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#Post#: 10501--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the Week: Nakajima B5N2
By: vonofterdingen Date: March 24, 2020, 2:15 pm
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As we live through Flight in the Plague Years, I’ve been
thinking of things I should learn to do as a pilot. As I have
mentioned, landings is one item that requires my attention. But
man does not live by crashing alone. We need destruction, so one
skill I am going to try to pick up is the torpedo attack. There
are some good torpedo attack planes in the game, including the
recently featured Beaufighter and Swordfish. But Pearl Harbor
was probably the most famous torpedo attack in history (I will
take votes for Taranto) and the aircraft in that attack is this
week’s plane, the Nakajima B5N and its legendary long lance
torpedo.[/font]From Wikipedia: The Nakajima B5N, Allied
reporting name "Kate", was the standard carrier-based torpedo
bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for much of World War
II. Although the B5N was substantially faster and more capable
than its Allied counterparts, the American Douglas TBD
Devastator monoplane (the U.S. Navy's first all-metal,
carrier-borne monoplane of any type with retracting gear), and
the British Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore torpedo
biplanes, it was nearing obsolescence by 1941. Nevertheless, the
B5N operated throughout the whole war, due to the delayed
development of its successor, the B6N. In the early part of the
Pacific War, flown by well-trained IJN aircrews and as part of
well-coordinated attacks, the B5N achieved particular successes
at the battles of Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, and Santa
Cruz Islands.
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Primarily a carrier-based aircraft, it was also occasionally
used as a land-based bomber. The B5N carried a crew of three:
pilot, navigator/bombardier/observer, and radio operator/gunner.
The B5N soon saw combat, first in the Sino-Japanese War, where
combat experience revealed several weaknesses in the original
B5N1 production model. These were mainly concerned with the lack
of protection that the design offered its crew and its fuel
tanks. Keen to maintain the high performance of the type, the
Navy was reluctant to add weight in the form of armor, and
instead looked to obtaining a faster version of the aircraft in
the hopes of outrunning enemy fighters. The B5N2 was given a
much more powerful engine - Nakajima's own Sakae Model 11,
14-cylinder twin-row radial, as used in the initial models of
the Mitsubishi A6M fighter – and various modifications were made
to streamline it. Although its performance was only marginally
better, and its weaknesses remained un-remedied, this version
replaced the B5N1 in production and service from 1939. It was
this version that would be used by the Navy in the attack on
Pearl Harbor. The B5N2 Kate carried Mitsuo Fuchida, the
commander of the attack, with one from the carrier Hiryu
credited with sinking the battleship Arizona. Five torpedo
bombers were shot down in the first wave. Apart from this raid,
the greatest successes of the B5N2 were the key roles it played
in sinking the United States Navy aircraft carriers Lexington
and Hornet, and the disabling of the Yorktown, which led to its
sinking by the Japanese submarine I-168. The B5N served as the
basis for a follow-on design, the B6N, which eventually replaced
it in front line service. The B5N continued to fly in secondary
roles, such as training, target towing, and anti-submarine
warfare. Some of the aircraft used for this latter purpose were
equipped with early radars and magnetic anomaly detectors. B5Ns
were also used as bombers during the unsuccessful defence of the
Philippines in October 1944, suffering severe losses. Later in
the war, they were also used for kamikaze attacks.
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In game… I have tried torpedo attacks in the past with little
success. So far, I have only used the US TBF Avenger. The
Avenger is difficult to fly in and of itself let alone trying to
maintain a low altitude and speed. I became frustrated and gave
up. So here I am; I am going to give the Kate and try, along
with the long lance torpedo. I understand the concept; fly no
higher than X and no faster than Y. I have a PDF that I got
somewhere that supposedly provides the flight parameters needed
to drop torpedoes, but the meaning of the values are not always
clear (to me at least). If there is interest I will post that.
#Post#: 10503--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Nakajima B5N2
By: JG51_Ruski Date: March 24, 2020, 2:48 pm
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Thanks Von..Think I'll give her a fly
#Post#: 10507--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Nakajima B5N2
By: Beowolff Date: March 24, 2020, 5:41 pm
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I love this plane! Five star article here and a really good
choice for we guys that never seem to get on with the Japanese
type planes without some folk encouraging us to. (I can't help
it... I just naturally usually pick USA types and or Brit
types... or German or Italian or Russian etc...but SELDOM
Japanese types ....sadly enough.) :-\
Good going, Von! Great job as usual and thank you for the good
effort!
S!
Beo
#Post#: 10508--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Nakajima B5N2
By: vonofterdingen Date: March 24, 2020, 5:46 pm
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It's just a game, but I feel the same way about getting in
Japanese, and to a lesser extent, German planes. I love to fly
the Zero, but do not do it very often.
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