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Friday, October 11, 2024

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Japan’s First Jet Fighter: The Nakajima Kikka’s Brief Flight into History

In late winter, the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, relocated the Nakajima Kikka from a position under the Sikorsky JRS flying boat to one under the Boeing B-29 Enola Gay. The move enables visitors to get closer to the last known example of a World War II Japanese jet aircraft, the only Japanese jet to take off under its power.

The Kikka was Japan’s attempt to develop a jet-powered aircraft during the closing months of World War II, influenced by the German Messerschmitt Me 262. Excited reports by the German air attaché to Japan after witnessing the Me 262’s flight trials in 1942 eventually generated a directive from the Japanese naval staff to the Nakajima firm in September 1944 for a similar twin-jet, single-seat aircraft.

This project was headed by Engineers Kazuo Ohno and Kenichi Matsumura, who initiated working on an all-metal aircraft with all-metal buds covered with fabric. Extra features include the Kikka with foldable outer wing panels for easier concealment in caves and jet engines mounted in pods beneath each wing to permit engine testing and installation without having to support the whole aircraft. Three different engines were experimented with, and the Ne-20 was heavily based on the German BMW 003.

Experiments with turbojet technology in Japan dated back to as early as 1941-42. In 1943, a Japanese technical mission to Germany selected the BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet for development in Japan. Although a large cargo of engines and engineering plans vanished at sea, one engineer arrived in Japan with personal notes and photographs, which later enabled the development of the Ne-20 turbojet.

The prototype of Kikka was ready in August 1945. Lieutenant Commander Susumu Takaoka first flew it on August 7, but on August 11, a second test ended in a crash into Tokyo Bay. Sources attribute it to misaligned takeoff-assist rockets or pilot errors that mistook rocket burnout for engine trouble. Development came to an end when Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

Regardless of the amount of research done, very scanty information is housed in this Museum about the origins of the Kikka. It was sent to the U.S. following the war and records show that it was at NAS Patuxent River, MD, by 1949. The aircraft was then moved to the Paul Garber Facility in Suitland, MD, and was accessioned into the Museum’s collection in 1961. Correspondence with Japanese propulsion specialist Kazuhiko Ishizawa in 2001 revealed that the Museum’s Kikka airframe was built for load testing, not flight tests.

The performance goals of the Kikka were tailored for one-way suicide missions, and so significantly different from those of the German Me 262 fighter. The Kikka had an estimated 205 km range with a 500 kg bomb load and a maximum speed of 696 km/h, whereas the Me 262 could fly 845 km with a typical military payload at a maximum speed of 870 km/h.

The development of Kikka was part of Japan’s effort to counter the growing Allied threat through advanced aircraft. Besides the Kikka, other high-performance propeller-driven fighters and rocket-powered interceptors were being developed in Japan during that time. Among the propeller-driven fighters they developed were the Nakajima Ki-87 and Tachikawa Ki-94-II; another was the canard Kyushu J7W1 Shinden, which was powered by an engine mounted at the rear.

Japan developed rocket-powered interceptors similar to the German Me 163, like the Mitsubishi J8M. The development of the J8M was extremely problematic, and the first flight ended in a fatal crash. In the camp of the kamikaze, the work on development never stopped, and research proceeded on an improved Ohka Model 11 and its successors, designed especially for one-way missions against Allied naval forces.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum preserves several such aircraft, including the sole surviving Kyushu J7W1 Shinden, the last Nakajima Kikka, the only Ohka Model 22, and one of four remaining Nakajima Tsurugis. Such relics give a flavor to Japan’s far-reaching attempts to reverse their fortunes in World War II through advanced aviation technology.

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