Customer Reviews

Japanese Secret Projects: Experimental Aircraft of the Ija and Ijn 1939-1945

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This book is a must for people passionate in aeronautics engineering, especially in "what if?" historical alternatives. In this case, it addresses the aircraft designs of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy that did not make it out of the drawing board or, eventually, reached hardware testing just before the closure of World War II.
I recommend the book for the interesting pages about the desperate attempts to modify the course of the war and oppose to the American advance from 1943 on - from special mission designs (kamikaze) to manufacturing of wooden combat aircraft in secret caves, from submarines carrying the latest German technology to Japan (most of them getting sunk) to the only successful bombing of USA by Japan using hydrogen high atmosphere balloons...
However, compared to the previous books in the same series (German, British, Soviet and US Secret Projects), this one does not feature the same quality in writing and accuracy, possibly due to the lack of reliable archives from Japanese war time.

The latest in Midland's fine series about drawing-board designs actually includes some that flew, including the Ohka bomb, the Ki-115 and the J7W Shinden. There are separate chapters on IJA and IJN designs, along with chapters on ordnance (including the balloon bombs that made it to Oregon) and on all the German aircraft which the Japanese received. Some of the computer-generated artwork is quite striking, including the cover art depicting B-35s (escorted by P-51Ds fitted with wingtip ramjets!) being attacked by Manshu Ki-98s! If you like this sort of "what if" stuff you need this book.

Great treatment of this topic. Excellent color artwork, although I would have appreciated a few more line drawings of the variations. A fine companion to the well known German Secret Aircraft project books.

"Japanese Secret Projects: Experimental Aircraft of the IJA and IJN 1939-1945" by Edwin M. Dyer, is a book about experimental aircraft and weapons systems for the Japanese Army and Navy in World War II. While there are plenty of books on German and American experimental aircraft in World War II, this book is virtually the only book in print dealing with similar Japanese projects.

When describing the aircraft, the author tells how the requirement for the aircraft came about, how the development proceeded, the end results for the aircraft, and gives specifications, usually estimated by the manufacturer as many of the aircraft never flew, or never finished their flight testing. There are also illustrations, primarily computer generated or hand drawn/painted, and they are stunning.

After the aircraft section of the book is completed, he writes about developmental weapons systems, and concludes with an overview of the technical exchange between Germany and Japan, to include German aircraft delivered to the Japanese that were pertinent to the experimental nature of the planes in the book.

While I found the writing to be a bit on the dry side (not unexpected given the nature of the subject), this book fills a niche for the modeler and serious historian about little known developments in Japanese aircraft design during World War II. It also shows the desperate attempts by the Japanese to create aircraft capable of to steming the onslaught of allied aircraft over their territories and the home islands.

Please note that this book does not include every developmental aircraft project for the Japanese. As the author notes in his preface, because of a page constraint (cover to cover, the book is only 160 pages), the author weighted the aircraft to be included based on: radical designs over more conventional designs; fresh designs over derivatives of existing aircraft; the more obscure or unknown the design the higher it was considered; and purely research aircraft, and most non-combat aircraft were generally excluded. But even after the above winnowing, there are plenty of aircraft covered in the book.

As an aside, some day I'd like to see a truly comprehensive look at Japanese aircraft development before and during World War II, to include aircraft that did achieve operational status, their derivatives, as well as the developmental aircraft (most of which were covered in this book), similar to William Green's classic, "Warplanes of the Third Reich". But until then, this book helps fill in the gap very nicely.

Highly recommended.

Author Ed Dyer has put together the finest work yet on Japanese aircraft projects that were terminated with the end of World War 2. Had the war continued another year or two, some of these projects would have potentially emerged - potentially, because the devastation of the Japanese aircraft industry was so extensive that any concentrated building from dispersed sites would have been most difficult (as Germany learned in '44-45). Yet, the potential for these designs to emerge
intrigues several potential readers - wargamers, historians, aeronautical engineers, etc.

The work also corrects some historical errors that are contained in Rene Francillon's Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War (1970), specifically in regard to the Nakajima Kitsuka (referred to as Kikka in Francillon's work). A far more accurate and thorough treatment is given the "Kitsuka" twin-engine jet in this new work, including a reconnaissance version.

The book is divided into several sections: Imperial Japanese Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, Other Aircraft, Weapon Systems, and Appendices. Within the IJA section are aircraft projects by Kawasaki, Kayaba Katsuodori, Kokusai, Manshu, Mitsubishi, nakajima, Rikugun, and Tachikawa (including Ki-162 so familiar to German Me-162, and other jet projects). The IJN section follows, beginning with coverage ofthe Kawanishi Baika (or in most Western books: Baka, manned kamikaze project), and there follows projects of the Kawanishi, Kugisho, Kyushu (J7W Shiden), Mitsubishi, Mizuno (Shinryu II), and Nakajima firms.
The Other Aircraft mostly focus on kamikaze or rammer-type aircraft projects, except for the Nakajima AT27, an inline engine with contra-rotating props project that is similar to Kawasaki Ki-64 project begun in 1940; and, S-31 Kurowashi - a four-engine heavy bomber project concept with a push-pull engine arrangement with twin tail configuration, powered by 24-cylinder engines developing 2,500-hp each, with a projected speed of 690-km/hr. - irrespective of how dream-like the project may have been (as with several other Japanese programs, it intrigues, if only the possible direction Japanese aerospace developments might have attempted to go had either peace been achieved in the mid-40s or the war prolonged.) Included in other projects would be the six-engine Nakajima Fugaku long-range strategic bomber, several Kogiken push-pull engine medium bomber designs, and Mitsubishi's J4M Senden (initially a twin tail boom pusher engine concept- ala Saab 21 - but also envisioned as a pure jet successor project).

The book is 157 pages plus three pages of Index, including two pages of final artist rendering of various aircraft types. A bibliography is included, and includes all the familiar Japanese and other military forces books common the their military force, with one exception: Ishizawa (Kazuhiko) "The Technological Verification of the First Japanese Jet Engine Ne20" (Tokyo, Miki Press, 2006). As readers will discover reading the text, the Ne20 was at the heart of Japanese turbine engine developments (as much as was and in the same category as the German Jumo 004).

The rewards in this book are many and should be an essential part of any library that focuses on the Pacific War, WW 2 military technology, and those that like the "what if" aspects of that great war. Bottom Line: the Japanese volume is every bit as rewarding as the other "Secret Project" series on German, American, British and various other titles (Flying Wings and Tailless Aircraft).

Regular Contributor
NAVAL FORCES journal (Germany)

This is a fine book from a number of standpoints.

1. There is a commendable attempt to be comprehensive without resorting to obvious padding. Thus, we not only get secret projects in the same sense as the other books in the series we also get entries which point out what were *not* secret projects at all, but fantasy. We get missile projects and balloon bombs. We get brief but detailed sketches of German technology that were, may have been, and were not transferred to the Japanese. All interesting, and to me at least, much I didn't know.

2. We get an Allied viewpoint at various places showing what the Allies did or might have known about various projects.

3. We get numerous corrections of previously well entrenched "facts". The Nakajima "Kikka" was really the "Kitsuka", there is no evidence that the Nakajima Fugaku was ever designated G10N, etc. To often books present the results of original research without pointing out that previous works were in error leaving the reader up in the air.

There are also a few problems:

1. There are numerous metric to English and back to metric conversion glitches. For example, a range specified as 6486km (4030 miles). Is there any doubt that the range was originally specified as 6500 km? Authors and editors have to be aware of the importance of quoting the original figures and units and that conversions are invariably rounded up or down and you have to take this into account when trying to back out the original figures. There is also more than a few ton/tonne blunders.

2. The book relies to much on amateur paintings of the projects. A lot of these paintings focus more on imaginary battle scenes and markings than on technical accuracy. You have examples of radial engined planes with inline engine exhaust stacks and inline engined planes with no exhaust stacks, etc.
There is a tad too much of "Luftwaffe '46" silliness in what should be a more serious work.

3. Photographs are limited to a few pages depicting examples in museums, mostly in very poor condition. Were there no contemporary photos at all? Even photos of original documents would be welcome.

Despite the above, the book is a credit to author and publisher and there is much solid information within. The book is well written and was a joy to read. Highly recommended.

I well written and beautifully illustrated book on a subject not widely known. The book is a good starting point for information on the subject and will hopefuuly spur more works on the subject.