The Kyushu Shinden is merely a footnote to the history of World War II, yet also a revelation into how the war was won by the Allies and lost by the Axis.
A recent foray into the holdings of the National Archives turned up, serendipitously, five rough yet revealing photographs of a radical Japanese fighter intended to turn back the formations of B-29 Superfortresses that brought the war to Japan.
Conceived in 1943 as a fast land-based interceptor, the Kyushu Shinden, or Magnificent Lightning, was a project of the Japanese Navy.
There’s an Indiana Jones-like aura surrounding the Kyushu Shinden photographed in its dark factory in Fukuoka, Japan, on Oct. 10, 1945. Patchy skin panels suggest a largely hand-built prototype, one of only two Shindens in existence at war’s end. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph R. O’Donnell via National Archives)
Captain Masaoki Tsuruno gave the design its radical canard-elevator, pusher-prop form. Tsuruno pitched the unusual airframe as amenable to being propeller-driven at first, and jet-propelled once a suitable turbojet was available in Japan.
The engine initially mounted in the Shinden fighter was an 18-cylinder Mitsubishi MK9D radial capable of delivering 2,130 horsepower. A special six-blade propeller harnessed all that power, while keeping prop diameter manageable. Landing gear was tricycle style, with two additional small wheels attached to the bottoms of the cruciform vertical fins.
A six-bladed propeller harnessed the energy of the big Mitsubishi radial engine nested in the Shinden’s fuselage. Designers figured the airframe could later adapt to the installation of a turbojet engine. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph R. O’Donnell via National Archives)
Armament consisted of four hefty Type 5 Japanese-designed 30-millimeter cannons in the slender nose of the Shinden, similar to the firepower in Germany’s jet-powered Me 262. When such large-bore rounds struck American bombers over Germany, their lethality could be devastating.
Tsuruno’s conceptual fighter initially left the drawing boards of Japan’s First Naval Air Technical Arsenal as a wooden glider, the MXY6, intended to validate the canard concept in slower flight speeds. One MXY6 was later fitted with a four-cylinder engine.
Next step was the creation of a metal interceptor. Airframe manufacturers were hectically engaged in wartime production in late 1943 and into 1944, so the Japanese Navy chose a lesser-known company, Kyushu, to work on the J7W1 Shinden fighter because that company’s engineers and facilities were more readily available. The navy assigned additional designers, including Tsuruno, to augment Kyushu’s in-house team.
As Normandy was liberated a half a world away in June 1944, the team creating the Shinden was hard at work on the design of the fighter. About 10 months later, the first prototype was finished.
Canards with elevators distinguished the Shinden from contemporary production fighters. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph R. O’Donnell via National Archives)
The promise of the radical J7W1 Shinden design coupled with a general desperation in Japan to have a heavily armed interceptor to confront the B-29s led the navy to issue a contract for production of the Shinden before first flight. Two factories were envisioned to build J7W1s, with Kyushu forecast to deliver 30 aircraft a month and Nakajima, a proven fighter builder, to roll out 120 of the machines monthly.
Some accounts say more than 1,000 Shinden fighters were expected to be delivered between the spring of 1946 and March 1947, a prediction made at a time when nobody comprehended that World War II would end in the late summer of 1945.
Meanwhile, in the spring and summer of 1945, the prototype J7W1 showed evidence of engine overheating on the ground before first flight, which was postponed due to a lack of availability of some equipment needed by the fighter, as Japanese industry was heavily targeted by American bombers. It is reasonable to presume the engine overheating issue could have been ameliorated during the normal gestation period for a new fighter.
The Kyushu Shinden first tested its wings on Aug. 3, 1945, at the hands of its proponent, Captain Tsuruno. Two more quick test sorties, said to have been made on Aug. 6 and 9, the dates when atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were the last flights for the Shinden. Six days later Japan surrendered, ending the war and the need for the Shinden.
The few test flights of the Kyushu Shinden revealed vibration issues with the propeller and extension drive shaft. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph R. O’Donnell via National Archives)
The three flights logged a total of about 45 minutes and revealed an undesirable pull to the right on takeoff due to torque. Vibrations emanating from the six-blade propeller and its extension drive shaft were noted, all becoming moot with war’s end.
Only two Kyushu J7W1 Shinden fighters were built. One Shinden was shipped to the United States by the U.S. Navy for evaluation, but was never flown in the U.S.
By virtue of receiving an order for mass production of the aircraft, the Shinden holds the distinction as World War II’s only canard-equipped fighter from any nation to enter production status.
With only three short flights before war’s end, the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden was a brief novelty for American researchers and photographers before clean-sheet post-war designs dominated the burgeoning jet age. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Joseph R. O’Donnell via National Archives)
With the prototype’s limited three flights, one can only presume the performance figures listed for the Shinden were preliminary. A top speed of 466 mph at 28,500 feet and a cruising speed of 263 mph were listed and service ceiling was said to be above 39,000 feet.
Some stereotypes going back before World War II may have unfairly characterized Japanese aircraft designs back then as derivative and not particularly innovative. Aircraft like the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden should put that to rest.
The relentless pressure of American bombardment of Japan leveraged the United States’ unscathed aircraft production capacity to ultimately overwhelm Japan’s ability to respond with designs as innovative as the Shinden.
Today, the lone remaining Kyushu J7W1 Shinden is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum collection.
AloJapan.com