Nakajima Ki-115
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The Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi (剣 "Sword") was a one-man kamikaze aircraft developed by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in the closing stages of World War 2 in late 1945.
The aircraft's intended purpose was to be used in Kamikaze attacks on U.S shipping and invasion fleet involved in the future invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall which in the end did not take place.
As the Japanese High Command thought that Japan did not have enough obsolete aircraft to use for kamikaze attacks, it was decided that huge numbers of cheap, simple suicide planes should be constructed quickly in anticipation for the invasion of Japan.
Indeed the aircraft was very simple, being made out of canvas and wooden framework. The Ki-115 was designed to be able to use any engine that was in storage for ease of construction and to absorb Japan's obsolete stocks of engines from the 1920s and 1930s.
The aircraft had a top speed of 512 km/h (320 mph) and could carry up to a 800kg bomb, enough to split a U.S warship in two. The controls were extremely crude, the vision was terrible and the performance abysmal; however the Japanese High command had plans to construct some 8,000 per month in workshops all across Japan.
In the end the war ended before they could be used. Individually they would have been almost worthless as a weapon, but used in waves of hundreds or thousands they would have been devastating to the U.S fleet, causing an estimated 850,000 losses to U.S Navy personnel.
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| Designation Series |
Ki-112 - Ki-113 - Ki-114 - Ki-115 - Ki-116 - Ki-117 - Ki-118 |
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