Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko "Irving"

[Ack-Ack]

Was the Irving primarily a night fighter or did it also see significant use in the day time fighter role?


ack-ack

[1K3]

Originally posted by Ack-Ack



Was the Irving primarily a night fighter or did it also see significant use in the day time fighter role?


ack-ack

In daylight role, it would be reconnaissance.  

In the final 2 years... Kamikaze

[tedrbr]

Did IJN or IJA ever come up with a decent twin engine fighter?  I thought they all were pretty much outclassed by most of what they came up against?

[Krusty]

Ki-46! The Dinah was a recon plane as well but they armed it with 20mm and even 37mm cannon to take on the US bombers.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by tedrbr
Did IJN or IJA ever come up with a decent twin engine fighter?  I thought they all were pretty much outclassed by most of what they came up against?

No, they were pretty much outclassed by single engine fighters much like the bf110.  

ack-ack

[Karnak]

Ki-102 was about their best shot, but it was intended as a strike aircraft, and as its number indicates was very, very late to the game.

[frank3]

Originally posted by tedrbr
Did IJN or IJA ever come up with a decent twin engine fighter?  I thought they all were pretty much outclassed by most of what they came up against?

I thought the Dinah was especially designed NOT to meet any enemy fighters?
(that is flying at superior altitude and speed)

Not sure it met these demands

[Karnak]

It met those demands VERY well in the first half of the war.  It was almost uninterceptable by Allied fighters.

Also a very pretty aircraft.

http://www.vectorsite.net/avdinah.html

[EagleDNY]

Near the end the Japanese were so desperate to stop the hi alt B-29 raids that they armed anything that could get up that high and used it for bomber interception.  Some J1N1S were armed with a pair of oblique mounted 20mms and used in this role.  

Lt. Yukio Endo (who some regarded as the IJNs top B-29 killer) used this ride on 20 Aug 44 when his group intercepted a raid of 88 B-29s over Kyushu.  He himself is credited with 2 B-29s downed.  The raid was one of the costliest of the war with 14 B-29s being lost to all causes.  

Endo is credited with 8 B-29s destroyed, and 8 more damaged before he was killed on 14 Jan 45.

[1K3]

Originally posted by EagleDNY
Near the end the Japanese were so desperate to stop the hi alt B-29 raids that they armed anything that could get up that high and used it for bomber interception.  Some J1N1S were armed with a pair of oblique mounted 20mms and used in this role.  

Lt. Yukio Endo (who some regarded as the IJNs top B-29 killer) used this ride on 20 Aug 44 when his group intercepted a raid of 88 B-29s over Kyushu.  He himself is credited with 2 B-29s downed.  The raid was one of the costliest of the war with 14 B-29s being lost to all causes.  

Endo is credited with 8 B-29s destroyed, and 8 more damaged before he was killed on 14 Jan 45.

lol where's the escort fighters when you need them:noid

[frank3]

That's where the P-47N came in

[Rolex]

I don't believe that was the case. Escorts were not practical for the B-29s because the long, cold, unpressurized flight was too difficult on the pilots. There were only a handful of escort missions before they were cancelled and the B-29s flew unescorted.

[Squire]

The B-29s switched to night bombing at lower alts in May 1945 (saturation area bombing), making traditional escorting redundant.

Prior to that the VLR (Very Long Range) FGs did escort them from Okinawa for some weeks, both P-51D and P-47N. After the switch to night bombing the FGs went to sweeps over Japan untill wars end in Aug 1945.  

The decision to have the B-29 attack at night at more to do with the fact that they could achieve better results dropping from much lower alts (below 10k) and using incindiery, rather than dropping at 30k with regular HE, and dealing with the jet stream over Japan, which caused a lot of problems for accuracy.