Fighters of the Dying Sun
The Most Advanced Japanese Fighters of The Second World War
by
Justo Miranda
Every country in World War II had some interesting and cringe worthy attempts at making an aviation marvel during the war. Tons of books have been written about the German aircraft that were envisioned at sometime during the war. This book takes a look at the Japanese aircraft plans to help turn the tide in the airwar. Even though the planes are engineering marvels, (some of them at least), Japan had almost no manufacturing left by 1944, and had long since run out of trained pilots. So, we can admire these plans while still knowing their chance of flight was almost nil.
This is a book of line drawings of tremendous amounts of planes that were put on the drawing board during the war. Some of these planes actually made it from blueprint to being manufactured. Some had a few built as test beds, but most did not make the cut.
One thing that the Japanese planes had that is a stumbling block to historians is their nomenclature. The Army and Navy had their own planes, and their own process for 'naming' planes. The US was so stymied by the Japanese process that they used a simple plan to refer to the Japanese planes. The US gave fighters men's names, and the bombers women's names. So, a KI-84, in its most simple form, became a 'Frank' to US pilots.
As was mentioned, some of the planes in the book like the 'Zero', which was never used by the US forces which used 'Zeke', were used throughout the entire war. So, the reader gets a consolidated history of many of the known Japanese planes along with the planned ones. The Japanese were able to come up with some designs by 1944 to match the new US planes, such as the 'George' and 'Tony' etc. What they did not have was trained pilots or aviation fuel for them to use. That is why you will see numerous speeds listed for Japanese planes. The Frank probably only made 399 mph or less on the crude Japanese fuel. When tested in the US with high octane aviation fuel it could make 427 mph.
This is an excellent book to have for the reader interested in the Pacific War, but also for the aviation buff. The book has some information on the different weapons systems that serve employed by the Japanese. Thank you, Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review this book.
Robert
Book: Fighters of the Dying Sun: The Most Advanced Japanese Fighters of The Second World War
Author: Justo Miranda
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
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