Picture of the Day - Miscellaneous

[special ed]

Impressive. It is a beautiful aircraft. Reproductions or new builds should be seen at airshows along with the Yaks and Polikarpovs. The Russian builders who are making these airplanes are reportedly building a Kate using remains of one ,as a pattern, found on an island north of Japan's main islands. The airfield had a very few unflyable planes from the war years and the island has been unused since the Russians took it.

 

[fubar57]

Nice. Rarely get to see Japanese assembly lines

 

[Shinpachi]

Aichi D4Y circa 1944.

Source: Famous Airplanes of the World No.69

 

[Wurger]

 

[Shinpachi]

Nakajima Ki-43-II at a factory of Tachikawa Aircraft circa 1944.

Army arsenal's logistic center at Itado, Saitama off Tokyo in 1945.

Manufacturing drop tanks.

Source: Famous Airplanes of the World No.65

 

[fubar57]

My favorite Japanese aircraft

 

[johnbr]

B-32 being made.

 

[Wurger]

 

[johnbr]

Consolidated RY-3 Privateer

 

[johnbr]

Waist gunner Ssgt Frank Lusic of the 306th Bomb Group poses in front of his B-17 Meat Hound

 

[johnbr]

Inside the waist gunner's compartment of a B-26 looking aft. These guns served as the bomber's only ventral defense

 

[Shinpachi]

 

[Shinpachi]

Kawasaki Ki-48 Lily.

Testing Ne-0 jet engine.

Experimental Ki-66.
This was a stepping stone for the Ki-48-II-otsu as a dive bomber.

Pictures circa 1940.
Source: Mechanic of World Aircraft vol.2

 

[Wurger]

 

[johnbr]

TBF Avengers, SBD Dauntlesses, and F4F Wildcats on the deck of USS Ranger, 1943

 

[YGBSM]

Great pictures everyone!

Special thanks to Shinpachi for providing the source material from Japan. The pictures remind me a lot of what was accomplished by Shattered Sword when the authors decided to consult Japanese scholarship on the Battle of Midway - it corrected a lot of misconceptions which persisted in Western sources. Although some consider the historical work concerning WW2 to be largely 'done', I think there is a huge treasure trove of information from Japan which remains to be made available to North American and European audiences.


For most of the non-Japanese pictures, I feel that if I tried hard enough, I *could* find them myself. As for the Japanese sourced photos.... I don't know where I'd even begin. Anyone else get that feeling?

 

[special ed]

Fantastic information. The assembly pictures are great. Is the source Koku-Fan. I had a paperback book by a Japanese admiral, whose name I can't remember, which was very informative on the Japanese strategy and tactics. It was an English translation long out of print and I was only half way through when I lost it. From the Japanese point of view, it was incredible informative and would like to find another. Give me guesses about title and author. Keep these great photos coming.

 

[Wurger]

 

[johnbr]

Sailors perform engine maintenance on a Grumman F6F Hellcat on the USS Yorktown somewhere in the Pacific.

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots shinpachi!