Mitsubishi A7M2 Reppu "Sam"

[Trident3B]

I read the book Samurai by the Japanese ace Saburo Sakai 25 years ago and I was fascinated by his account of what might have been. He describes a new fighter that was an incredible machine; the Reppu.

I'be been ga-ga over this bird ever since.


http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal8/7201-7300/gal7261-A7M2-Reppu-Rai/00.shtm

[GTX]

And your point being...

[Daryl J.]

One alternative history I've dabbled with is Mitsubishi has to build aircraft for the Allies as post war reparations and the aircraft serve with the USAF in the roll played by the F-51D Mustang.    The Fine Molds 1/48 kit is not only a beauty, but surprisingly big.   

Reppus are cool.


Cheers,
Daryl J.

[Trident3B]

And your point being...

Just a shout out to an amazing "what if" fighter plane.

[sequoiaranger]

The A7M was a fine aircraft once a proper engine was assigned to it, but in 1945 it more or less "equalled" the F6F Hellcat, which had flown THREE YEARS EARLIER! The USN contemporary aircraft to the Reppu would be the F8F Bearcat, and the Reppu "loses" in the comparison. Inexcusable delays in prototype development and acceptance was its undoing---it shoulda-oughta have been on Japan's carrier decks by the Philippine Sea Battle if Japan had had American industry behind it (both design, manufacturing, testing, etc). To supplant the Zero, Japan had even experimented with the high-performance Kawanishi N1K2 Shiden-Kai for carrier use. I even made a whif of a beefier, "extrapolated" outcome of that line of thinking with my Kawanishi A7K Jinpu-Kai........

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2234

.....a "Reppu"-like large fighter.

But hey, if you like the Reppu, get a kit of it, dress it up, and let us see it!!!

[Hardrada55]

Nobody has ever found the 16-Shi specifications for the replacement to the Mitsubishi A6M.  As I understand it, there was a delay in starting design work on the 16-Shi design for a successor to the new A6M in 1940 and 1941 because of problems with development of the 14-Shi Mitsubishi J2M land based interceptor "Raiden" and the illness of chief designer Jiro Horikoshi.  By the time Mitsubishi was able to return work on the successor to the Zero, it was April of 1942 and the specifications had been updated to the 17-Shi version.  The 17-Shi specifications resulted in the Mitsubishi A7M "Sam" carrier fighter.

The 17-Shi requirements were which became the Sam Reppu and which were formulated in April 1942 by IJN were as follows.

Maximum speed:345knots/h(639km/h)@6000m, Time to climb to 6000m:less than 6minutes, Endurance:Maximum speed 30minutes+250knots  2.5hours(Normal), Maximum speed 30minutes+250knots 5hours(Over load condition), Take off runs:80m(over load condition with counter wind 12m/s),Landing speed:67knots/h(124km/h), Limit speed:450knots/h(832km/h), two 20mm cannons,two 13mm guns.