The sole Kawanishi K-2 was the first specialized Japanese racing aircraft. The advanced, single-seat low-wing monoplane's first flight was in the late summer of 1921. It had a promisingly high maximum speed but a career limited by numerous minor accidents produced no victories or records.

Design and development

In the early 1920s the Japanese Imperial Flying Association sponsored flying exhibitions which included competitive racing. Yukichi Goto had piloted the

Kawanishi K-1 Kawanishi's first aircraft, the Kawanishi K-1, was designed as a mail carrier. It was the first Japanese aircraft to receive a Certificate of Airworthiness from the Aviation Bureau. It won a prize in a national contest but was not a commercial ...

mailplane at such events and suggested that the company should build a specialized racing aircraft. The K-2 was the result and was advanced for its

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

-dominated times. Like them, the K-2 had a wooden structure and was fabric covered but was a low wing monoplane. As originally designed, the K-2 had an internally braced cantilever wing but Goto suggested the addition of bracing wires. Later these wires were replaced by short, parallel pairs of struts from the upper fuselage

longeron In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

s to the wing

spars The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

. The form of bracing used for the first flight, made in the summer of 1921, is not known but most photographs show it with struts. The K-2 was powered by a

Hall-Scott L-6 The Liberty L-6 was a six-cylinder water-cooled inline aircraft engine developed in the United States during World War I. Design and development The Liberty L-6, which developed 200–215 hp, was built by the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corp. ...

water-cooled, upright

straight six The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

engine. The cowling was carefully faired into the fuselage behind it, streamlining in keeping with the rest of the K-2 apart from its

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

and landing gear. The radiator was mounted just above the fuselage near the rear of the engine in a rather rectangular profile enclosure. The pilot's open cockpit was well behind the wing trailing edge. Behind it the lower fuselage was flat-sided and tapering in plan, with a rounded decking topped by a fairing which began as a headrest and deepened rearwards. Near the tail the upper and lower fuselage sides merged to make flat surfaces which stabilized the aircraft in yaw; there was no separate fin. Instead, the narrow

balanced rudder Balanced rudders are used by both ships and aircraft. Both may indicate a portion of the rudder surface ahead of the hinge, placed to lower the control loads needed to turn the rudder. For aircraft the method can also be applied to elevators and ...

was hinged on the extreme fuselage. The K-2's rectangular plan horizontal tail was mounted on top of the main fuselage structure, well forward of the rudder. Its conventional, fixed landing gear was not faired. The main wheels were on split axles, hinged centrally on the vertex of a transverse V-strut mounted on the lower fuselage longerons. The landing legs and trailing drag struts were also mounted on the lower fuselage.

Operational history

In early tests the K-2 reached a speed of , suggesting a competitive racing future but a series of accidents, some involving propeller damage, prevented an attack on the national speed record. On 11 July 1921 it was unofficially timed at .

Specifications

References

{{Kawanishi aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft 1920s Japanese sport aircraft Kawanishi aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1921