sunday fantasy #167: Hisashi Tenmyouya
November 01, 2009, 7:49pm
x planes
experimental aircraft. exotic aeromachines. oddities. sleek silver cigars. pedal-o-trons. soviet hive-mind bombers. aerial joy. the olden days. action shots. propaganda posters. etc
[xplanes] [at] [hotmail] [dot] [co] [dot] [uk]
Designed by Redfield. Icons by Cameron Hunt.
“Pilots of the 64th Sentai/1st Chutai pose for an official portrait at Meikata West on 17 April 1944..”
October 27, 2009, 1:20pm
“A Japanese Fighter Attack On A Boeing B-29 Formation Over Japan. Twin-Engined Japanese Fighter (Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu (屠龍, “Dragon Slayer”, Allied codename “Nick”)) Scuttles By A Superfort’s Wing During A Head-On Attack” (1945)
August 12, 2009, 5:21pm
Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (隼, “Peregrine Falcon”, Allied codename “Oscar”) attacking a North American B-25 Mitchell at Hansa Bay (1944)
“both planes got away”
August 12, 2009, 4:21pm
![“circa 1942: Parachute bombs about to land and explode on a Japanese plane [Mitsubishi Ki-21?], camouflaged with branches…on the ground during a low-level bombing and strafing attack by the U.S. Army 5th Air Force on Old Namlea Airdrome, Boeroe Island, World War II..”](http://20.media.tumblr.com/NAJN8JTZ6pgj8dginwfscfzTo1_500.jpg)
“circa 1942: Parachute bombs about to land and explode on a Japanese plane [Mitsubishi Ki-21?], camouflaged with branches…on the ground during a low-level bombing and strafing attack by the U.S. Army 5th Air Force on Old Namlea Airdrome, Boeroe Island, World War II..”
July 04, 2009, 9:23am
“Corporal Yukio Araki holding a puppy with four other young men of the 72nd Shinbu Corps around him..Yukio Araki died at the age of 17 in a suicide attack on American ships near Okinawa on May 27, 1945”
May 27, 2009, 1:02am
“Japanese Navy Type 1 land attack planes (later nicknamed “Betty”) fly low through anti-aircraft gunfire during a torpedo attack on U.S. Navy ships maneuvering between Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the morning of 8 August 1942”
May 26, 2009, 9:47pm
sunday fantasy #51: Caproni CA-60, by Hayao Miyazaki, from the manga Kaze Tachinu (風立ちぬ, The Wind Rises), 2009
May 03, 2009, 1:30pm
“U.S. Army troops pause for a look at a Japanese seaplane during the battle of Makin. The plane was under repair in the lagoon when the invasion started. The Japanese used it as a machine gun nest until American fliers took care of it. November 1943.”
April 15, 2009, 5:11pm
Submarine aircraft carrier I-400
The Sen Toku I-400-class submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy were the largest submarines of World War II, and remained the largest ever built prior to the development of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s.
They were able to carry three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft, each carrying an 800 kilogram bomb 650 miles, at 295 miles per hour. A crew of four could prepare and get all three airborne in 45 minutes. The planes were launched from a 120-foot catapult on the deck. The existence of the Seiran was unknown to Allied intelligence.
Admiral Yamamoto planned to use the sen toku (secret submarine attack) in 1945 to attack the Panama Canal. The bombing flights would have been one-way trips. None of the pilots expected to survive the attack, a tactic called tokko. Each pilot was presented with a tokko short sword, symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice.
This never materialised. Japan surrendered, and on August 22, 1945, the crews of the submarines were ordered to destroy all their weapons. The torpedoes were fired without arming and the aircraft were launched without unfolding the wings and stabilizers. When I-401 surrendered to an American destroyer, the U.S. crew was astounded at its size. The commander of the submarine fleet, Captain Ariizumi, apparently decided on suicide rather than surrender to the Americans. He requested that his body be wrapped in the Japanese flag and buried at sea, and shot himself. His body was never presented as proof of his death.
(from wikipedia)
April 15, 2009, 9:38am
