60768 Tamiya - 1/72 Kawanishi N1K1-Ja Shiden Type 11 Koh WWII  [60768]

Kawanishi N1K1-Ja SHIDEN TYPE 11

Evolving from the Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" floatplane, the Imperial Japanese Navy's N1K1-J Shiden had a unique pedigree amoung WW2 landplane fighters worldwide. In January 1942, the Kawanishi Aircraft company started adaptation of the Kyofu into a land based fighter, strictly as an individual undertaking. This was indeed quickly formally authorized underneath the designation N1K1-J, using the first model traveling in December 1942. The airframe was essentially the identical to its predecessor, with primary landing gear and high wheel changing the floats. In the place of Kyofu's Mitsubihi Kasei motor, an even more compact and powerful Nakajima Homare engine have been arranged. Exemplary performance and superb maneuverability finished up being accomplished using this engine, nonetheless it caused severe issues. In order to make utilization of the available power inside engine, a large diameter propeller wound up being needed. This required unusually long principal landing gear foot, due to the midwing setup. This caused problems in the landing gear retraction system. Kawansihi engineers was able to resolve the issue by presenting telescopic primary landing gear feet. The complex gear system and unreliability regarding the engine, plagued the N1K1-J throughout its career, until the introduction of this enhanced, low-wing N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. About 1,000 N1K1-J fighters was indeed produced and were active around the Phillipine islands, Formosa, Okinawa and through the entire Japanese Island of Honshu.