Japanese carrier Based Fighter Aircraft

[earl1937]

  The question came up in the MLW arena last night! How many pure fighters did the Japanese have that launched from aircraft carriers? What were there designations!

[pangea]

A5M Claude
A6M Zeke

The A7M (successor to Zeke) was in development at the end of the war, but did not reach production.

[MiloMorai]

IJN airplanes, http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijna/ijnaf.htm

[colmbo]

Ah, the N1K is a Japanese Naval land based fighter.  I asked the question re: Japanese Naval fighters after I got a kill while flying the N1K and got the "killed x number flying a Japanese navy fighter"  I thought the N1K was Army….that's what I get for thinking.

[Drano]

Well it is a converted sea plane after all!

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[MiloMorai]

Ah, the N1K is a Japanese Naval land based fighter.  I asked the question re: Japanese Naval fighters after I got a kill while flying the N1K and got the "killed x number flying a Japanese navy fighter"  I thought the N1K was Army….that's what I get for thinking.

IJN used letters like the USN to designate the manufacturer and use of the a/c.

http://rwebs.net/avhistory/acdesig/japanese.htm

IJA airplanes designations began with Ki.

[Karnak]

A5M Claude
A6M Zeke

The A7M (successor to Zeke) was in development at the end of the war, but did not reach production.

A7M was in pre-production, but due to IJN demands, an earthquake and the USAAF never reatched production.  Take out the IJN demands and it would probably have been in service by late 44 or early 45.  Too little too late of course, and probably no CVs to operate from, but in service.

The IJN rejected Jiro Horikoshi's use of a 2200hp Mitsubishi engine and instructed Mitsubishi to use the 1900hp Homare engine (N1K, Ki-84 engine) because it was already supported by the logistics system,  Horikoshi told them it would not have enough power, but the IJN told him to do it anyways.  The A7M1 with the Homare engine was rejected by the IJN due to being underpowered and the IJN then instructed Horikoshi to redesign it for the 2200hp Mitsubishi engine he had originally wanted to use.  As I recall about a year was lost to that.