WesWorld

Where's Kanzaki getting the in-line engines from? Historically, those were not exactly a Japanese specialty.....

Also, the ball turret on the Ki-70 is a little much for the period.

Well, this is not the historical world. Also if I were to actually apply the Kanzaki principle from the Sakura Taisen game/anime/manga then all those planes would be using steam engines (Quote from wikipedia: "Sakura Wars is set in a fictional Taisho Era. Although the alternate timeline's history is similar to that of the real world, a crucial difference lies in technology, where most of the benefits of today's modern era are made possible in the early 1900's with the effective utilization of steam. In particular, the Imperial Capital Tokyo, also known as Teito, stood at the forefront of that period's technological revolution. This was thanks in part to the company called Kanzaki Heavy Industries, who were considered world-leaders in steam-powered machinery"; this gives me the impression that in ST, KHI is much bigger and more powerful than the historical Japanese firms)...

... and why are you complaining about the ball turret when there's also a Tall Boy and a bouncing bomb under two of them.

Actually those are 'later' versions of what I call the "Flying Lancatress" (for obvious reasons) and the first version would look like...

... damn! where did I leave them?...

This is the whole list of planes with the first versions first...

Oh, agreed, this isn't the real world, but that doesn't mean we always toss history aside like a cheap suit. Most of the previous Japanese designs, aside from the Gothia designs that were purchased, appear to be using radials, which is pretty historical. The big inlines needed for these designs didn't have much of a precedent, so the question was where did they come from (since I know they're not DB-derived engines).

The earlier versions of the plane do look better (without the ball turret).

Gothia now Eastern Wind Ltd is partially Kanzaki owned...

Some of them have radials but I agree that inlines would have to be imported. Almost all Japanese inline engines were imported.

I doubt RR will export the Merlin to Japan.

I've just noticed the radar aerials beneath the cockpit too!


And people say I design ugly aircraft!

I'm just wondering which of Japan's enemies has dams close by...

As far as I can see, all Japanese manufacturers used radial engines...

... all except for Kawasaki who used the BMW VI in their earlier aircraft in the mid 1920s and no doubt based their early inline engines on that one with the later ones based on the DB 601.

Since I got neither the BMW nor the DB engines and the Japanese planes (the historical ones) still do have their inline engines, it is obvious that the history of those Japanese inlines go back to the single row inlines in the SPAD N-3 and the Fokker N-4 as well as the Friederichshafen FF-50J, and the KHI inlines that were built based on those were at one point in the mid 20s 'merged' by the Mugen Heiki Kenkyuu Kaihatsu Bunka to form the KHI V-12 inline engines (something the Germans did as well) that was then used in the Kawasaki Types 87, 88 and 92 and in later aircrafts.

Why is it that the vast majority of Japanese planes still have radial engines? Well, it is a real pain to go and edit them all so that they have inline engines...

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I've just noticed the radar aerials beneath the cockpit too!

Radar? Nonsense! Japan only has a device called the Tomoe Tele Ray Pointer... There is no such thing as radar.

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And people say I design ugly aircraft!

Remeber that it is based on a British Aircraft and you control Britain... so if the Flying Lancatress is ugly, it is all your fault.
*Runs away and hides in bunker*

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I'm just wondering which of Japan's enemies has dams close by...

I consider it to be... a Mexican Lockbuster version of the Ki-70.

I think non-historical developments lines are possible but theres got to be limits. Pretty much all of Japan's design effort went into creating a nice series of radial engines. Having slightly more resources in WW doesn't equal a world-standard series of inlines as well. Maybe some inlines at the expense of the radial development.

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Originally posted by Red Admiral
I think non-historical developments lines are possible but theres got to be limits. Pretty much all of Japan's design effort went into creating a nice series of radial engines. Having slightly more resources in WW doesn't equal a world-standard series of inlines as well. Maybe some inlines at the expense of the radial development.

Funny you should say that considering the WW Italian aircraft industry...

Do you know anything about the Italian Industry? Both Radial and Liquid engines were behind world standard and a G.50 took 3 times more manhours than the Bf-109.

They had interesting ideas and could produce spectacular aircraft just not many or reliable

No, and he says that the Italian aircraft industry was effective during 1930-45?

Googling that name only gives links to the B5TECH SCI-FI FORUM(?)

I guess Sci-Fi says it all. *runs away and hides in bunker*

Since they were experts on Italian interwar aircraft industry I assumed they had been published on that subject.

That FIAT was neglected is clearly rubbish, now if it was only a political problem why was for example Alfa Romeo so tardy in putting the licence produced DB 601(Alfa Romeo RA 1000 RC 41) Monsone into production or FIAT with the Tifone? Why did a G.50/MC.200 take rougly 20,000 manhours to build whent the Bf-109 took only around 7,000? These engineering wizards seem to have relied heavily on licence produced engines for mass production why?

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Funny you should say that considering the WW Italian aircraft industry...

Thats been built up over years and is still subject to a fair amount of constraints. Politicians did a fair amount of damage to the industry in the mid 30s after Fiat and Isotta-Fraschini had spent the 1920s developing reliable and powerful liquid cooled inlines. After that it was a case of licence whatever designs were available - the Bristol Pegasus for Alfa Romeo, P&W Hornet for Fiat and Gnome-Rhone for Piaggio. The Pegasus was developed into the very successful 125 series which were probably better engines. Neither of the others got very far. Isotta-Fraschini started developing a series of air cooled inlines in an effort to keep drag down but match requirements for air cooling.

In WW, Alfa-Romeo is still with the 125 series and the 18-cylinder 135 series along with a run of the mill inline. Fiat is grappling with the big inline engine based off the AS.6 but a big redesign will be needed. Isotta-Fraschini are carrying on with the established line. Piaggio aren't doing much. These aren't massive changes.

Aircraft-wise; no heavy bombers, a lot less medium bombers (for the moment). Fighters going for Re 2001 and C.202. Bigger and better planned but not yet. A few changes brought about by different engines and requirements e.g. bigger more powerful Ba.65

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and a G.50 took 3 times more manhours than the Bf-109.

So did pretty much every other aircraft. Italy never switched over to a war footing which put her at a considerable disadvantage. A small short limited scale war was expected and it didn't materialise.

Fiat-Ansaldo had massive industrial power, managing to sell the Fiat CR.42 as a fighter up until 1943 to Italy, and still managing in 1944 to sell it to the Germans. Short term profits was the gameplan.