Nakajima J9Y Kikka / Kitsuka (Orange Blossom)

History

The Messerschmitt Me 262 "Schwalbe" jet fighter was adopted by the Luftwaffe as the world's first jet fighter, a wartime breakthrough in the field of military fighter jets. However, its combat history was limited by a number of circumstances - unreliable engines, stalled artillery, weak nose landing gear, poorly equipped airfields and factories, lack of trained pilots, material shortages, production stoppages (due to alliances military bombing), and political interference by Hitler and others. Nonetheless, the Me 262 was a revolutionary design at the time, capable of outrunning, climbing and diving all fighter jets known at the time.

Its cannon weapons provided enough firepower to take down enemy heavy bombers with a single shot.

With this in mind, Germany's allies in Japan were able to visit Germany in 1944 and saw progress on several promising projects, including the Me 262. Satisfied with these possibilities, German authorities allowed Japanese engineers to use the design, and the plans were shipped by submarine German Navy submarine to Japan for modification and eventual construction.

The Nakajima Group's mission is a new maritime fighter program based on the Me 262. Included in the specs are a top speed of over 430 mph, a combat range of no less than 125 miles, and a war load of 1,100 pounds. The Japanese knew that their Me 262 derivative wanted a versatile performer - acting as both a fighter and a fighter-bomber. To keep runway requirements to a minimum, standard twin turbojets will be powered by 2 x rocket boosters on takeoff. Another key factor was that the wings were designed to partially fold along hinges - making the fighter more compact and stowable in sturdy tunnels, safely away from Allied bombers.

Also considered are the types of materials used to build the aircraft, as well as assembly practices to better serve the more unskilled workforce. Engineers at Nakajima have access to plans covering the airframe and engines, as well as the fuel used to power those engines.

Performance figures for the Kikka include an estimated top speed of 435 mph and a range of up to 585 miles. Service is capped at 39,350 feet, while the climb rate is 1,235 feet per minute. Those numbers are good for an early jet fighter, only matched by the latest generation of faster piston-powered fighters such as the North American P-51 Mustang, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Allied Supermarine Spitfire.

Notably, these values ??are lower than the Me 262 in service.

With the August 15 surrender of Japan and the official end of the Pacific campaign, it is left to the imagination how Kikka might play out against the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber and its high-altitude operations. This marked the end of all progress on Nakajima Kikka, as the work was confiscated by the Americans and brought back to the United States for dissection. Only the Kikka prototype had completed two flights, and the second fuselage was under construction at the time of the surrender. About 18 other airframes are said to have been built, but these won't have an immediate impact anytime soon. None of the airframes even had the proposed cannon armament (2 x 30mm Type 5) mounted on the nose or the bomb carrying/release hardware used for testing.

The Americans didn't even reassemble and fly their Kikkas like the Me 262.

The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) followed the IJN's lead and called for the Me 262-based version of the Kikka to be called the Nakajima Ki-201 "Karyu". The aircraft was in a younger planning stage than the Kikka and never made it past the paper stage until the end of the war.

If the war had progressed so far, these would have been delivered in March 1946.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes