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The Nakajima J1N Gekko (月光, "Moonlight") was a twin-engine night fighter used by the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. The Allied codename was "Irving".
The design was a development of the Type 2 Land-based reconnaisance plane, to which was fixed two sets of machine guns firing upward and downward at a forward angle, placed in the fuselage behind the cabin, similar to the German Schräge Musik configuration. This arrangement was initially conceived by units active in the Pacific theater who had used it effectively against B-17s in Rabaul, and soon officially adopted by the Navy. Later models had only one lower-firing gun and three upward-firing ones.
The J1N was used against B-29s in Japan, though the lack of good radar and insufficient high-altitude performance handicapped it, and a number were relegated to kamikaze attacks.
Specifications (J1N1-S)
General Characteristics
- Crew: two
- Length: 12.77 m (41 ft 11 in)
- Wingspan: 16.98 m (55 ft 8 in)
- Height: 4.56 m (14 ft 11 in)
- Wing area: 40.0 m² (430 ft²)
- Empty: 4,840 kg (10,648 lb)
- Loaded: 7,010 kg (15,422 lb)
- Maximum takeoff: 8,184 kg (18,005 lb)
- Powerplant: 2× Nakajima Sakae, 843 kW (1,130 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 507 km/h (317 mph)
- Range: 3,778 km (2,361 miles)
- Service ceiling: 9,320 m (30,570 ft)
- Rate of climb: 522 m/min (1,712 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 175 kg/m² (36 lb/ft²)
- Power/Mass: 0.24 kW/kg (0.15 hp/lb)
Armament
2x upward-firing 20 mm Type 99 cannon
2x downward-firing 20 mm Type 99 downward-firing cannon
Related content
Related development:
Comparable aircraft:
Designation sequence:
J1N -
J2M -
J3K -
J4M
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