Mitsubishi G7M1 `Katana` (Sword) Allied code name `Ellie`

[RussC]

Ellie,  after the character in Carl Sagan's "Contact" ?

As this is the Japanese `Amerika` bomber, I thought that naming after the First Lady might be apt...

Devious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jcf]

The IJA and IJN had separate naming conventions, with the Navy having the more complex scheme with separate categories:.
Blossom-Special Attack Plane (Kamikaze)
Cloud-Reconnaissance Plane & Seaplane
Grass or Tree-Trainer
Light-Night Fighter
Mountain-Attack Plane (the G7M would be in this category)
Sea-Land-based Patrol Plane
Sky-Transport
Star-Bomber
Thunder and Lightning-Land-based Interceptor Fighter
Wind-Carrier Fighter and Fighter Seaplane

In the case of the A6M Zero, Reisen is a contraction of REI SENTOKI, literally Zero Fighter as the full
official name of the aircraft was A6M Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter.

Similarly Goshiki-sen is a contraction of GOSHIKI SENTOKI, Five Fighter as it was the Army Type 5 Fighter.

The 0 and 5 are from the Japanese calendar years in which the aircraft were introduced 2600(1940 C.E.) and 2605(1945 C.E.).

Nodachi

[RussC]

The IJA and IJN had separate naming conventions, with the Navy having the more complex scheme with separate categories:.
Blossom-Special Attack Plane (Kamikaze)
Cloud-Reconnaissance Plane & Seaplane
Grass or Tree-Trainer
Light-Night Fighter
Mountain-Attack Plane (the G7M would be in this category)
Sea-Land-based Patrol Plane
Sky-Transport
Star-Bomber
Thunder and Lightning-Land-based Interceptor Fighter
Wind-Carrier Fighter and Fighter Seaplane

In the case of the A6M Zero, Reisen is a contraction of REI SENTOKI, literally Zero Fighter as the full
official name of the aircraft was A6M Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter.

Similarly Goshiki-sen is a contraction of GOSHIKI SENTOKI, Five Fighter as it was the Army Type 5 Fighter.

The 0 and 5 are from the Japanese calendar years in which the aircraft were introduced 2600(1940 C.E.) and 2605(1945 C.E.).

Nodachi

Thanks for those!

[tc2324]

Ladies(?) and gentleman..., I give you the.........,

Mitsubishi G7M1 `Katana` (Sword)
Allied code name `Ellie`

By September 1944 the Japanese high command commissioned a directive to aircraft manufacturers to design and produce a four engine bomber that could reach the west coast of the United States, drop a weapons load of at least 18,000 lbs and return to it`s home base or one of the home islands around the Japanese mainland.

With the advent of the introduction of the B-29 Superfortress by the United States on the 5 June 1944, Mitsubishi designers come up with a radical idea. By copying some design features of the large American bomber, not only did this save some time from a design point of view, but it also provided their new bomber with a silent defense when within range of the US. It was considered that any American aircraft or boat flying or sailing off the West Coast would possibly mistake the Katana for one of their own. While it was realised that this ploy had only a very limited shelf life, it was felt that the impact of a strike like this may have the same moral boosting effect that the Doolittle raid on Japan had for the Americans three years prior. Given the name `Katana`, meaning sword in Japanese and also breaking away from traditional naming of aircraft, it was hoped that this aircraft could deliver a precision strike anywhere on the continental United States.

Other defences included a remote top turret positioned just aft of the pressurised cockpit with the gunner controlling it by sight from a Perspex dome. A rear gunner sat in a pressurised capsule at the rear. The main defences however were `internal` with sophisticated electronic radar jamming equipment housed in two domes. One was placed under the cockpit area while the second placed underneath the rear fuselage. The standard foreseen tactic was to fly to the target area at high altitude using the jamming devices to avoid detection. If the aircraft was seen it was hoped, as stated previously, that it may be mistaken for a friendly. If this failed, speed, altitude and defensive armament were the last option.

The aircraft had two bomb bays, the main one aft of the main wing and a smaller one just forward of the main wing.
   
Powered by four Mitsubishi Ha-204 18-cylinder radials with 2 turbine driven turbochargers with a maximum speed of 396 mph at 30,000 feet, the seven man crew had little in the way of creature comforts as fuel tanks were placed in any conceivable area that was considered spare. The designer's only objective in the new bombers layout involved getting it to the target and delivering the bombs. The crew would always come second.

Production of the prototype and new aircraft started at the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in Nagasaki, a quiet sea port relatively untouched by the war up to that time. All the parts were to be built and placed onto barges which would then sail up the west coast to a final assembly point and the finished aircraft flown from there.

Due to the shortage of materials, only 3 examples had been built and produced by June 1945. Two of these examples are listed as missing while on active service while the third was grounded due to lack of spares. No documentation has ever been found with regards to the first two examples, although a small reference in a Top Secret document did mention the use of the type on a one way Kamikazi mission to Washington DC during January 1945. There were no details as to the target and no such attack took place, but this led to the type gaining the the Allied code name `Ellie` after the US First Lady at that time.

The third aircrafts predicament was due largely to the events of August 9, 1945 and the use of the second Atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. With the Mitsubishi factory destroyed, along with the next sixteen examples of the Katana sitting on barges ruined in the blast, the final remaining example was captured by the Allies at the end of the war. Many of the electronic features from the design were reverse engineered by the Americans and used in their future designs.

Placed into storage for the next 40 years, the partly stripped airframe was `found` and work has started to replicate all aspects of this advanced Japanese four engine bomber so that it can go on public display at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington by 2016.









Hope you enjoyed, decals were old and a complete nightmare, but overall, it turned out nicely in the end. 

[RussC]

Most impressive.

Imagine , with that very long bomb bay- a G7M carrying 3 Ohka model 22's  or 4 of the radio controlled I-Go bombs which were like the Henschels or Fritz-X. That plane could stand off of a fleet anchorage at high altitude and remove the flagships precisely at one raid.

The little-known 4th Katana, stripped of its weapons, was standing ready to participate in the Imperial Army uprising and palace coup on the last day of hostilities. The generals wanted to kidnap the emperor - for his own divine protection - and fly him deep one-way into South America to a undisclosed location where a village of Japanese emigrants awaited. With Hirohito out of the way as a peace initiator, the conflict could be dragged into its miserable 1948 termination by the Warlords. This was thwarted fortunately by factions in the Army loyal to the throne vs the Imperial general staff.
 
The 5th machine while doing long range testing over China and Manchuria, strayed over Vladivostok and landed by accident thinking it was the aerodrome at Harbin. The Russians added the plane to their cache of superfortresses for Tupolev to use on his way to the design of the Bulls, Badgers and Bears, oh my!  

[royabulgaf]

What did you actually use for parts?

[pyro-manic]

Excellent build, tc! My only nitpick is the flat areas on the sides of the fuselage - they're a bit distracting IMO, and detract from the final look of the beast. Perhaps you can come up with a backstory reason for them, and then it won't matter so much?

Superb stuff nonetheless!

[RussC]

Excellent build, tc! My only nitpick is the flat areas on the sides of the fuselage - they're a bit distracting IMO, and detract from the final look of the beast. Perhaps you can come up with a backstory reason for them, and then it won't matter so much?

Superb stuff nonetheless!

  Quick fix, the large fuselage hinomaru straddles the sharp curve line where cylinder meets flats. Go with a smaller marking and put it exclusively on the flat area.
 
  Potential backstory, the flat sides are a manufacturing simplification so that G7 fuselages can also be adapted into the H12K Sudoku flying boat by extending those flat sides down to meet the planing bottom hull and fitting the wing at the shoulder position.

[Taiidantomcat]

Well that turned out pretty superb!! 

Its a "winner" very well done on the construction too, that was FAST! I think I would have taken months to do the same thing 

[tc2324]

Thanks for your comments chaps.

What did you actually use for parts?

I used the left overs from my Tu-90 project earlier this year, a combination of a B-29 and Tu-16.

Excellent build, tc! My only nitpick is the flat areas on the sides of the fuselage - they're a bit distracting IMO, and detract from the final look of the beast. Perhaps you can come up with a backstory reason for them, and then it won't matter so much?

Superb stuff nonetheless!

No offense taken at all pyro, the flat sides annoy me as well. Played with the idea that they helped the aerodynamics, was a special componant of the bombay or was going to get the filler out and round it off which would have taken forever and a day. In the end I just thought that it is what it is and left it, although I do like Russ`s Flying Boat answer.

[The Wooksta!]

The props might be better replaced with shorter 6 blade contra-props.  Spitfire or Shackleton might be best. 

[NARSES2]

I really like this 

  Potential backstory, the flat sides are a manufacturing simplification so that G7 fuselages can also be adapted into the H12K Sudoku flying boat by extending those flat sides down to meet the planing bottom hull and fitting the wing at the shoulder position.

Sounds reasonable to me

[Taiidantomcat]

There is technically less surface... savings in strategic materials?  My Idea would be it was a consequence of a very strong bomb bay with straight sides so preped "clips" of bombs could be uploaded easily. If the fuselage is straight you can attach the internal structure directly to the sides rather than having to have it mounted separately within

[PACOPEPE]

Great work, and very well idea.   Remember me that dreamed japanese project; the Fugaku.

What´s the overall colour?.

Cheers
Fran

[lancer]

Stunning; Beautiful and Superb.....