Nakadžima Maru-Ten

Nakajima Maru-Ten


History:
On this project, the chief designer of the Nakajima Hikoki K. K. factory, engineer Kenichi Matsumura, worked together with his assistant engineer Kazuo Ohn. The need for a special attack aircraft arose on the basis of a plan called Kokoku Heiki 2. At the end of August 1944, the Japanese naval air force announced to two of its suppliers what its plans and needs are for building and developing new aircraft and what modifications it expects. The development of suicide planes (jap. [B] Kokoku Heiki) was divided into three parts, Kokoku Heiki 1 was to bring rebuilds of existing types of aircraft Mitsubishi J2M Raiden, Kawanishi N1K Shiden a Yokosuka D4Y Suisei for suicide bombers that were to carry a bomb weighing 800 kg. Kokoku Heiki 2 was to deal with the development of special attack aircraft powered by motocompressor engines TSU-11 and Japanese jet engines TR-12 and TR-12 Otsu, later renamed Ne- 12B and finally the third part of the Kokoku Heiki program was to bring suicide machines with engines Mitsubishi Kinsei.
The project marked as Maru-Ten was given high priority and it was expected that workshop drawings would be drawn during the month and Kaigun Koku Hombu representatives would be shown a life-size scale model. By the end of 1944, the Nakajima factory will build the first 40 !! aircraft. This plan could not be adhered to for various delays, so the plan was operationally changed and at the beginning of February I was to deliver the first prototype for strength tests.
The project placed the main emphasis on the technological simplicity of production. The aircraft was designed as a twin-engine jet, the engines were hung under the wings and its appearance resembled the German Me 262 Schwalbe, it was definitely not a copy, but only an influence of appearance. The project had structural curiosities that resulted from its purpose, for example, the suicide plane was a useless landing gear, takeoff was to take place on a ramp with the help of rocket engines and landing was no longer planned. On the contrary, passive protection of the pilot was taken into account and the fuel tanks were self-locking. It was possible to hang a bomb weighing 250 - 500 kg under the fuselage, when using a five-hundred-kilo bomb, a range of 200 km was considered sufficient - the return journey was no longer. Even before the completion of the first prototype (the one for breaking tests), the whole project was fundamentally changed, on the one hand, production of the first more powerful engines Ne-20 (built loosely according to BMW 003) and the Navy has recently shown interest in a fighter-bomber powered by these new engines. The Maru-Ten project was modified for this purpose, all simplifications characteristic of a suicide machine were removed, and the new revised project was renamed Kikka, but this is another aircraft.

Použité prameny:
Tadeusz Januszewski a Kryzysztof Zalewski, Japońskie samoloty marynarski 1912-1945, díl 2., Lampart, rok 2000, ISBN 83-86776-00-05
L+K 24/1985 Monografie Nakajima Kikka, Jiří Hornát
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