Japanese Experimental Weapons in WW2

Not my strong point, this aspect of the war. Please chip in. I am sure there is much to be discovered in this theatre of the war.

1945 Japanese X Planes.
See 10 minutes on. Very interesting film.

19 Minutes. The Phoenix Air Tanker. (World's first?)

20 Minutes, the first combat deployed "Helicopter." The KA1 Gyro-Copter. Land and Sea applications.

30 Minutes, the Type 2 Rocket Fighter.

30 Minutes, the Ohka Rocket Bomb, carried by a "Betty Bomber." (Anyone know which exact aircraft?) See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY7

31 Minutes, the R2Y Duel Engine Jet Prototype.

Not mentioned at: http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/ww2-japanese-military-aircraft.asp

See the rather good Japanese Aircraft wiki at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_Allied_names_for_Japanese_aircraft

Thanks to: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheKidStellar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPXtkV1y3xo

 

The "Phoenix" air tanker is the Kokusai Ki-105 Ohtori(Phoenix), the downside to this aircraft was that it achieved long range by using it's cargo, thus it would only deliver 20% of the fuel it had started out with. The Americans were dealing with similar trouble flying fuel over the "Hump" to China, but I don't think the fuel burned to fuel delivered ratio was as bad as the Ki-105 - but then again, they had less distance to fly.

The Ka-1 is an autogyro, not a helicopter - There is a major difference.

The Mizuno Shinryu Type 2 is a relatively unknown quantity. Some say it was to have been a last ditch weapon that was to ram other aircraft, but others are convinced, somewhat justly, that it was a ground attack aircraft, and not a fighter, and was to have been used against ground targets and tanks.
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The Ohka is rather well known.

The Yokosuka R2Y Keiun Ka was a very late development to turn add jet engines to the R2Y Keiun to boost it's speed - as the R2Y had been an under-performer throughout it's development. However, the jet-piston combination did not live up to expectations either, much like the United States Ryan FR-1 "Fireball".


The only success the Japanese had here was the Ka-1 autogyro, the rest were basically failures.

 

Refuelling forward air bases and panzer columns by plane was a standard German practice until they lost control of the air, IIRC the attack northwards from Kalinin in late 1941 was made possible by a Me 321 bringing enough fuel to allow 1st Panzer to move, unfortunately for the Germans the fuel for it's sister division never arrived and the unsupported attack failed. The reliance on air transport is probably the reason why the Luftwaffe, that got obviously priority on the flights, continued to operate when the panzers were stuck. While the flight from Greece to NA was nothing as dramatic as the hump or the planned use of the Kokusaki it was definitely not efficient though the alternative of landing fuel at ports hundreds of kilometres behind the lines and then bringing it up by truck wasn't much better.

 

Most of these should not come as a surprise here...I hadn't heard of the Fukuryi attack suit, and was surprised they had to "reverse engineer" the "Sushi".
Nice bit by George Dvorsky: 11 Secret Weapons...
http://io9.com/11-secret-weapons-developed-by-japan-during-world-war-2-1669775923/+TylerRogoway

 

There was also the Kawasaki Ki-148.