@@anthonyhayes1267 I confessed to my mate last night that I'm a born-again Defiant apologist. I could probably get beaten up in the street for that one.
TH-cam algorithm knows exactly what I was looking for! This video is so vital because: 1. It's a topic in which little information is available. 2. Japanese gave this seaplane a big role as a fighter cover from seaplane bases such as the R-Area Air Force. Thank you for the video!
The only Tamiya Rufe I had was the one which came on the heavy cruiser accessories sprue in the 1/700 Waterline kits. Surprisingly nice detail for the size!
@@raifevesra581 The Eduard kit is best, then Hasegawa kit, the Tamiya kit is an average kit, being so old. Eduard decals are interesting. You put them on, and leave for 24 hours. Then get a flat brush and water to peel away the carrier film. Do this correctly and it looks amazing.
My Grandfather Ssgt Joesph H Wells,,was waist gunner on B-24 (42-73133) Sad-Sack among his crews 3 air kills was a A6M2 Rufe that my grandfather personally got credit for on their 1st mission to Bailikpan. His other was a Ki-45 (Nick) that he smoked while they we're skirting around east Timmor.
The funny thing about the A6M2-N is that for being made in such small numbers, it still manages to show up in a surprising number of post war anecdotes. You would think it was one of the most frequently encountered aircraft from the stories. Which it maybe was in the first few years. Most combat missions were actually doing pretty good to even see an enemy aircraft, a lot of fighter pilots only saw a couple during their whole career, and actually shooting one down was a pretty big achievement, let alone five. In the first years unless you were actually flying right over an active enemy airfield or carrier fleet, you probably weren't very likely to run into any enemy fighters. If you did, the odds were probably better than the numbers suggest that it would be one of these, since these were made expressly to station in places where other aircraft couldnt operate. So if you saw other fighters you would probably see a lot _more_ of them, but you actually had a almost as good a chance of encountering one of these, but probably just one or two. Anyway there just sonething so addictive about Japanese WW2 aircraft, especially the seaplanes. Once you get into them it's hard to stop. They have such unique looks, kind of organic but modern, and the fact that they achieved what they did in aviation starting from where they did is really not appreciated enough. Everyone kind of looks down on their planes as inferior, but they managed to get themselves into the top ten, maybe higher, of advanced aviation states, and with only a few decades to work in. There were only a couple states that managed to develop such advanced planes and build them in such large numbers besides the really major players like the UK and Germany. The US did things on a scale that was frankly just wild and makes any other state look pretty pathetic in comparison, but even making the top ten list puts you way above 95% of the other nations in the world. Same for their tanks, or Italian tanks. Everyone laughs and thinks they were junk because they didn't develop anything that could keep up with the allies or Germans fast enough, but they were still among the best tanks in the world.
This was fantastic! Please please please continue this series of videos about Japanese WW2 aircraft. I absolutely loved your video about the Ki-54, a fascinating type I had never heard of before
My grandfather was an aircraft mechanic for the P-38s. He was friends of the P-38 pilot that was shot down. Several P-38s came back with damage which kept my grandfather busy. There's serial footage of him standing around a campfire drinking coffee. What happened and what he saw affected him very deeply, more deeply than one of the survivors of Iwo that I knew. On a different note, a few years ago, a P-38 did a mock straffing run at a crowd. I was in that crowd. While others stood around confused, I felt a strong urge to run. The lighting must have been a scary thing to be a target of.
@@brianreddeman951 imagine the Bristol beaufighter diving down on you for a strafing attack 6 303 mgs and 4 20mm cannon. Messy n rockets. Or a torpedo. Shit yours I knew I would I'd jump. Ship lol lol.
Yeah. A classic airplane reply guy. 'My grandpappy/uncle/neighbour was a bicycle messenger on Iwo Jima guy'. The seaplane Zero has sweet fucking nothing to do with you and your dear ol grandpappy. What was your grandpa's favourite colour, cuz I don't give a damn about that either. Good luck in life! Tell everyone you meet this story!
Awesome video dude. Love learning about niche aircraft like this. Always had a soft spot for floatplanes lol. Thanks for making it so in depth, too. I feel like I learned a lot!
A very kind assessment of this curious aircraft, which has fascinated me ever since 1993, when my Tamiya kit of the aircraft cruiser Mogami included one on the aircraft & accessory sprue - in cute 1/700 scale, but with a surprising bit of detail! (It didn't have the 'V' strut, though, making it very fragile. Also, Mogami only carried 'Jakes' and 'Pauls', precluding my using the Rufe on her. It's still in my bits box more than thirty years later.) The combat career of the Rufe seems to have been what I'd expect for a single fighter saddled with a float on a *good* day, so not embarrasing overal. The Japanese were not set up to deal with American air raids, for most it not all of the War in the Pacific, so it comes as no surprise that so many were lost in this manner. A goodly number of Axis light attack and point defence units - both air and maritime - lost their machines to that cause, in the same way that similar Allied units far less frequently did. I recall reading also that the little F1M 'Pete' was a handy supplementary fighter, given the right circumstances, and yielded at least one ace. IJN seaplanes are genuinely fascinating, as a key doctrinal component of an interestingly unique & challenging strategic concept. Many thanks for this diverting tangent. Made my day.
Really valuable archive you're building. Some websites that used to cover things like this around from the 90s are long gone. It's a lot of reading and then the ability to transfer that to the best points for video and then a job of reading aloud and editing. Hard work and thank you.
So the Nakajima Aircraft Company based this on the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company A6M "Zero"? Fun Fact for Car Enthusiasts: The modern day descendant company of the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Mitsubishi Motors is one of their many divisions) and the modern day descendant company of the Nakajima Aircraft Company is the Subaru Corporation (Subaru cars is one of their many divisions).
This is the Best military aviation channel I’ve ever came across on TH-cam period and I’ve watched every kind the past few years, you deserve all the good things coming to you 👍
I’m building the Tamiya model of this plane! I want to give it a paint scheme for the Aleutian Islands campaign which is apparently lilac coloured, but I have been unable to find out what specific colour is called for.
IJN Grey or RAF Hemp for the faded look. Amero Grey( IJN Grey Green the the colour) was applied over aluminium without undercoat and gloss for waterproofing but weathered badly with chipping and streaking away due to the poor quality of the paint,it also went matt for the same reason. Later surviving aircraft were crew application IJN Green straight overpainted on the top surfaces of the original colour. Depending on the paint base chemical the colour change was vast because the supplied paint was pigment to be mixed with additives and paint base ( both the Grey Green and Dark Green). Anyhow any shade of light grey green or greenish grey works and can be seen as accurate. Sorry for the paragraph but I've done extensive research for the same reason on a number of IJN subjects. Tamiya and/or Hataka IJN acrylic colours are close,Humbrol Hemp is a good substitute for the grey colour also. As always make it how YOU want it to be!
@@rodneypayne4827 yes, most are IJN light grey green, the Tamiya paint is something I have for my other IJN planes. The Aleutian ones were a different colour which is referenced in sources I have read but I have been unable to find any specifics or colour swatches for the IJN lilac.
Growing up int he Aleutians I have a soft spot for the Rufe. I think the concept of the floatplane fighter goes int hat category design ideas that made sense before the war Other examples being the “Heavy fighter”, the turreted fighter” and fighters with both jet and turbine engines. I would go so far as to say was the Rufe was the first “successful” fighter that was capable of providing forward air support where air fields where not available. The next aircraft that really could do this and demonstrate that in battle didn’t happen until 1982 in the Falklands when we all were introduced to the Harrier/Sea Harrier
Still have my Aircraft Profile copy of the Zero purchased in the early 1960’d which has a beautiful colour illustration of the aeroplane in a mauve colour scheme. 👍🏻🏴
And they were shite. There's a reason the Allies won the war, and having better aircraft was one of them. Just because the Japanese built more float planes doesn't mean those planes were any good.
@@tyisen5125 Weirdly back before retractable (wheeled) landing gear floatplanes were king. Yep a big old float or pair of floats is more streamlined than a pair of wheels (even with fairings) hence the Schneider Trophy planes all being the fastest planes of their time.
This was an excellent video and analysis. Thanks! I don't know if you are interested in the topic, but would you consider a brief video about the Technical Air Intelligence Units that operated in the Pacific theater in WWII. I have no idea if there's much information about them, or if that interests you. I gave my Dad a memoir of a German test pilot who flew all manner of Allied aircraft: Hans-Werner Lerche, Luftwaffe test pilot, "Flying captured Allied aircraft of World War 2".
Love the channel! One piece of feedback is that your voice can be difficult to hear. I think it’s more a microphone issue or maybe recording technique. You might also consider doing manual captions. Great content!
Definitely not a bad in combat, though its heavier weight hurts its general characteristics, still has pretty good armament, though it has a tough time
@@FirstDagger That's a shame. I was envisioning an _Ise_ with a _Rufe_ CAP. They'd be good against TBM Avengers, their only real aerial threat. But then I wonder why SanShiki shells weren't used to bombard Henderson Field.
Wait, the -2N carried _less_ fuel than the normal A6M? I never heard that before. I assumed the fuel tank in the float was in addition to the normal fuselage tank, and was included to give it a similar range in spite of the added drag and slower cruise speed. Especially with the main advantage of a seaplane being that the runway length isn't an issue. Wouldn't less fuel but far more drag give it a significantly lower range performance? Maybe they just didn't think that was important for us mission but that's unusual for any Japanese plane. And it seems like it would be easy to just not fill all the tanks if you wanted max performance for a short range mission. You also can't carry a drop tank, so it's even worse. Is that less fuel than an A6Ms internal load, or full load including the standard external tank?
Not a complete failure. I knew P40 pilot who got shot down by one.! Surprised out of the clouds near Nadzab he was lucky enough to to be able to bail out in spite of his injuries
G'day, Nary 445 Grams... For Aetherial Atmospherics Unto Terra Nullius...(?). Noli illigitimi Carborundums...; Olde Bean ! Such is life, Have a good one... ;-p Ciao !
"This plane has been a complete waste of time and resources" "We could let the Allies capture one, copy it and waste their time and resources" "Brilliant!"
10:00 According to what I've read, the Japanese forces on Attu and Kiska actually enjoyed fairly comfortable living conditions, especially when compared to their American counterparts. This was largely because they erected their quarters into the terrain and underground, providing the sanctuary of sustainable temperatures, while the Japanese even hit upon an underground river, which sustained them with regular supplies of fresh fish. Meanwhile, personnel of the American 11th Air Force units on Adak were constantly forced to freeze their butts off in above-ground tents on concrete surfaces, frequently subject to confined areas as temperatures were too dangerously low to venture outside, and regularly attempting to event peculiar "voice games" in order to keep morale from plummeting to unsustainable levels. All things considered, despite their inferior numbers and moderate equipment, it's understandable that morale amongst the Japanese seaplane detachment remained considerably higher than the numerically dominant US forces they were fighting.
I feel like you are making a whole mini series just for me. 🥲 You should do the E13A and F1M next, those are my favorites for some reason. Such underdog energy, and just handsome and useful planes in general. Nothing at all really wrong with them, they were probably better overall than the OS2U or Ar 196 which were the closest equivalents, and also generally effective at the jobs they were assigned to. Not really "combat" planes per se, although they did use them for attacks and they even used the F1M a a fighter after a fashion (but they did the same with the D3A and pretty much any plane with decent performance and fixed guns, which were good enough to go after patrol planes and even bombers, which were the only planes that they expected to see unless a carrier shows up, until they developed long range fighters).
@@FirstDagger My apologies for telling you, but you're factually wrong. The Kriegsmarine, as part of Operation Monsun, had personnel at various IJN bases in South East Asia. They've traded with the IJN as well, which lead to the acquisition of one example this specific type of Zero by the Kriegsmarine. There were test flights from Jakarta to Jakarta early February 1945, noted in the log as being done with a "Reishiki". The camouflage was kept Japanese to "not give away the presence of the Kriegsmarine", but both the British and Dutch knew anyways. I assume most people you've come across in the TH-cam comment section are full of nonsense or make up stuff, but I have to inform you that I've contributed to a couple of WW2 publications about the Monsun Gruppe.
Prewar strategy did not factor in the construction of more than a few airfields. Hence the IJN factored on the necessity of operating seaplanes and their tenders as support. USN Seabees kinda ruined that plan😅😅
16:50 Boo France boo!! When you get something nice to play with or you try to work together with another country, you seem to always screw it up somehow or are the one who needs bailed out somehow!?
A perfect example of a solution to a problem that is the result of a WORSE problem. Like inventing a prosthetic nose because you cut your own nose off to spite your face.
All depends on what you mean by "a glorious failure". It certainly was not the only seaplane converted into a fighter. It wasn't the only fighter converted into a seaplane. If you expected a fighter converted into a seaplane to be a success against a pure fighter? That might be where the failure was. The fact that pilots were expected to fly this "fighter-seaplane hybrid" against land or carrier-based fighters with attributes similar to the fighter before it was hybridized? I suppose that would be the "glorious failure" part. But that is really no different than comparing fighters directly. Was it a "glorious failure" to fly the F4F Wildcat against the land- and carrier- based Zeros? If so then there are an awful lot of other similar "glorious failures" out there. But even that must be mitigated by the lack of combat knowledge that F4F pilots had of the carrier-based Zeros. As much a matter of technique as of technical competence. Have fun making such videos.
Near the end you said the British gave one to the French who proceeded to crash it. I think the French were looking for someone to surrender to, and were too busy trying to unfurl a white flag.
Not a bad looking aircraft! One wonders how much better it might have been if the wing floats folded up a la Catalina and the central pylon for connecting the float to the fuselage might have been solid but hollow, a la Grumman Duck, with room for fuel, rescued parties, small cargo....
Float planes and seaplanes are not the same thing. A Sunderland was a seaplane . This is a floatplane. Sea planes actually float like a boat. Float planes have floats!
A Sunderland is a flying boat, as it has a boat shaped hull/fuselage (as well as stabilising flats on the wings). Float planes have floats only. Both flying boats and float planes are types of seaplanes.
Don't mispronounce aluminium to pander to Americans they pronounce it incorrectly that is an indisputable fact. The discoverer of it wanted to say it the American way however he himself admitted to do so was incorrect. Please pronounce it the correct British way otherwise people who don't speak English as their first language will get it wrong by learning from you.
Switch to decaf...😉 *EDIT #1→* Just as I initially finish typing this comment, my coffee maker in my kitchen beeped {it had finished brewing coffee}. Really...🤭 *EDIT #2→* th-cam.com/users/shortsGfxm2qqghsQ?si=_jfzydYCKCBoRXiv
it is great - you just need to rip floats by hitting ground and suddenly you fly 4.0 plane in 2,7 match. I use MEC btw.
Dud things WW2 was a WT mode XD
@@idontknow2473 Wait... Wasnt it?
Shhhh, don't let my secret seal clubbing strat out
Retract landing gear. . . Check.
I favor the Ki-43-1 more if I'm doing 2.7.
HOW DARE YOU say that an aircraft I love which was probably a bit crap was actually a bit crap! Love your channel, well done Sir
This is me with the Polikarpov I-153
@@anthonyhayes1267 I confessed to my mate last night that I'm a born-again Defiant apologist. I could probably get beaten up in the street for that one.
TH-cam algorithm knows exactly what I was looking for! This video is so vital because: 1. It's a topic in which little information is available. 2. Japanese gave this seaplane a big role as a fighter cover from seaplane bases such as the R-Area Air Force. Thank you for the video!
I'm building the Tamiya kit right now.
Great timing!
I have one in my stash same model kit , this has given me more in put into building it .
@@markgriffin3184 I really want the Eduard kit - the base Zero is an awesome kit..
The only Tamiya Rufe I had was the one which came on the heavy cruiser accessories sprue in the 1/700 Waterline kits. Surprisingly nice detail for the size!
I've recently built two Tamiya Rufes, both color schemes. I've been modeling 50+ years, but had never built the Rufe in my younger days.
@@raifevesra581
The Eduard kit is best, then Hasegawa kit, the Tamiya kit is an average kit, being so old.
Eduard decals are interesting.
You put them on, and leave for 24 hours. Then get a flat brush and water to peel away the carrier film. Do this correctly and it looks amazing.
My Grandfather Ssgt Joesph H Wells,,was waist gunner on B-24 (42-73133) Sad-Sack among his crews 3 air kills was a A6M2 Rufe that my grandfather personally got credit for on their 1st mission to Bailikpan. His other was a Ki-45 (Nick) that he smoked while they we're skirting around east Timmor.
Were*
Amazing story though. Being a waist gunner seems like one of the more difficult positions to hit anything.
Not A Pound For Air To Ground. Well, what a fine channel! It's quickly escalating thru my not-so-few favourite aviation channels! Well done mate!
The funny thing about the A6M2-N is that for being made in such small numbers, it still manages to show up in a surprising number of post war anecdotes. You would think it was one of the most frequently encountered aircraft from the stories. Which it maybe was in the first few years. Most combat missions were actually doing pretty good to even see an enemy aircraft, a lot of fighter pilots only saw a couple during their whole career, and actually shooting one down was a pretty big achievement, let alone five. In the first years unless you were actually flying right over an active enemy airfield or carrier fleet, you probably weren't very likely to run into any enemy fighters. If you did, the odds were probably better than the numbers suggest that it would be one of these, since these were made expressly to station in places where other aircraft couldnt operate. So if you saw other fighters you would probably see a lot _more_ of them, but you actually had a almost as good a chance of encountering one of these, but probably just one or two.
Anyway there just sonething so addictive about Japanese WW2 aircraft, especially the seaplanes. Once you get into them it's hard to stop. They have such unique looks, kind of organic but modern, and the fact that they achieved what they did in aviation starting from where they did is really not appreciated enough. Everyone kind of looks down on their planes as inferior, but they managed to get themselves into the top ten, maybe higher, of advanced aviation states, and with only a few decades to work in. There were only a couple states that managed to develop such advanced planes and build them in such large numbers besides the really major players like the UK and Germany. The US did things on a scale that was frankly just wild and makes any other state look pretty pathetic in comparison, but even making the top ten list puts you way above 95% of the other nations in the world. Same for their tanks, or Italian tanks. Everyone laughs and thinks they were junk because they didn't develop anything that could keep up with the allies or Germans fast enough, but they were still among the best tanks in the world.
small error at 1:45 the stabi-floats are non retracble
This was fantastic! Please please please continue this series of videos about Japanese WW2 aircraft. I absolutely loved your video about the Ki-54, a fascinating type I had never heard of before
Looking forward to the inevitable episode on the N1K1 Kyoufuu.
My grandfather was an aircraft mechanic for the P-38s. He was friends of the P-38 pilot that was shot down. Several P-38s came back with damage which kept my grandfather busy. There's serial footage of him standing around a campfire drinking coffee.
What happened and what he saw affected him very deeply, more deeply than one of the survivors of Iwo that I knew.
On a different note, a few years ago, a P-38 did a mock straffing run at a crowd. I was in that crowd. While others stood around confused, I felt a strong urge to run. The lighting must have been a scary thing to be a target of.
@@brianreddeman951 imagine the Bristol beaufighter diving down on you for a strafing attack 6 303 mgs and 4 20mm cannon. Messy n rockets. Or a torpedo. Shit yours I knew I would I'd jump. Ship lol lol.
Yeah. A classic airplane reply guy. 'My grandpappy/uncle/neighbour was a bicycle messenger on Iwo Jima guy'. The seaplane Zero has sweet fucking nothing to do with you and your dear ol grandpappy. What was your grandpa's favourite colour, cuz I don't give a damn about that either. Good luck in life! Tell everyone you meet this story!
@cranfordsnorkus6558 you sure seem happy in life. Hopefully one day you are.
At about 16:59 in this video...
*_"Thanks, France."_*
🤭🤭🤭
Awesome video dude. Love learning about niche aircraft like this. Always had a soft spot for floatplanes lol. Thanks for making it so in depth, too. I feel like I learned a lot!
A very kind assessment of this curious aircraft, which has fascinated me ever since 1993, when my Tamiya kit of the aircraft cruiser Mogami included one on the aircraft & accessory sprue - in cute 1/700 scale, but with a surprising bit of detail! (It didn't have the 'V' strut, though, making it very fragile. Also, Mogami only carried 'Jakes' and 'Pauls', precluding my using the Rufe on her. It's still in my bits box more than thirty years later.)
The combat career of the Rufe seems to have been what I'd expect for a single fighter saddled with a float on a *good* day, so not embarrasing overal. The Japanese were not set up to deal with American air raids, for most it not all of the War in the Pacific, so it comes as no surprise that so many were lost in this manner. A goodly number of Axis light attack and point defence units - both air and maritime - lost their machines to that cause, in the same way that similar Allied units far less frequently did.
I recall reading also that the little F1M 'Pete' was a handy supplementary fighter, given the right circumstances, and yielded at least one ace. IJN seaplanes are genuinely fascinating, as a key doctrinal component of an interestingly unique & challenging strategic concept.
Many thanks for this diverting tangent. Made my day.
Really valuable archive you're building. Some websites that used to cover things like this around from the 90s are long gone. It's a lot of reading and then the ability to transfer that to the best points for video and then a job of reading aloud and editing. Hard work and thank you.
So the Nakajima Aircraft Company based this on the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company A6M "Zero"? Fun Fact for Car Enthusiasts: The modern day descendant company of the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Mitsubishi Motors is one of their many divisions) and the modern day descendant company of the Nakajima Aircraft Company is the Subaru Corporation (Subaru cars is one of their many divisions).
I thought Subaru was Fuji Heavy Industries?
@@CaptainLumpyDog You are correct. The company was called Fuji Heavy Industries until 2017, when they changed their name to Subaru Corporation.
😂@16:51 discernible contempt in your voice there dude lol
A Hawker aircraft episode this is not
😅🎉.
would love to see a video on the MiG-29 or the R-73 missile
This is the Best military aviation channel I’ve ever came across on TH-cam period and I’ve watched every kind the past few years, you deserve all the good things coming to you 👍
This is my first exposure to the Rufe. It easily ranks highly in my hypothetical "Strange Aircraft" list. Very interesting. Thanks!
I’m building the Tamiya model of this plane! I want to give it a paint scheme for the Aleutian Islands campaign which is apparently lilac coloured, but I have been unable to find out what specific colour is called for.
IJN Grey or RAF Hemp for the faded look. Amero Grey( IJN Grey Green the the colour) was applied over aluminium without undercoat and gloss for waterproofing but weathered badly with chipping and streaking away due to the poor quality of the paint,it also went matt for the same reason. Later surviving aircraft were crew application IJN Green straight overpainted on the top surfaces of the original colour. Depending on the paint base chemical the colour change was vast because the supplied paint was pigment to be mixed with additives and paint base ( both the Grey Green and Dark Green). Anyhow any shade of light grey green or greenish grey works and can be seen as accurate. Sorry for the paragraph but I've done extensive research for the same reason on a number of IJN subjects. Tamiya and/or Hataka IJN acrylic colours are close,Humbrol Hemp is a good substitute for the grey colour also. As always make it how YOU want it to be!
@@rodneypayne4827 yes, most are IJN light grey green, the Tamiya paint is something I have for my other IJN planes. The Aleutian ones were a different colour which is referenced in sources I have read but I have been unable to find any specifics or colour swatches for the IJN lilac.
Growing up int he Aleutians I have a soft spot for the Rufe.
I think the concept of the floatplane fighter goes int hat category design ideas that made sense before the war
Other examples being the “Heavy fighter”, the turreted fighter” and fighters with both jet and turbine engines.
I would go so far as to say was the Rufe was the first “successful” fighter that was capable of providing forward air support where air fields where not available.
The next aircraft that really could do this and demonstrate that in battle didn’t happen until 1982 in the Falklands when we all were introduced to the Harrier/Sea Harrier
Still have my Aircraft Profile copy of the Zero purchased in the early 1960’d which has a beautiful colour illustration of the aeroplane in a mauve colour scheme. 👍🏻🏴
The Wildcatfish and the float Spitfire went nowhere.
The Rufe and the Rex were both built in some numbers....
And they were shite. There's a reason the Allies won the war, and having better aircraft was one of them. Just because the Japanese built more float planes doesn't mean those planes were any good.
@@ConnAshbyIf you strapped 3 massive pontoons under an aircraft, any would be shite. The Japanese just made the best of theirs
@@tyisen5125 Weirdly back before retractable (wheeled) landing gear floatplanes were king. Yep a big old float or pair of floats is more streamlined than a pair of wheels (even with fairings) hence the Schneider Trophy planes all being the fastest planes of their time.
@@ConnAshbyrufe is the most convincing piece of shite
I'd love to see a dogfight between a Rufe and a Wildcatfish! It'd be a bit like something out of the anime film "Porco Rosso"! 😅
Fantastic content. I love the detail.
Nice and informative presentation! 😊
This was an excellent video and analysis. Thanks! I don't know if you are interested in the topic, but would you consider a brief video about the Technical Air Intelligence Units that operated in the Pacific theater in WWII. I have no idea if there's much information about them, or if that interests you. I gave my Dad a memoir of a German test pilot who flew all manner of Allied aircraft: Hans-Werner Lerche, Luftwaffe test pilot, "Flying captured Allied aircraft of World War 2".
Love the channel! One piece of feedback is that your voice can be difficult to hear. I think it’s more a microphone issue or maybe recording technique. You might also consider doing manual captions. Great content!
It's almost 5 in the morning... fuck it we ball
The tail cone tip was also modified (rounded).
Good call, I never noticed that.
Another great video, thank you! Please do one on the equally cool-looking but ignomious Curtis Seahawk!
Well the Showtime112 videos did show that it did have limited success in the Aleutian Islands.
Wonderful historical coverage video about Japanese sea aircraft's designed during WW2..
Definitely not a bad in combat, though its heavier weight hurts its general characteristics, still has pretty good armament, though it has a tough time
I had a model of a Rufe. It was a interesting plane to build. I do give the Japanese an A for effort, in building and flying an aircraft like that.
Great vid, please do the N1K1 too.
The last time I was this early, USS Marblehead hadn't been gynothropmorphized into a gyaru.
An interesting Aircraft very well presented. Thank you.
9:36. Bit late to reassign them, the war had been over for eight years.
I wonder, were they ever launched from ships?
Rufe wasn't catapult capable from what I know, same with the Rex.
@@FirstDagger That's a shame. I was envisioning an _Ise_ with a _Rufe_ CAP. They'd be good against TBM Avengers, their only real aerial threat. But then I wonder why SanShiki shells weren't used to bombard Henderson Field.
@@marckyle5895 Last I read Type 3 were used to bombard Henderson Field by the Kongous.
Wait, the -2N carried _less_ fuel than the normal A6M? I never heard that before. I assumed the fuel tank in the float was in addition to the normal fuselage tank, and was included to give it a similar range in spite of the added drag and slower cruise speed. Especially with the main advantage of a seaplane being that the runway length isn't an issue. Wouldn't less fuel but far more drag give it a significantly lower range performance? Maybe they just didn't think that was important for us mission but that's unusual for any Japanese plane. And it seems like it would be easy to just not fill all the tanks if you wanted max performance for a short range mission. You also can't carry a drop tank, so it's even worse. Is that less fuel than an A6Ms internal load, or full load including the standard external tank?
I don't think I ever got past a single "first" mission with it in Pacific Fighters...
Not a complete failure. I knew P40 pilot who got shot down by one.!
Surprised out of the clouds near Nadzab he was lucky enough to to be able to bail out in spite of his injuries
What's amazing that they were replaced at remote bases.
nun a buck for sky to soil
A dearth of currency from the heavens to terrain.
G'day,
Nary 445 Grams...
For
Aetherial Atmospherics
Unto
Terra Nullius...(?).
Noli illigitimi
Carborundums...;
Olde Bean !
Such is life,
Have a good one...
;-p
Ciao !
"This plane has been a complete waste of time and resources"
"We could let the Allies capture one, copy it and waste their time and resources"
"Brilliant!"
10:00 According to what I've read, the Japanese forces on Attu and Kiska actually enjoyed fairly comfortable living conditions, especially when compared to their American counterparts.
This was largely because they erected their quarters into the terrain and underground, providing the sanctuary of sustainable temperatures, while the Japanese even hit upon an underground river, which sustained them with regular supplies of fresh fish.
Meanwhile, personnel of the American 11th Air Force units on Adak were constantly forced to freeze their butts off in above-ground tents on concrete surfaces, frequently subject to confined areas as temperatures were too dangerously low to venture outside, and regularly attempting to event peculiar "voice games" in order to keep morale from plummeting to unsustainable levels.
All things considered, despite their inferior numbers and moderate equipment, it's understandable that morale amongst the Japanese seaplane detachment remained considerably higher than the numerically dominant US forces they were fighting.
Please do the Dave next or Ki10
if these old boys ever got together with Saunders-Roe, we might have something...
wat, the N1K1 was actually deployed?
Thanks, France.
Aluminum? What’s that ??
I feel like you are making a whole mini series just for me. 🥲
You should do the E13A and F1M next, those are my favorites for some reason. Such underdog energy, and just handsome and useful planes in general. Nothing at all really wrong with them, they were probably better overall than the OS2U or Ar 196 which were the closest equivalents, and also generally effective at the jobs they were assigned to. Not really "combat" planes per se, although they did use them for attacks and they even used the F1M a a fighter after a fashion (but they did the same with the D3A and pretty much any plane with decent performance and fixed guns, which were good enough to go after patrol planes and even bombers, which were the only planes that they expected to see unless a carrier shows up, until they developed long range fighters).
It's a pretty plane, though. I've always loved sea planes.
I think you said march 1953 instead of 43 but we got the point
The Rufe!
Single floats are better for rough water and manoeuvreability than twin floats, but it can't carry a torpedo, so good for an interceptor.
Glorious failure it may be, it ended up becoming the only japanese plane in Kriegsmarine aviation services
What are you talking about? Kriegsmarine never used any Japanese aircraft.
@@FirstDagger My apologies for telling you, but you're factually wrong. The Kriegsmarine, as part of Operation Monsun, had personnel at various IJN bases in South East Asia. They've traded with the IJN as well, which lead to the acquisition of one example this specific type of Zero by the Kriegsmarine. There were test flights from Jakarta to Jakarta early February 1945, noted in the log as being done with a "Reishiki". The camouflage was kept Japanese to "not give away the presence of the Kriegsmarine", but both the British and Dutch knew anyways.
I assume most people you've come across in the TH-cam comment section are full of nonsense or make up stuff, but I have to inform you that I've contributed to a couple of WW2 publications about the Monsun Gruppe.
How would an P-39 Airacobra, a P-40 or a Brewster Buffalo looked on floats?
Prewar strategy did not factor in the construction of more than a few airfields. Hence the IJN factored on the necessity of operating seaplanes and their tenders as support. USN Seabees kinda ruined that plan😅😅
16:50 Boo France boo!!
When you get something nice to play with or you try to work together with another country, you seem to always screw it up somehow or are the one who needs bailed out somehow!?
A perfect example of a solution to a problem that is the result of a WORSE problem. Like inventing a prosthetic nose because you cut your own nose off to spite your face.
The IJN needed more escort carriers, not float planes.
Yokosuka is pronounced "Yo-KUSS-ka", or at least that's what James Michener wrote in "The Bridges at Toko-Ri".
Japan had quite a few interesting float planes
Niche, cool
All depends on what you mean by "a glorious failure".
It certainly was not the only seaplane converted into a fighter.
It wasn't the only fighter converted into a seaplane.
If you expected a fighter converted into a seaplane to be a success against a pure fighter?
That might be where the failure was. The fact that pilots were expected to fly this "fighter-seaplane hybrid" against land or carrier-based fighters with attributes similar to the fighter before it was hybridized? I suppose that would be the "glorious failure" part.
But that is really no different than comparing fighters directly. Was it a "glorious failure" to fly the F4F Wildcat against the land- and carrier- based Zeros?
If so then there are an awful lot of other similar "glorious failures" out there.
But even that must be mitigated by the lack of combat knowledge that F4F pilots had of the carrier-based Zeros. As much a matter of technique as of technical competence.
Have fun making such videos.
"Thanks, France." Tell me you're a Brit without saying you're a Brit (or maybe an American) lol.
Near the end you said the British gave one to the French who proceeded to crash it. I think the French were looking for someone to surrender to, and were too busy trying to unfurl a white flag.
Yeah, thanks France! 🤣
"aluminum"
A-dak, not uh-dak
Only 3 known sea plane aces
Even this is very sparse to confirm victories
Only 1 as PO Toshi Kano shot down 5 American aircraft
Not a bad looking aircraft! One wonders how much better it might have been if the wing floats folded up a la Catalina and the central pylon for connecting the float to the fuselage might have been solid but hollow, a la Grumman Duck, with room for fuel, rescued parties, small cargo....
Wait... looks at calendar... not Friday.... confusion sets in.
A waste of production to take anA6M and add to the cost and downgrade it by making it a seaplane.
Some of the pictures seem to show the Japanese in the water wearing diapers. Didn’t they have underpants?
Aluminum? What is Aluminum? Have you lost your mind, Sah?
We call it Aluminium, we always have done so.
Traitor! You have revealed the secret invisible second “i” to the unwashed colonials.
No one cares
@@thatairplaneguy is not the right answer! I do, but then, I care about using the language properly, unlike the disrespectful, lazy youth of the day!
Float planes and seaplanes are not the same thing. A Sunderland was a seaplane . This is a floatplane. Sea planes actually float like a boat. Float planes have floats!
A Sunderland is a flying boat, as it has a boat shaped hull/fuselage (as well as stabilising flats on the wings). Float planes have floats only. Both flying boats and float planes are types of seaplanes.
Don't mispronounce aluminium to pander to Americans they pronounce it incorrectly that is an indisputable fact. The discoverer of it wanted to say it the American way however he himself admitted to do so was incorrect. Please pronounce it the correct British way otherwise people who don't speak English as their first language will get it wrong by learning from you.
Switch to decaf...😉
*EDIT #1→* Just as I initially finish typing this comment, my coffee maker in my kitchen beeped {it had finished brewing coffee}. Really...🤭
*EDIT #2→* th-cam.com/users/shortsGfxm2qqghsQ?si=_jfzydYCKCBoRXiv
gekoloniseerd
Uh Lou mi num
Tin foil
What about adding an R sound where there is no R ? Like calling Australia "Austrailyer"? Why do British people do that?