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You can see the angle in this picture montage video, from the smoke trail after it hit, around 28 seconds in, not so steep:There is a picture of a Judy coming in with it's dive brakes out, but it's hard to tell the degree of the dive from the picture.
The following table indicates the altitudes at which suicide planes first were sighted by ships during the period October-May:With about every gun in the fleet putting rounds in the air, how could anybody venture a guess that a diving fighter had structural failure?
Altitude-------------Oct.-Jan.----Feb.-May
---------------------Percent ---Percent
Low (less than 500') 38----35
Intermediate (500'-2,999') 14----41
High (3,000' or over) 48-----24
HyperWar: Anti-Suicide Action Summary
And what skills do you think would have been required???the average kamikaze pilot simply didn't have the skills to make high speed, high altitude dives, so a low altitude lower speed approach was typical.
We'd have to ask some of the very experienced pilots on here as to how much speed a WW2 era aircraft could pick up from a 250 mph speed at 500 ft, if he went into a steep dive.
From my limited experience in light aircraft, you pick up speed pretty quick.
Look at the later pictures of the plane's smoke trail after it hit, not the actual photo's of the plane still in flight. It's definitely the same event; and the angle is pretty clear from that smoke trail.If the pictures are in sequence, it looks like the first picture has him in about a 45 degree dive, then he levels out to correct, then steepens again just before impact,
But the last 3 pictures have no positive horizontal line to judge from. You don't know if or not the photo is cropped, so you can't judge horizontal from the photo margins.
And what skills do you think would have been required???
If you're talking about teaching a pilot how to fly an aircraft like a Judy or Zero operationally in a skill consistency for a rated military pilot, yes, but I can tell you that things like "advanced engine system, oxygen system and radio" are not as difficult as you're putting them to be, evidently you have no flying experience.First off, flying an advanced aircraft like a Zero or Judy at high speed and high altitude requires a lot of navigational skills, but also things like the ability to control an advanced engine system, oxygen system and radio even, since target selection might have to be made by other aircraft.
One of the hardest things to do is to teach a "student" pilot how to fly straight and level on a given course. It is easier to teach a student pitch maneuvers than it is to teach coordinated turns and maneuvers in the horizontal. At a "moderate" altitude all one had to do is point and dive (directional control with rudder) and this was indicated in a manual written to train Kamikazes. Speed is controlled with power (of course) and pitch angle, and if the aircraft if so equipped, dive brakes. You can speculate all you want but it's a lot easier than you think to take an aircraft and point it at a target even if it is moving in the ocean - what makes it difficult is the fact you're getting shot at and you're on a straight non-evasive course.However, consider a pilot flying a Zeke, who begins a high speed, 45deg dive from 15000 ft. The target will be about 7500 yds, slant range, away. Even at 200 yds per second (360 knots), it will take about 38 seconds to impact the target. A 27 knot target will move about 600 yds during this time, and if it turns as well, this sets up a rather complex geometry, where the pilot must be continuously correcting his flight path, and has to do so in an aircraft where the controls are becoming very heavy, and may be nearly immobile. If the pilot does fly this kind of approach he has only one chance to hit the target since a go around will not be possible. IMHO, high speed high altitude dives would have been reserved for pilots with fairly advanced flight training.
You are correct but flying low and slow also sets you up as a nice jucey target - either by ships guns or defending fighters.OTOH, flying more slowly, at low altitude, gives the pilot more control and better probability of hitting a radically maneuvering target, because the control corrections can be made with more time before impact.
The one way mission of the Kamikaze lended it self to be easily trained for (no pun intended). As long as a low time pilot had minimal training, can get the aircraft in the air and follow an escort, the rest was based on the individuals mental ability to carry out their orders. There were many dynamics built into this mission (JoeB pointed this out earlier) but for the most part the perceived skill level required to carry out the attack did not vary, be it in the vertical or horizontal.Most of the Kamakazi were inexperienced pilots, especially later in the war. But some of the early missions were carried out by regular combat groups suddenly transitioned to a Special attack squadron.
And throughout the campaign experienced pilots also joined in, wheather it was due to each pilot's personel code, or peer pressure, who knows.
I've read of one pilot who performed a loop, just before crashing into the hanger bay of a carrier. If it's true, it must have been a fairly good pilot, who chose to go out with a flair.
Even the Ohka ( Baka) pilots had glider versions of their aircraft to practice in, but most got very little training because of the fuel shortage.
"Dive attack
This varies depending on the type of the aircraft. If you are approaching the enemy from a height of 6,000m, adjust your speed twice; or from a lower height of 4,000m, adjust speed once.
When you begin your dive, you must harmonise the height at which you commence the final attack with your speed. Beware of over-speeding and a too-steep angle of dive that will make the controls harder to respond to your touch. But an angle of dive that is too small will result in reduced speed and not enough impact on crashing."
Notes from a suicide manual | World news | The Guardian
I read this too. Obviously the Japanese recognised that the ideal speed at which to execute a Kamikaze attack was a compromise between getting in before you were blown out of the sky and at the same time keeping the airspeed below the level at which the aircraft became uncontrollable. Vitually all reports I have read indicate that the zero, in it's various guises, became very heavy on the controls at speeds approaching 300mph and almost uncontrollable past this point. I'm sure some of the later Japanese fighters were much better in this respect, but I believe the great majority of aircraft expended in the Kamakaze role were examples of the low wing loading/light structure formula that predominated in Japanese aircraft design for most of the war; aircraft that climbed, turned and burned well (burned in both senses of the word) but didn't dive for nuts. In any case, I seriously doubt that any of these aircraft were travelling at anything like 400mph plus at the point of impact. Thank God the Japanese didn't have P-47s!
OTOH, flying more slowly, at low altitude, gives the pilot more control and better probability of hitting a radically maneuvering target, because the control corrections can be made with more time before impact.
From what i've read about the Zero it was very heavy on the ailerons at higher speeds, slow to roll, but pitch and yaw was still effective.
Also what is heavy to test pilots under test conditions is not the same as what would be heavy and unmovable to a pilot under the stress of combat with adrenaline flowing thru his bloodstream.