SHIDEN-KAI: Japan's Last Fighter Documentary (1/2)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- This is the story of the N1K2 Shiden-Kai, one of the most powerful fighters Japan ever produced during WWII.
Part 2: • SHIDEN-KAI: Japan's La...
*Corrections*:
5:30 Genda Minoru was a Captain, not a Colonel
13:36 1979, not 1989
- 0:00 Prologue (The sunk Shiden-Kai)
- 1:38 Losing the War
- 2:52 Kawanishi Aircraft
- 4:49 The 343rd
- 7:29 The USAF Museum
- 9:50 Pilot Stories
- 13:26 Relocation of the 343rd
- 16:47 The B-29
Original Video Source:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MrD...
16.40 IJN Officer "We'll do a kamikaze attack when the Naval Command agrees to come with us. They never bothered us gain after that." He is the man.
の最終的な質問愚かな注文
+D Main, "I'll give them a ride and let them see"LoL.
We don’t escape tradition. Japan’s latest kamikaze aircraft: the F-35
@@corndog7905 and what a pitty ! No video on TH-cam..
@@attarnadia8355 kimchi🤣
Violet lightening...
Nippon always had beautiful names for deadly weapons
TRIVIA: Kai Shiden, a character of the animation MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, was named after this fighter.
This documentary took a while to translate!
If you enjoyed this video or any of my other translations (Japanese WWII veteran interviews, documentaries, etc) please consider a small donation on Patreon (www.patreon.com/TakaLeon) so I can work on videos like this more frequently. Thank you!
-Juno- TakaLeon As someone who loves WW2 history thank you so much for this. It was so much more than just a documentary about the plane. When they went to the USAF musesum to see it in person I remembered seeing that plane in person myself. I live in Dayton OH about 10 minutes from the museum/base. When they visited the village and interviewed the people who saw the crash I thought that the documentary had far surpassed my expectations. It was more a memorial for all those involved. I feel for all the poor souls who lost their lives on both sides of that horrible conflict.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Comments like yours are what keep me going! :)
Thankyou
Isn't there computer software yet that will translate voice to text?
Thank you very much! Greetings from México!
The J2m3 Raidan was a beast ...developed fast and armored, it scored many kills against Mustang and Corsair ....417 mph at 16,600 feet altitude in 1944 was a deadly fighter/Interceptor
The J2M5 was the fully developed version of this fighter, faster and a better plane than the M3. It also had the same problems that the George had; not enough and too late to affect the outcome.
Note the aircraft had a laminar flow wing, all japans own work.
My aunt and her family live in Jo-Hen, and when my mother last visited her sister, she returned to Minnesota with a photo of the Shiden-Kai after it was recovered. This is great, seeing the whole story of this artifact.
Thanks for doing this! I spent a year in Iwakuni as a Marine A-6E pilot and flew to Narita as a Delta pilot. I’m glad we’re allies now.
Damned good documentary! Well produced! Good film footage! More history I was unaware of!
Great job, Juno! Thanks for translating all these fantastic videos! Arigato!
Dad was a nose gunner in a PB4Y2 Privateer, a patrol bomber, VPB-109 squadron. On his 20th birthday, 17 May 45, he and another plane tangled with Genda's outfit, off of Tsushima. 12 of these Georges jumped the two Privateers. After a 30 minute gun battle (an eternity in air combat), the Japanese were down 2 fighters, possibly 3, and running out of fuel so they broke off and headed back. One crew member on the other plane was seriously injured, and as it turned out later, Dad's aircraft was seriously damaged. The tail spar was shot out, and the mechanics told Dad they couldn't believe the plane made it home. Some of this battle is detailed in a book, "Genda's Blade" by a Japanese-American war historian (whose name I forget >.< ).
Great story, thank you. I have visited rabaul and saw the aircraft graveyard there.
Thanks for a great video as I've seen at least one shorter video posted by someone about this aircraft and showing it in a museum. And having the men who were involved either in building or flying this aircraft adds icing to the cake.
One of my favorite designs... thanks for sharing!
Excellent Informative Documentry!
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers for the video's mate, they are inspiring every time :)
Jengar surprised nobody decided to respond to you, hi though Jengar
This is excellent. Like to see the history channel make something with this much info today................
Thank you for posting this video with English translations. I hope to see more recordings of the Japanese historical films also with a translation to help show the USA's interpretation of the war is historically inaccurate!
Thanks for the video, it solved my decades long question about SHIDEN-KA since childhood.
This is awesome, thanks for this!
-Juno- Takaleon....Thank you for this professional video of the N1K2 Shiden-Kai Fighter. The narrative was quite interesting. This was an interesting insight of how this fighter plane proved out as per the performance against the US naval air forces. both countries fought tenaciously. For their causes during that time of conflict. And both showed innovations that would stand the test of time and history.
I wouldn't have been able to watch and understand this without your help. Thanks a lot for this!
I love the guy at 12:16 LOL!
Thank you for posting! This is a cool video. I particularly like seeing videos from the perspective of the Japanese. There is so much to learn about that time in history! I spent 3 years in Japan in the late 1980’s and loved it there. Very clean, organized, and respectful people.
Great documentary. Oddly enough, I just bought a model Shiden N1K1 today, and realized the recovery of the real aircraft happened exactly 43 years ago on this very day. I'd known absolutely nothing from this exact fighter model, until today...
As always, great work. Thanks again for translating these videos.
+Jim Chamberlin And thank YOU for all the supportive comments Jim! :)
No doubt man, this is history everyone needs to see..Pretty interesting..I didn't think there was anything superior to the Hellcat..until now..pretty amazing about this gem.
Superior to the Hellcat => The F4U Corsair, the P-51 Mustang, the Focke Wolfe FW-190, the Grumman F8F Bearcat, the Nakajima Ki-84 Oscar... Need I go on? That's for dogfighting. You could still have an idiot pilot in any one of those 'better machines' and a Hellcat ace could mop the floor with them.
Individual planes have superior characteristics in areas like range and rate of climb. The P-38 Lightning was better than the F6F Hellcat in both climb rate and range (it was also faster in level flight) but nobody's pretending it was the greatest dogfighter, either... Still managed to shoot down more Japanese aircraft than any other Allied fighter in the Pacific Theater.
(And I was fair... I included two Axis aircraft as superior dogfighters in addition to the P-51 and Corsair!)
Yeah we had way too large and powerful of a war machine. our bombers leveled their factories too.. Either way, they were not gonna last.
I heard a pilot who flew both the Corsair and the Hellcat say that while the Corsair was a nicer plane to fly, in a dogfight, he preferred the Hellcat.
I enjoyed seeing Captain Genda interviewed. He is a legendary figure in the IJN as both a pilot and strategist. He had already achieved the rank of Captain by the start of the war, and it always seemed strange that he didn't rise higher in the ranks during the war, but I guess the Navy couldn't tolerate s mere pilot becoming a Rear Admiral.
Me too. It's a shame the Japanese Navy High Command couldn't replicate his strategic and political influence.
@Art Moss
Interesting… considering George H W Bush and John McCain were naval aviators.
(Repeating my above reply) My father taught F-86 ground school to the JASDF when we were stationed there in the mid 1950's. He also often flew in JASDF T-33's with former Japanese WWII fighter pilots. General Genda was one of his students. Genda wanted to know the capabilities of any plane his men flew. For part of the course, the Japanese students had to write an essay in English and present it in front of the class. (English is the international air traffic control language.) For his essay, Gen. Genda presented a re-plan of Pearl Harbor so that they got the carriers. My father said that every American officer on this Japanese air base was crammed in at the doors and windows listening.
I really enjoyed this. I like watching the Japanese documentaries on the air war. Thanks again.
Thank you for this, I’ve rarely if ever seen military documentaries from non-English soirces
I didn't realize Genda survived the war. He was one of the planners of the Pearl Harbor attack, and participated in the battle at Midway.
My father taught F-86 ground school to the JASDF when we were stationed there in the mid 1950's. He also often flew in JASDF T-33's with former Japanese WWII fighter pilots. General Genda was one of his students. Genda wanted to know the capabilities of any plane his men flew. For part of the course, the Japanese students had to write an essay in English and present it in front of the class. (English is the international air traffic control language.) For his essay, Gen. Genda presented a re-plan of Pearl Harbor so that they got the carriers. My father said that every American officer on this Japanese air base was crammed in at the doors and windows listening.
those must have been some _extremely_ *tough* materials at the edges of the flaps!
Ah, the P-2 Neptune! I worked on the SP-2H or P2V-7 model of this aircraft while assigned to VP-65! 14:30
Allied code name "George." Yes, I have heard of it. It and the "Frank" may be Japan's top two single engine fighters. But the Ki-100 was outstanding as well.
15:41 You have to watch this!!! This is by far the best interview I have ever seen in any language.
Straight up LEGEND that dude.
After the start of the war, Japan’s response to allied technology was just too little. too late. I believe on account of their fossilized command structure
they stick their trust in the zero too long, even after they knew zero is absolute. they should have make A7M reppu and N1K shiden-kai when they at the mightiest time.
@@leakahoshi5049 Not like they had much of a choice. Now you're talking about retooling all of your available facilities while in a wartime environment. The Japanese were just trying to hang on after Midway. Yamamoto knew what the stakes were if he couldn't get us to the negotiation table quickly.
@@rickregina5053 Well, they have time you know. 1940 to 1942 is a long time.2 years is what it takes to develop a new aircraft and tactics for allied force to make an equivalent to zero. By two years you also could potentially learn your own aircraft weakness and develop a new aircraft from the data, or a new tactics. Japanese are very smart at reverse engineering, they could replicate an german rocket aircraft with only a manual book. The battle of midway takes at 7 June 1942.
@@leakahoshi5049 That's all dependent on some factors however. No doubt that Japanese industry was trying to come up with better fighters between 1940 and 1942. The main issue however for the Japanese is that they weren't able to make any progress in creating a powerful and reliable enough engine for any potential successor to the Zero (I get it, the Nakajima Homare radial was close to 2000hp, but they were notoriously maintenance heavy throughout the war and had early teething problems out of the factory). Hence all the wing and exhaust port changes to the Zero throughout the war.
@@rickregina5053 another problem was that they didn't have the resources to run their super fighters which were arguable better then some American planes
This is a superb documentary with viewpoints from both sides. The pilots featured are either dead now or in nursing homes. So much valuable movie footage of these brave men can now live on in history. Thank you
Does anyone have any information on the Reppu (Hurricane) fighter supposedly produced in very small numbers near the end of the war?
only 8 prototypes built, not all flew though.
this is old footage,
see the missiles at the museum? outside? they had a storm and 1 fell over, so they moved them indoors.
only the concrete pads remain.
I am surprised that they found nothing. I mean the Canopy was closed.
Even water came in, something must have survived.
Extremely interesting! I like that this documentary was produced by the Japanese and subtitled to English. I would like to know what became of the plane at the bottom of the ocean. Where is it now?
Watch part 2 ;-)
I have to admit I Mr. Shida's response to the kamikaze orders.
A great fighter....
Was the pilot inside the plane when it was found at the bottom of the bay? Or had he bailed
must have been,,,"moving day", as there are many planes shown, that are now indoors.
they will move them out if they need to make room for others to go in/out.
12:19 Kasai Tomokazu's story is full of onomatopoeia, did you have trouble translating it?
I love seeing the foreign perspective. There are so few non American/British accounts available to English speakers. One little thing though, and I might have been distracted and missed it, but the Shiden was actually developed from a plane that was originally designed as a float plane fighter! It was so impressive even with a float hanging off of it that they decided to take the float off and add wheels and a bigger engine. The result was a fighter so good it might have changed the course of the war had it been available in greater numbers but one must also keep in mind that it was not carrier capable.
"There are so few non American/British accounts available to English speakers. "
That's by design, on purpose.
It was a great looking aircraft...like the p47.
but japan have figthrt plane raiden (thundrbolt)
I'm glad the Japanese are on our side now...Ferocious fighters..... I would not want to be on the receiving end of that again...
The JMSDF and USN train together and are familiar with each other's capabilities. So, they can back each other up in a pinch against a certain Far Eastern nuclear power. Yeah, that one.
What year was this documentary made?
That guy had balls of steel saying that to his superior. Much respect
At 17:11 ,Wilber Morrison talks about the same story which is the page of
" th-cam.com/video/3H_9iR7zvMk/w-d-xo.html " at 14 :17 talked by Minoru Honda who was the pilot of 343rd Naval Air Group.
how old is this documentary?
only winner will decide the stories and tell what they want.
More than ever, Japan will need a fighter capable of keeping it's pilots alive over
the coming conflict in the South China Sea.
Day late and a dollar short!
Note - A Navy Captain is equal to an Army , Air Force, or Marine Colonel.
This was not the intended successor to the Mitsubishi A6M. The A7M Reppu was to be that aircraft but Mitsubishi seemed to be suffering from the same sort of malady that was afflicting the Curtiss aircraft company and, as a result, the A6M was forced to soldier on when it was obviously no no longer capable of dealing with the latest allied fighters. A handful of excellent dog-fighting pilots cannot hold off hundreds of GOOD, well-trained pilots flying a damned fine plane, especially if these allied pilots have learned NOT to fight on the enemy's terms. That the Shiden-Kai even managed to get into combat at all speaks volumes to what can be accomplished when your "back is to the wall" and while it showed remarkable performance, it was intended to combat the F6F. Had the war lasted even a couple of months longer, they would have been facing the Bearcat, the Lockheed P-80 (a JET), scads of the P-51-H and F-82s, (possibly even the Russian LAGG7) and the later Corsair variants which the Japanese considered the most formidable opponent. Extend that war a couple of months longer and the Sea Fury, Sea Hornet, Tigercat... 'nuff said. The N1K2 was another case of "too little, too late".
You are right. Only A7M could fought against later allied planes. But Mitsubishi had too much problems with this plane. And Japan could not produce enough planes and could not train enough pilots since 1944.
I really enjoyed all your videos on the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. Your videos surpass those garbage one's of the history channel with their 10 yr old graphics and their sensationalist babble. Thank you very much for all your hard work and your passion. Keep it up, and oh yea subscribed !
Do you have one about the J2M Raiden?
owh those lovely bois
Excellent !
Is that the fight "Matsuyama" a suburb of Fukuoka now?
RESPECT!
At 14:30ish are those Neptune's?
1:16 damaged propeller and closed cockpit, the pilot is probably still inside...
shiden-kai "george" is an intercepter for F6F and B29,and they cound fly faster in everything and raise higer attitude than zeros,they had stronger amaments than zeos.
they could wait for enemy airplanes in the sky by reports from air search raders,and although they're heavy airframes like F6F,they could fight and move round lightly like zero by "Auto aircombat flap" as developers and pilots of the days are testifying,and they were equiping even "Automatic fire extinguisher".
I wonder when these pilots are being interviewed? They look very young. Perhaps the 60's?
The narrator explains that the sunken Shiden-kai was raised in 1989, presumably the pilots were interviewed around that time also. Remember, these pilots were very young when they served, most in their early 20's. But to be honest the recording equipment the Japanese interviewer is carrying looks a little bit more vintage.
Correction: in part 2 it says 1979, which makes more sense, must've been a translation error.
I am very thankful that my dad did not face this airplane and it's very competent pilots.
If the George was equal to the F6F... than damn the F8F must have been a monster. The penical of Prop Performance.
Which USN Fighter overpowered the Shiden?
+Von Millard Manalastas The F8F Bearcat and F7F Tigercat which were just being deployed (but never saw combat) late '44-'45 were very good. They'd most likely overwhelm the Shiden in almost all performance aspects.
Great videos, thanks for uploading,
The George was a very good fighter aircraft. Probably significantly better than the F6F5 Hellcats, in terms of firepower and speed. The Bearcat would have closed that gap had the war continued, but the P-47N and P-51Ds were present in the theater by the spring of 1945, so the George was countered.
Fortunately, production of this fighter was limited to less than 300 aircraft, which meant that in no way would it have any appreciable effect on the outcome of the air war in the Pacific or even in the defense of the Home Islands. Considering the state of the Japanese economy, including access to the resources needed to build this fighter, it is a testament to the designers and builders that this plane ever flew at all.
The German Me-262 was also head and shoulders better than any propeller driven Allied aircraft in Europe, but it came out after German industry was shattered, and pilots and fuel were scarce. It could not affect the outcome, as it too was overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
2000HP and 4 20mm canons was trouble.
でも、これはないですよね！特攻やるやる言ってる人間は怖くて行けないのに、部下だけ行かせるのはそれこそ非国民と言わざる終えないのではないでしょうかね～
Yes! This is a big mystery to me - to see the canopy closed yet no one in the cockpit. What pilot escaping from a sinking, oe sunk plane would pause on the way to the surface to close the cockpit, or once reaching the surface, dive back down to close it. This makes no sense at all. . . Or did I miss understand the subtitle to say that there were no remains in the cockpit? Could it be a mistranslation? Another case of alien abduction? 🧐
Could rushing water (either as it sunk or in the intervening decades) have closed the canopy?
What''s the difference between Shiiden and Shiiden Kai, etymologically?
The "Kai" means "Improved"
@@rengetsuTF
Thanks m8! I've been waiting for months!
anyone putting their life on the line in defense of their Country is a Hero !!!
I think that "Anyone putting their life on the line to help invade other countries is a hero" doesn't have a proper ring to it. :)
in DEFENSE of their Country... don't skew my words !!!
"Rescued from the Poles"... Man, what are you talking about? Did the Poles created concentration camps for German minority? Did they massacred them in riots or something? No German who isn't insane would have tought that way. Maybe dumb kids from HJ believied such stories.
Do you even know where West Prussia was? Geez, I hate ignorants...
And about this Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) events - do you know that Germans had their own agents in the city, so called 5th column? They started to shoot at passing Polish troops and Poles retaliated with force. Maybe some local Germans were also killed by the mob but 5000 is a vast exaggeration. And remmeber - this happened on Sep 3rd, 2 days after the Germans invaded, bombing civilian infrastructure and strafing refugees on the roads. What your reaction would have been in such situation?
You said that German minority in Poland didn't want to stay in this country. Well, why they didn't left then prior to war?
P.S. Your name suggests Scottish decent but you're probably just some kind of Nazi loving American.. What do you know about events in Europe? Stay on your side of the pond with this bullshit propaganda.
True.
精鋭精鋭、エースパイロット集めた、とは言うけれど強い人はほとんどラバウルの悪い作戦で消耗してるから実際は米軍に比べたら素人ばっかりで構成された部隊らしいぞ
N1KJ Shiden Kai (George) & Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) are technically the IJN's best aircraft to counter the USAF F6F Hellcat & the F4U Corsairs respectively & to replace the A6M Zeros & the Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar).
Too bad these aircraft are introduced late in WW2. In addition, both the Shiden Kai & the Hayate aircraft are land-based aircraft where they should technically be designed as carrier based aircraft to be put onto the IJN's remaining surviving aircraft carriers.
Had the Shiden Kai & the Hayate was developed a bit earlier (probably introduced few months after Midway & before Guadacanal), the Shiden Kai & Hayate may be carrier base aircraft & can be formidable foe to the Hellcats & Corsairs.
詳しいね。日本が本格的に戦闘機を作れば、マニアックなものを必ず作るだろう。
I don't think that the remaining air fleets would be effective even if they had these planes. There's a reason the Ozawa Kantai was used as a bait
That some salvage ship for a wee fighter.
前源田実氏が言う。戦争でなぜ負けて行くのか。海軍が負け海を失い海軍が負ける、空を失い空軍が負ける戦闘機が負ける。それは当たり前でもう一つ上の話までして語ってほしかったな。大事なのは戦闘機を簡単に落とすことができるセンサーで感知し戦闘機の近くで炸裂するような武器、それにレーダーかな、その二つがこの戦争ではかなり日本を苦しめたような気がする。それと戦闘機の質丈夫な機体の上での
Wow, very interesting, but these fighters were of course too little too late.
If the war lasted just a couple more months, the F8F Bearcat and F7F Tigercat would've seen action against the N1K2-J and the Ki-84. That would have been interesting.
@@japekto2138 And that's exactly what I was thinking. The Kai was damn good against the F^, but that plane was already a couple years in production. The F7 and F8 were that much more capable. But then again, the B29 took the factory completely out, so the Kai was a dead end.
@@japekto2138 if the war lasted just a couple more months, J6k's would be produced. That would have been interesting.
Arigatou gosaimasu..I love Japan..Bansaii!!
And in war thunder, the Hellcats don't have any chance against N1Ks of any version.
Japan deserves to have this airplane to put on exhibit. Chuck Maki (Finnish-American guy)
Yes - as they said - any Japanese pilot taking off to fight the Americans near the end of the war - WAS - on a Suicide Mission.
Usually though - they didn't have their best aircraft and pilots fly Kamikaze missions - they would fly as escorts to the Kamikaze's.
they where really angry 11:49.
10:34 Why am I still reading the caption, I speak English :D
Same
its quicker
=D
In flight sim the "GEORGE " Kicks every other planes butt. ;)
Even in japanese documentary there is that f myth about Hellcat "superiority" over Zero... Meiji, we lost everything...
What's the problem with that? it was superior! It was way faster so could fight on its own terms, if id did not do the mystake of geting in a turn fight it would boom and zoom and the zero could only try to evade until it could no more. That's superiorty. It doesnt take awy the fact that the zero was brilliant at the start of the war and that the japanese air force had great pilots and good planes.
Allister Moore Hellcat didn’t have hydraulic control surfaces latter models did have geared servo spring tabs which greatly increased high speed roll rate.
I want a car with 2000 horsepower.
Kawanishi N1K
Genda's 343 squadron of veteran pilots seems like the Japanese equivalent of Adolf Galland's JV44 squadron made up of the remainder of Germany's best pilots flying the Me 262. The Shiden Kai's would have performed even better, but the quality of the Japanese fuel was poor. When captured versions were flown by the US, with quality high octane fuel, they performed spectacularly. Part of the reason the IJN was losing so badly besides its Zero's being outclassed was the transfer of pilots and planes from their aircraft carriers to compensate for the losses of the IJA's fighters at Lae, Rabaul, and Truk in the southwest Pacific theater. It didn't help either that aircraft maintenance and supply was terrible, with many planes grounded for Kennedy's 5th air force to destroy at will. Then, to add more to the wasteful loss, green Japanese pilots would ferry new aircraft great distances across the ocean to their forward airbases. Many were lost due to navigational errors and weather. I think it can be said that the Japanese pilots, who took so long to train, were being treated a expendable troops by their leaders who still thought wars were to be won by human wave attacks led by officers waving samurai swords. Too late the Japanese realized that war was about logistics and not Blitzkrieg tactics, that the nation that could continue to afford to throw more men and equipment into the battle than the other would eventually win.
One F6F pilot said that the N1K was an equal of the hell cat XD
WHAT ABOUT THE P 38
N1K2 was better, kill ratio was on + for N1K2.
Por favor alguien tradusca en español.
The Shiden-Kai is such a contrast to the thoroughbred Nakajima Hayate fighter. Shiden-kai was a mongrel plane, starting out as a floatplane of all things!
Not according to ace Honda Minuro who flew it. He also flew the Zero. He has an interview under Japanese aces. Go watch and learn.
Hi Mike. Don't take too much notice of what some idiot says on youtube. Often comments aren't as serious as you may think. One also does not know the condition of the individual at the other end. This one being seriously bad. According to the ace I mentioned the mid wing shinden kai was dreadful. The late model incredible. Cheers. No offence. I have no memory of the comment. Also I am sad to say I'm no longer a boy. :)
Who would've thought they'd improve a floatplane and turn it into a monster of a fighter plane, huh? xD
I think the Spitfire started as a floatplane too!
@@mrdfac The original Kyofu (Rex) was a (relatively) high performance, mid- wing float plane, which served as the basis for the N1K1, still with mid-wing, and a very complicated main undercarriage as a result. The N1K1 was significantly redesigned - almost a new aircraft, with low- mounted wing, to produce the much improved N1K2-J Shiden-kai
Violet Lightning 。
✊🏼Once again another great fighter of the IJN, just too few and too late.
🇺🇲/🇯🇵Stay well. Go in peace.
Interesting about the combat flaps. Believe US P38 used a similar system.
Were the P-38s combat flaps automatic like the Shiden-Kai's? The N1K2 has mercury-operated ones.
+Jorge J Noguera Later models of the P-38 had automatic radiator flaps, but manual wing flaps. The only other World War 2 era plane (as far as I know) that had a similar system to the Shiden-Kai was the BF-109 which had automated wing slats.
Did they ever find out who the pilot was ?
I have seen a video on youtube with the pilot. I for the life of me cant remember who it was! Has been annoying me for months...
BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!
Great respect to the American's '
They fought as much as the Japanese .
From the point of Japanese view with experience & skilfull pilots it was a match for the hell cat f 4 u & hell driver George contributed to the defense air space over Japan / formoza / Burma with good speed / armaments & protection now the impression reports by American pilots after air combat confirm the fact that was difficult target & taugh of catching up fire as did zero( which didn't had self sealing gas tanks) George weakest point was it's engine which was not strong enough to reached in many instances the b 29 bombers at very high altitude therefore was need an improvement.