The Plane To Save Japan - Biggest Japanese KX-3

[Music] in 1943 japan was facing off against allied forces in the pacific and needed a heroic war machine to fuel its fast supply lines which were now scattered thin over thousands of islands and huge territory it had captured a war machine that would be the largest seaplane ever proposed the imperial japanese navy instructed koinishi plant to build a 400 ton mega plane with the explicit directive that it be a size and scale the likes of the world had never seen these gargantuan stats belong to what would have been come a gargantuan aircraft the kawanishi kx-3 or as i like to call it the godzilla plane it may have never been built but for some aviation enthusiasts the fact that it was even considered in itself is a remarkable feat of imagination if not a touch of wishful thinking or even arrogance why was this mega aircraft proposed and how would have it changed the tide of war in the pacific let's jump into it [Music] our story begins when japan was no longer in the ascendancy in the pacific war america had entered the war after the japanese attack on pearl harbor and were fighting japanese forces with its allies all across the pacific the once impressive naval force was getting regularly thumped by allied forces and even japan's merchant fleet was under constant threat of attack from allied forces this had dire consequences for japan since it meant that supplies and manpower could not be easily replenished between the various islands that occupied throughout the asia-pacific region the war in the pacific was also huge in scale much of it on remote far-flung islands the war had become nothing short of a logistical nightmare for the empire and so it was in 1943 that the imperial japanese navy instructed the koinishi plant to build a solution to this problem this solution would have to transport up to a thousand soldiers or imperial marines at a time with all of their equipment included importantly the plane was to be capable of being deployed anywhere in the pacific region and just for a little context comparing the kx3 to the hughes h4 hercules built in 1947 commonly and famously known as the spruce goose it's obvious that the kx3 was to be over two times larger in both wingspan and length a more modern seaplane flying boat comparison might be the soviet caspian sea monster well even that huge plane doesn't even come close to any metric to the sheer massiveness of the kx3 appropriately to think of godzilla when you think of this aircraft but making this insane dream a reality would be a herculean design an engineering task the most obvious design and technical feat that the koinichi engineers had to overcome with the kx3 was also very simple how does one get such a huge plane into the sky and able to fly under its own power the team of engineers had no choice but to take up the challenge fostered on them by the imperial government development work was expedited by the koenig's team using the company's own proven h-a-k flying boat or emily as the starting point the logic was simple keep all of emily's dimensions and simply enlarged them until it morphed into the gigantic kx3 this meant that the kx3 would have a boat-like hull for water-borne take-offs and landings the hull would have had a wide-spanning wing main plane to match this design factor would be ultra critical ensuring that the huge plane had the lift and drag as needed also long running flaps would be affixed to the trailing edges of both wing members for added lift and drag capabilities the fuselage had slab sides and a rounded dorsal surface for aerodynamic maximization as well as outboard sponsors or projections from the side of the plane that could support the plane's massive appendages near its midway points the tail unit at the extreme end of the fuselage would feature a pair of high reaching vertical fins for control and added stability details regarding what horsepower would have supplied the kx3 have differed over the years with one theory being that the turboprop engines would have amounted to around 132 000 horsepower each engine would have driven multi-blade propeller units in pooler fashion augmented by a further 4-6 turbojet engines and by the way this turbojet technology would have been made available courtesy of nazi germany specifically a little company called bmw yes the same one that would later go on to make cars the aircraft would require a crew of 24 men with its range on a full load being around 18 000 kilometers or 11 and a half thousand miles it would have been able to do this journey at a top speed of around 345 knots with a stall speed of 120 knots ornaments aboard the kx3 would have also included 19 25 millimeter machine guns and a 50 millimeter machine gun and weapons bay although its arsenal was never actually finalized it was obvious that this relatively slow and lumbering aircraft would have needed a good mix of automatic cannons and machine guns to defend itself had any american foes strayed over its path this aircraft would have truly changed the face of logistics for the japanese armed forces and to pull it off the selection committee chose none other than a kawanishi aircraft company the kawanishi aircraft company was a leading japanese aircraft manufacturer during world war ii founded in 1920 as the koanishi engineering works in hyogo prefecture so to enter the world of aviation the firm developed the koinishi k1 male carrying aircraft allowing the company to take flight both figuratively and literally in 1921. by the late 1920s the company was even experimenting with the long-range record-breaking flights using the k-12 sakura the range of aircraft that koanishi designed and built during their 1930s onwards was highly impressive and just as diverse and a few of them are worth noting here as they help explain why karnichi was the perfect choice for the later kx3 mega project first a similar 1933 float plane the e7k or elf as it was dubbed by the allied forces in world war ii of which no less than 533 were built and then we have the h6 dubbed mavis which was a patrol flying boat released in 1936 with 215 of that model produced and these aircraft helped put the company on the map in the eyes of the imperial japanese navy and it was around that time that the military took an interest in the firm and where our story takes a more sinister turn the company had just made the e-15k a reconnaissance float plane called the shoony or violet cloud in 1941 the very same year of the pearl harbor attacks with japan now entered a war against one of the world's most fiercest opponents akwa nishi engineering works were set to full power with the development of other aircraft like the famous emily patrol flying boat and scores of other prototype planes were made but eventually not mass-produced during the war but this was the evidence needed to show how just prolific and ambitious the company was in its quest to make aircraft for japan's military and that takes us back to the start of our tale the year of 1943 when the world was at war and japan was starting to get stretched thin across the vast pacific japan had the know-how the resources and an escalating reason to build so why did we never see this godzilla plane take to the skies simply put the war ended before the project got into the air it's noteworthy that several of the ne-201 turboprop engines were already supplied and the airframe was actually under construction by the time the war ended in 1945 so it's fair to say that the kx3 was a serious project that was well underway and had the war kept going we would have seen it in service even after japan's defeat koenichi continued to design and produce flying boats such as the ps1 and us2 although the company would eventually be known as the shinmeiwa that very same conglomerate continues to operate to this day in the same prefecture as kawanishi this firm is an important player of the international aviation supply chain including for companies like boeing which is a kind of funny turn of events the imagination can only marvel and the mind boggle at what the kawanishi kx3 might have looked like had it actually been built and i for one am a little bit sad that we never got to see it even though it was built for controversial reasons speaking of trying to build something you may have noticed that i have joined instagram tick tock and facebook as well as discord with found and explained social media channels so if you want to see other stuff like behind the scenes then give them a follow and if you want to take it a step further and become a supporter of the channel then consider joining our patreon or becoming a channel member you get special access on discord get to see videos early and even suggest future topics that you'll see right here on the channel thanks for watching

Channel: Found And Explained

Views: 908,040

Keywords: new weapon, war thunder, us military, japan, japan airforce, imperial japan, world war 2, world war 2 secret weapons, secret weapons, sea plane, biggest sea plane, worlds biggest plane, h-4, spruce goose, an225, simple flying, mustard, real engineering, us military power, flying boat

Id: KdJ-79utLCc

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021