1/72 Kawanishi Shiden Type 11 - N1K1-Ja
Item #60768

Product Description

Kawanishi N1K1-Ja SHIDEN TYPE 11
Evolving from the Kawanishi N1K1 "Kyofu" floatplane, the Imperial
Japanese Navy's N1K1-J Shiden had a unique pedigree amoung WW2
landplane fighters of the world. In January 1942, the Kawanishi
Aircraft firm began adaptation of the Kyofu into a land based
fighter, strictly as a private venture. This project was soon
officially authorized under the designation N1K1-J, with the
first prototype flying in December 1942. The airframe was
basically the same as its predecessor, with main landing gear and
tall wheel replacing the floats. In place of Kyofu's Mitsubihi
Kasei engine, a more compact and powerful Nakajima Homare engine
was installed. Excellent performance and superb maneuverability
was achieved using this engine, however it brought about serious
problems. In order to use all of the available power in the
engine, a large diameter propeller was required. This required
unusually long main landing gear legs, because of the midwing
configuration. This caused difficulties in the landing gear
retraction system. Kawansihi engineers managed to solve the
problem by introducing telescopic main landing gear legs. The
complex gear system and unreliability of the engine, plagued the
N1K1-J throughout its career, until the introduction of the
improved, low-wing N1K2-J Shiden-Kai. About 1,000 N1K1-J fighters
were produced and were active around the Phillipine islands,
Formosa, Okinawa and over the Japanese Island of Honshu.