Possibly The Best Fighter In The Pacific: Kawanishi N1K-J

In this video, we talk about the Kawanishi N1K-J planes, consisting of the N1K1-J Shiden and the N1K2-J Shiden Kai, Imperial Japanese land-based fighters that appeared late in the Pacific Theater of WW2. We first talk about the name the Americans gave the planes ("George"). We talk about the evolution of the design from its floatplane origins (the "Rex") to being a fighter that could sufficiently match up against American F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs, two of the best planes in the pacific.

We then talk about why the "George" didn't have a bigger impact on the war, why its production numbers were so low (relatively speaking), and why, despite it being better than Japan's Mitsubishi A6M Zero and possibly being one of the best fighters of WW2, the Zero still received the bulk of attention and production towards the end of the war.

[samadams]

I'd heard about the automatic flap deployment, thanks for finding a picture of what it looks like. Very clever yet simple concept.

[damagingthebrand]

Nice video, but one mistake. The French interpreter who spoke Japanese and worked with the US government at the end of the war in the PACTHINTs screwed up most of the Japanese navy aircraft speeds. The Japanese army air force used Kph, but the Navy used Knots but he wrote this speed as Mph.. I spotted this error when I read through all of the PACTHINTs in the early 2000s and tried spreading this to the community.
What this means is that the N1K2-J top speed was a bit over 400mph. I was originally confused because I had read the USAAC directive given to P51 pilots that the N1K2 was faster than the P51 at 15000ft or less. So, yeah, George is faster than most people realize.

[Outlier]

Don't forget that the US was developing new fighters (Bearcat, Tigercat) and improvised variants of the P-51, P-47, P-38, and Corsair at the same time. The edge of the Shiden would have been short-lived. Most military-technical advantages don't last very long. The new American planes didn't get into action because the war was almost over and they just weren't worth the additional production and distribution costs. Plus, there weren't enough Shidens to be that great a threat and by then most Japanese pilots were inexperienced and poorly trained.

[spanishpeaches]

Keeping a lookout for Zeros...in London : )

[donlawrence]

You did good job researching the differences between the variants. The Shiden Kai was faster than you reported. There are a few interviews of Japanese aces online. They used this plane against B29s.

[knowingyourmind]

They've got a George at the National United States Air Force Museum, WWII section, over by Bocks Car. Just down the path from the Memphis Belle.

[georgivanev]

I'm honored that they decided to name the plane after me 😊

[brendonbewersdorf]

Thank you so much for covering this aircraft it's massively underrated and one of my favorite Japanese aircraft possibly second only to the ki-61 and the A7m both of which i hope get their own videos in the future

[steveanderson]

A fully Operational George was sold in the early 70's from the Planes of Fame Museum to Japan. The Industrialist flew It and cared for It and on his It fell into a bad state.
From what I can gather It was rescued and is now on display at the Kamikaze Museum in Japan. Such a prize .. the full story behind It is worthy of a book... !!

[waufo]

I love the lines of the Zero. In its day it was the best. I have a model of Saburo Sakai's Zero with its beautiful livery. My next model will be the Kate, also a beautiful looking aircraft.

[tomdemerly]

This is a great narrative. Thank you very much!

[nortoncomando]

This was a very informative video as I am interested in the more less well known Japanese aircraft. I would enjoy some similar videos on the Jack and Claude. Thanks again

[maxoutyoutlife]

Thank you for covering this little known chapter of the Pacific war. The Shinden Kai’s (aka George) performance was a match to the Hellcat and to a degree, the Corsair. But hindered by production limitations, as well as shortage of qualified pilots, it was too little, too late. But when they were flown veterans and aces like the legendary 343rd, they proved themselves formidable against the US Navy pilots. Finding information about their encounters are very difficult to find.

[s.marcus]

I could be wrong, but I think I remember reading somewhere that the Zero was given priority production not just because it was easier and cheaper to build, but because it was a INJ fighter and the Navy held more political sway than the George, which I believe was an IJA project.

[millsnerd]

This was an interesting and informative video, but I was disappointed to again hear several old bits of generally accepted knowledge now known to be incorrect. Early A6Ms lacked armour and self-sealing fuel tanks that made them vulnerable to enemy fire, but they weren't "flimsy"; structurally the airframe was quite strong, and Japanese aluminum alloys at the time were more advanced than those employed in the US. Early Pacific War fighters like the F4F gave a good accounting of themselves, too, and certainly weren't getting shot down in droves as the video implies. Fighting over Guadalcanal in 1942–1943 ended with a kill ratio of nearly 6:1 in favour of the Wildcat.

[danieparriott]

15:58 "not all 14 planes were shot out of the sky..." The American Navy by late 1944 did not bother repairing severely damaged carrier aircraft, as the space on the carrier could not be spared. and replacement aircraft were already on the way ... if it couldn't be made to fly quickly (and maybe repaired further elsewhere), it was stripped of anything in short supply and pushed overboard. The most important/expensive (in terms of both time and resources) part of the system was the well trained pilot which American doctrine (from robust and well armored aircraft designs with self-sealing fuel tanks, to rotating experienced pilots back to the States to pass on their knowledge to new pilots, to spending much time and effort on Search and Rescue operations) did a much better job at both preserving and creating than Japanese doctrine.

[SebaztienHawke-cihm]

6:04 WW2 engine power was wild!

I guess when you have pretty much an unlimited fuel budget, you don’t bother building for economy.

I think today there are plenty of 170hp Cessnas buzzing around… Compare that to a 2000hp warbird! Pure insanity, I love that about these amazing old planes. The engineers were really pushing the technology hard.

[charlesrousseau]

I do love the sympathetic video narration as much as I have a high regard of Kawanishi as an excellent aircraft manufacturer of the era.

[jefesalsero]

I believe there was a dogfight over the Kanto Plain outside Tokyo during the summer of 1945 involving a squadron of Shiden Kai (plus Zeros) and Hellcats. There were losses on both sides.

[masbeetleboy]

I like this video, but to give us a better perspective of the N1K series you should do a video on the Zero. The IJN realized that the Zero was o by outdated 1944 but kept the same engine/airframe combo in production for the remainder of the war. The Zero never had an engine that provided much more than 1200hp, and that really hurt the design. Even when the Japanese would add more safety features to the airframe the limited Sakea engine was kept.