Tsuruno's ideas were worked out by the First
Naval Air Technical Arsenal (Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho) in April 1943, by
designing three gliders with the canard layout, designated Yokosuka MXY6, and
built by Chigasaki Seizo KK, one of the gliders later being fitted with a 22 hp
Semi 11 (Ha-90) 4 cylinder air cooled engine.
The feasibility of the canard design was proven by both
the powered and unpowered versions of the MYX6 by the end of 1943, and the Navy
were so impressed by the flight testing, that they instructed the Kyushu
Aircraft Company to design a canard interceptor around Captain Tsuruno's
concept. Kyushu was chosen because both its design team and production
facilities were relatively unburdened, and Captain Tsuruno was chosen to lead a
team from the Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho to aid Kyushu's design works.
The construction of the first two prototypes started in
earnest by June 1944, stress calculations were finished by January 1945, and
the first prototype was completed in April 1945. The 2,130 hp Mitsubishi MK9D
(Ha-43) radial engine and its supercharger were installed behind the cockpit
and drove a six-bladed propeller via an extension shaft. Engine cooling was to
be provided by long, narrow, obliquely mounted intakes on the side of the
fuselage. It was this configuration that caused cooling problems while running
the engine while it was still on the ground. This, together with the
unavailability of some equipment parts postponed the first flight of the
Shinden until 3 August 1945, when Captain Tsuruno himself took to the air at
Itazuke Air Base. Two more short flights were made and all in all a total
flying time of 45 minutes was made by the end of the war. Flights were
successful, but showed a marked torque pull to starboard, caused by the
powerful engine and its six-bladed propeller, some flutter of the propeller
blades themselves and vibrations in the extended drive shaft.
Even
before the first prototype took to the air the Navy had already ordered the
J7W1 into production, with quotas of 30 Shindens a month given to Kyushu's
Zasshonokuma factory and 120 from Nakajima's Handa plant. It was estimated that
some 1,086 Shinden fighters could be produced between April 1946 and March
1947. In fact only the two prototype aircraft were ever completed. After the
end of the war the second prototype was shipped to the USA, while the first is
reported as being scrapped.
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