Hikoki:1946 (The "Luft 46" of the Japanese Aviation)

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by Deadly Birds, Nov 27, 2008.

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  1. Deadly Birds

    Deadly Birds Senta a Púa!

    Hello

    This site is equivalent to „Luft 46 “, however it is about Japanese aviation projects. Very interesting!

    Hikoki:1946
     
  2. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    An interesting web sit to visit.

    Regards

    Tom
     
  3. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    The plane on the main page is a copy of a He-162 or at least is very similar to it. Thanks for the link Adriano!
     
  4. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Gotthard,

    Germany had an Agreement with Japan regarding technology and Japan was allowed to build several planes under licence towards the end of trhe war.

    There was a regular submarine trip backwards and forwards with technicians, blueprints and actual parts for manufacture etc.

    The Japanese version of the ME163B differed slightly, but behaved in exactly the same way and killed several of the test pilots!

    Regards

    Tom
     
  5. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    U-234 carried examples of engines and a host of aviation related materials bound for Japan.
    I have seen a photo of a FW-190 in IJA markings which looks really strange- I wonder what the pilot thought of her.

    The German used the Ar.-196 in IIJN markings to patrol the approaches to bases used by their boats in the far east.

    Has anyone any evidence that long range flights actually took place from Southern Russia to Japanese occupied China ?
    Occasionally you hear reports of these flights but concrete facts seem to be few and far between , if anyone can shed any light on them I would be deleighted.

    PS Sorry for going a tad off track on this one.
     
  6. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    James,
    A good question.
    I will try a little digging on the subject and see what I can come up with.

    Regards

    Tom
     
  7. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    Tom , if you could shed any light on these flights , did they or did they not take place I would be very grateful. :)
    Thanks in advance
    james S.
     
  8. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    These "flights" seem to have attained almost mythical status at this stage - There seems to be very sketchy evidence that they actually took place. Best of luck with the search Tom and let us know what you find! I would imagine the only planes capablle of doing such a flight would have been the Long-Range Junkers, the 290 or the 390.
     
  9. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    These are the ones I had heard mentioned but hard evidence - not much to go on.
     
  10. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    These are the ones I had heard mentioned but hard evidence - not much to go on.
    I suppose the only way to find this out would be logs of flights taken by the aircraft, the JU 390 was not produced in any numbers so it might be hard to see where that flew, indeed there is much speculation about its flights (google Amerika Bomber for that whole discussion!) but the 290 was more numerous, I think and there may be squadron records for that plane.
     
  11. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    If the records survived - a few years back I was in contact with a gent in germany who had written a book about the large Ju's. I wish I had asked him - (I was looking at the loss of 2 x 290's off the West Coast of Ireland).
     
  12. Deadly Birds

    Deadly Birds Senta a Púa!

    According official information, in the Post War, USA and UK used three Ju 290 for evaluation tests and a fourth aircraft was sold to Spain.
    Exist available data of these tests?

    Regards
    Adriano
     
  13. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    I have been looking through my thick volumes of British Intelligence in the second World War.
    Whilst there is a lot about Japanese-German meetings I cannot find anything about long range flights.
    Its hard going as the books are not easy reading, but great for certain types of references.

    All my other Luftwaffe books are also devoid of references and so I am now looking around the WWW.

    It will be interesting to see if anyone can obtain a definitive answer.

    Regards to all

    Tom
     
  14. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    Whilst not a Luftwaffe "expert" I have only found general references to the flights - its a bit like the "12 miles from New York" flight , was it ever made at all ?
     
  15. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    James,

    Perhaps we will never find out, but in trying to find the answer we will no doubt find other interesting items as we go along.

    Regards

    Tom
     
  16. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

  17. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    James,

    Perhaps we will never find out, but in trying to find the answer we will no doubt find other interesting items as we go along.

    Regards

    Tom
    Tom, I do hope you wont mind if I hop along for the trip!!! Heres a post from another forum concerning the missions of the JU 290/390:

    Ju-290s

    The Ju-290s not the Ju-390s were actually used to fly to Spain and only 2 were known to actually have flown there. The first one was Ju-290A-3 W.Nr. 0161, Identification code: 9V+DK and it crashed in Spain on Dec. 26, 1943.

    The other was Ju-290A-5 with Civilian Lufthansa markings D-AITR. It was flown to Spain on April 6, 1945 by Flugkapitaen Suzalek. There was a manifest for this flight that included Hitler, Himmler, there families and several other high ranking Nazi officials. None got on the plane and it is believed to have carried valuables for safe keeping.

    This Ju-290 overshot the runway in heavy fog and ended in a rice field with very little damage. It remained there until it was sold to the Spanish Airforce on April 29, 1950.

    There 13 Ju-290's in service with KG200 (I can give you W. Numbers if you wish and Ident numbers) Of these thirteen Ju-290s, 2 crahed in Spain as told above, 1 was bombed and destroyed in Tours on Feb. 5, 1944, 1 went missing in action on the Russian Front on June 16, 1944, 1 was destroyed on the ground at Dessau on Aug. 16, 1944, 2 were destroyed on the Eastern Front on 11 June 1944 and 23 May 1944 respectivly.

    Of the 6 that survived the war (not including the one that crashed in Spain and was later used by Spain) one was sent to England with the markings of AM 6 on May 5, 1945.

    Ju-390's
    There were 2 known Ju-390s used by the KG200. There is very little information on them though. Ju-390V-2 just being noted in Oblt Joachim Eisermanns logbook. According to his logbook he flew the Ju-390V-2 at Rechlin in February 1945. There is no known W.Nr. on it though and no identification numbers.

    The other Ju-390 was a Ju-390V-1 with tail identification markings of GH+UK. It was not used very much and was destroyed at Dessau in 1945. I have a picture of it in my KG200 book in Prague-Ruzyne sometime in the winter of 1944-1945.

    If anyone would like to read up on this and other KG200 aircraft and operations the books is:

    KG 200 The Luftwaffe's Most Secret Unit by Geoffrey J. Thomas and Barry Ketley

    WWII MISTERIES: What happened with the JU390? - Aircraft of World War II - Warbird Forums
     
    James S likes this.
  18. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Another site with info about the JU290/390http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/ju290.html

    There's no mention at all about flights to Japan. Is there any other long range aircraft we might be missing lads?
     
  19. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Gotthard,

    What I found interesting also, on one of the sites I posted, was mention of Italian flights to Japan using their long range planes stripped down to bare essentials.

    If Italy was capable of these flights, in stages via China to Japan, then I cannot see any reason why Germany did not do so also.

    It is just finding the elusive evidence!
    Please feel free as well as everyone else to dig up what they can. This thread is becoming really alive.

    Regards

    Tom
     
    James S likes this.
  20. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    The gent I was in toucvh with a few years ago was Manfred Griel ( I think I got that surname right) - he did wriet a book about the 290/390 - I really must be a bit proactive and get it.
     

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