9600 miles of aerial courage

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
08/17/2020 at 11:05 • Filed to: Planelopnik

April 1937. 9600 miles in 51 hours of flight time, 94 hours total . A g rueling flight at the dawn of the monoplane age. Two Japanese pilots famous in their homeland and nearly forgotten elsewhere, Masaaki Iinuma and Kenji Tsukagoshi, in a Mitsubishi Ki-15 prototype .

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I particularly enjoyed the brief anecdote about André Japy; people with a common interest were able to keep in contact around the world before the Internet, although it’s hard for me to remember how.

An amusing quote about the fact that this flight was designed to reach London in time for King George’s coronation:

Although meant as a tribute, the flight must have been an embarrassment to the King because the fastest British aircraft in production at the time was an open-cockpit biplane.

— At The Field: Offbeat Stories About R/C Model Airplanes and the People Who Fly Them , David P. Andersen, 2004

Mitsubishi, of course, also manufactured the A6M Zero . As !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :

Not only could the Zero out fight any Allied fighter, it also out-ranged them. Many people do not realize that the Zero was the world’s first long range escort fighter. Zeros flew long range bomber escort missions during the war in China, before the Pacific war even began. If the Germans had the long range A6M2 Zero instead of the short range Bf 109E, the outcome of the Battle of Britain might have been very different.

I was afraid I would have to create my own map of the route, but some searching led me to this one. I imagine the challenges of making this trip were offset somewhat by the incredible scenery; at least they weren’t flying across the featureless ocean.

Another useful resource :

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DISCUSSION (10)

VincentMalamute-Kim > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 11:23

Neat! Seeing “Kamikaze” on the fuselage seemed discordant. Then realized at that time it just meant “divine wind”, which is appropriate on that plane. Not suicide bomber.

They also did that East to West against prevailing winds.

That must’ve been where they got the idea for the “A- 26" doing that flight non-stop in the manga “Zipang”. (JSDF guided missile destroyer goes back in time to WWII and starts messing with history )

Kinja'd!!!

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 11:26

The zero did have a number of advantages, but that range came at the expense of survivability and critically a lack of radios. So instead of fighting as a group the zeros are in a series of single engagements vs a more coordinated opponent.

ttyymmnn > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 11:38

You’re right, I’ve never heard of them. Thanks, I look forward to reading this.

Just Jeepin' > ttyymmnn
08/17/2020 at 11:52

I searched for Ki-15 and the aviators’ names to make sure you hadn’t already covered this flight. Turns out the Kinja search was smart (or dumb) enough to pick up your aviation pieces discussion other Mitsubishi Ki models.

user314 > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 11:57

My ass hurts thinking about flying for that long.

In a better world Iinuma Masaaki and Tsukagoshi Kenji would easily be as well known as Lindbergh or “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Unsurprisingly, but still ironically, both men died while testing aircraft, Iinuma on 11 December ‘41 when he, stunned by word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, walked into the propeller of the Kaybaya Ka-1 autogyro prototype, while Tsukagoshi disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean in 1943 while flying the Ki-77 prototype to the Crimea, possibly intercepted by British fighters.

ttyymmnn > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 11:59

I’ve found the Kinja search to be terrible at best. I always Google, with good results. I type “ttyymmnn opposite lock Ki-15 ” or whatever I want to search for. Google almost always nails it.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 12:13

If the Germans had the long range A6M2 Zero instead of the short range Bf 109E, the outcome of the Battle of Britain might have been very different.

IMO it would have ended sooner... in Britain’s favour. The key to the Zero’s impressive performance was mostly a total lack of armour. That worked against Wildcats. It wouldn’t have worked out too well against Hurricanes, let alone Spits. Not to mention the almost total lack of ground fire the Zero’s had to face.

And then there’s the small matter of the terrible radio equipment—so bad that the Japanese often had to resort to stunting to communicate with each other. Not good enough for Europe. The Germans botched several missions because of radio issues as it was.

user314 > VincentMalamute-Kim
08/17/2020 at 12:33

Huh, “The Final Countdown”, but from the other side. I’ll have to look up that manga.

VincentMalamute-Kim > user314
08/17/2020 at 13:06

It’s good. At least for the first 30 or so chapters. Seeing a modern DDG in action against a (unfortunately American) WWII fleet is cool.

You do have to ignore some “Make Japan Great Again” neoconservatism. Apparently, “Zipang” is some utopian Japan to be formed in China and to me kind of bogs down later. https://mangadex.org/title/665/zipang

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > Just Jeepin'
08/17/2020 at 20:40

Interesting that they landed at Croydon Aerodrome— London’s Heathrow before Heathrow became HEATHROW.

The old Art Deco terminal building down there is an amazing architectural treat.

Kinja'd!!!