FP27 IJN Q1W1 "LORNA"

The Kyushu Q1W Tokai was a Japanese WWII light bomber aircraft of a mixed design. The drive was provided by two motors Hitachi Amakaze-31 with 610 HP each. The prototype flight took place in September 1943, and serial production continued in the years 1944-1945, ending with the production of about 150 examples of this aircraft. The on-board armament consisted of one machine gun wz. 92 caliber 7.7 mm and 1-2 cannons wz. 99 cal. 20 mm. The plane could also carry a load of bombs weighing up to 500 kilograms. In late 1942, the command of the Japanese Navy saw a growing threat to Japanese merchant shipping from the actions of US submarines. In order to somehow remedy it, they asked Kyushu to create the first ever Japanese aviation design from scratch, the ZOP (anti-submarine) aircraft. A lot of emphasis was placed on the fastest possible implementation of the new design into production. For this reason, the Kyushu company based on the general design assumptions of the German Junkers Ju-88 bomber, adapting it to the tasks of ZOP, e.g. by installing a magnetic anomaly detector or a radar. Ultimately, the Kyushu Q1W had very good flight characteristics and was easy to fly. The basic mass-produced version was the Q1W1 Tokai Model 11 machine. A modernized version called Q1W1 Tokai Model 21 was created in very small numbers. There was also a concept of creating a training version (Q1W1-K), but only one prototype was created. Kyushu Q1W Tokai planes entered the line in 1944 and operated from bases in Japan, Taiwan and China, serving until the end of the war.