Aviation War Historians have long written much about
the famed Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
rocket plane and its role
in the defense of the German Reich during the final months of WWII. But what
few people know is that same piece of German technology that took down fourteen
American heavy bombers made its way to Japan and almost saw combat in the
Pacific.
Enter the Mitsubishi J8M Shūsui. Licensed by Messerschmitt, the
J8M was ordered in anticipation of the American B-29’s that would soon fill the
skies over Japan. The agreement between the two Tripartite nations called for a
working prototype, rocket engines, and blue prints to be sent by U-Boats to
Kobe Japan. But as the U-Boats were sunk en route, the Japanese were forced to
make unforeseen adjustments that cost them critical time in the J8M’s
production.
Using
a surviving operational manual recovered from the Japanese submarine I-29 that
was docked at Singapore, engineers tried to reverse engineer a working
prototype. This was to be a secret joint
project between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army. While
the Japanese variant Ro.2 rocket engine did not have the operational thrust of
the ME 163, they still used the same volatile propellants of T-Stoff oxidizer
and C-Stoff fuel
(hydrogen peroxide/methanol-hydrazine), known in Japan as Ko and Otsu
which killed many pilots on the
ground in Germany.
The first flight of the
J8M was on July 7th 1945. But at an altitude of 1300 feet, the
engine stalled and was forced to be glided back to the ground clipping a small
building that resulted in the death of the pilot the very next day. As a
result, all J8M test flights were suspended until the technicians could find
the cause of the accident but as history recalls, time had about run out for
Japan.
Today there are only two
of these J8M’s in existence, one at the Mitsubishi Komaki Plant Museum and the
other at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino California. We were lucky to see
these rare planes, now you can too. Please enjoy!
To see both the ME 163
and the J8M in one place:
Please visit: Planes Of Fame Air Museum
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