61038 Tamiya - 1/48 Kawanishi N1K1-J Type 11-Koh Shiden WWII  [61038]

Towards Kawanishi N1K1-Ja Shiden Type 11

Evolving from Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" floatplane, the Imperial Japanese Navy's N1K1-J Shiden had a unique pedigree among WW2 landplane fighters global. In January 1942, the Kawanishi Aircraft company began adaption of Kyofu into a land based fighter, strictly as a personal endeavor. This task have been quickly formally authorized in designation N1K1-J, aided by the initial model traveling in December 1942.
The airframe had been essentially the the same as its predecessor, with main landing gear and tail wheel changing the floats. Rather than the Kyofu's Mitsubishi Kasei motor, an even more compact and effective Nakajima Homare engine, a far more compact and effective Nakajima Homare engine ended up being set up. Exemplary performance and superb maneuverability finished up being achieved making use of this engine, nevertheless it created serious dilemmas.

To work with every one of the available energy in engine, a big diameter propeller ended up being required. This needed unusually long principal landing gear feet, because of the midwing setup. This caused problems in landing gear retraction system. Kawanishi engineers could resolve the issue by presenting telescopic principal landing gear legs. The complex gear system and unreliability with this engine, plagued the N1K1-J throughout its work, prior to the introduction of this improved, low-wing N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. About 1,000 N1K1-J fighters had been produced and have been active over the Philippine Islands, Formosa, Okinawa and on japan Island of Honshu.