Aichi Kokuki KK
3 types ยท 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
The company was established in 1898 in Nagoya as Aichi Tokei Denki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha (Aichi Watch and Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd.). Aircraft production started in 1920, and the company relied initially on technical assistance from Heinkel, which influenced some of their designs. During the inter-war period, Aichi was the beneficiary of technology transferred from Heinkel of Germany. In 1943 the aircraft division was spun off as Aichi Kokuki Kabushiki Kaisha (Aichi Aircraft Co., Ltd.).
Aircraft Types
Aichi D3A
The Aichi D3A (Allied codename "Val") was the Imperial Japanese Navy's principal carrier dive bomber of the Second World War. First flown in January 1938, it attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and was credited with sinking more Allied tonnage than any other Axis aircraft. Increasingly flown from land bases as the war turned, it remained in combat to the end, many of its last sorties as kamikaze attacks. Nearly 1,500 were built; almost none survived the war, and a single D3A2 is being restored to fly in California.
Aichi E13A Jake
The Aichi E13A, known to the Allies as the Jake, was a three-seat twin-float reconnaissance seaplane that became the Imperial Japanese Navy's standard shipboard scout of the Second World War. Designed by Aichi and first flown in 1938, it entered service in 1941 and flew from cruisers, battleships, seaplane tenders and shore bases until 1945, scouting for the Pearl Harbor attack force and searching at Midway. Production totalled 1,418 aircraft, kept in separate accountings by builder: 133 by Aichi, 1,237 by Kyushu Hikoki and 48 by the 11th Naval Air Arsenal at Hiro. Long-ranged but unarmoured, it also flew rescue, transport, anti-shipping and, at the end, kamikaze work, and a handful of surrendered aircraft were taken over by other navies after the war, France in Indochina among them.
Aichi M6A Seiran
The Aichi M6A Seiran was a Japanese attack floatplane designed to be carried inside the giant I-400-class submarines and catapulted against distant targets, above all the Panama Canal. To fit the submarine's watertight hangar its wings rotated and folded flat, and its Atsuta V-12 gave it the speed of a land-based bomber. Aichi built 26, but earthquakes, bombing and a shrinking submarine fleet delayed the type, and its one planned operation, against Ulithi Atoll, collapsed as the war ended. No Seiran ever saw combat. The sole survivor is preserved by the National Air and Space Museum.