Nakajima G10N

G10N Fugaku

Manufacturer: Nakajima Aircraft Company
Status: Project (cancelled)
Primary user: IJN Air Service

The Nakajima G10N Fugaku (Japanese: 富岳 or 富嶽, "Mount Fuji"), was a planned Japanese ultra-long-range heavy bomber designed during World War II. It was conceived as a method for mounting aerial attacks from Japan against industrial targets along America's West Coast. Japan's worsening war situation, however, resulted in the project's cancelation and no prototype was ever built.

Design and development

The Fugaku had its origins in "Project Z", a 1942 specification for an intercontinental bomber which could take off from the Kuril Islands, bomb the continental United States, then continue onward to land in German-occupied France. Once there, it would be refitted and make another return sortie.

Project Z called for three variations on the airframe: 4,000 bombers, 5,000 transports (capable of carrying 600 troops), and 2,000 gunships, which would carry 400 downward-firing machine guns in the fuselage, for intense ground attacks at the rate of 6,400 rounds per second.

While the project was conceived by Nakajima head Chikuhei Nakajima, Kawanishi and Mitsubishi also made proposals for the Fugaku. The Nakajima design had straight wings and contra-rotating four-blade propellers; the Kawanishi design had elliptical wings and single four-blade propellers. To save weight, some of the landing gear was to be jettisoned after takeoff (being unnecessary on landing with an empty bombload), as had been planned on some late-war German very long range bomber designs. Both designs used six engines.

Development started in 1943, with a design and manufacturing facility built in Mitaka, Tokyo. While Nakajima's 4-row 36-cylinder 5,000hp Ha-54 (Ha-505) engine was abandoned as too complex, Mitsubishi successfully built the 2-row 22-cylinder Ha-50 engine for the Kawanishi design, testing three units in May 1944. An example of this engine was unearthed in 1979 during expansion of Haneda Airport and is on display at the Narita Aerospace Museum.

Project Z was cancelled in July 1944, and the Fugaku was never built.

Operators (planned)

Japan

Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service

Specifications (projected)

Data from Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War

General characteristics

Crew: 6 or more
Length: 46 m (150 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 63 m (206 ft 8 in)
Height: 8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 330 m� (3,552 ft�)
Empty weight: 42,000 kg (92,594 lb)
Loaded weight: 122,000 kg (268,964 lb)
Powerplant: 6x� Nakajima Ha-54 4-row 36-cylinder air-cooled radial, 3,730 kW (5,000 hp) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 780 km/h at 10,000 m (421 kn, 485 mph at 32,808 ft)
Range: 19,400 km (10,475 nmi, 12,055 mi)
Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,213 ft)

Armament

4x� 20 mm cannon
20,000 kg (44,000 lb) of bombs

Comparable aircraft

Nakajima G8N
Heinkel He 277
Messerschmitt Me 264
Junkers Ju 390
Focke-Wulf Ta 400
Victory Bomber
Northrop XB-35
Amerika Bomber

Bibliography

Dyer, Edwin M. Japanese Secret Projects: Experimental Aircraft of the IJA and IJN 1939-1945. Midland Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1857803-174.
Francillon, Ph.D., Ren� J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 2nd edition 1979. ISBN 0-37-030251-6.
Horn, Steve. The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K and Other Japanese Attempts to Bomb America in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-59114-388-8.
Idei, Tadaaki. Hikōki Mechanism Zukan. Tokyo: Guranpuri Shuppan, 1985.
Ogawa, Toshihiko. Nihon Kōkūki Daizukan, 1910-1945. Tokyo: Kokushokankōkai, 1993.

Nakajima G10N Pictures

Living Warbirds: The best warbirds DVD series.

Source: WikiPedia