The Kawanishi K8K (long designation - Kawanishi Navy Type 0 Primary Seaplane Trainer) was a Japanese

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

trainer designed and built by the

Kawanishi Aircraft Company was a Japanese aircraft manufacturer during World War II. History The company was founded as Kawanishi Engineering Works in 1920 in Hyōgo Prefecture as an outgrowth of the Kawanishi conglomerate, which had been funding the Nakajima Aircraft Co ...

for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was selected for production, but only a small number were built before a change in the Japanese Navy's training needs led to production being stopped.

Development and design

In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy drew up a specification for a 12-shi primary floatplane trainer to replace its

Yokosuka K4Y The Yokosuka K4Y (or Navy Type 90 Seaplane Trainer) was a Japanese floatplane trainer of the 1930s. A single engined two-seat biplane, 211 K4Ys were built between 1933 and 1940, serving as the Imperial Japanese Navy's basic floatplane trainer t ...

or Navy Type 90 Primary Seaplane Trainer. The specification was issued to the established builders of aircraft for the Navy, Kawanishi and Watanabe and to the relative newcomer

Nihon Hikoki Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(also known as "Nippi"). The specification required use of the same Gasuden Jimpu radial engine used by the K4Y, and the three designs showed little changes from the aircraft they were to replace. Kawanishi's design, which was given the short designation K8K1, was, like the other two designs, a single-engine

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 ...

with a fabric-covered steel-tube fuselage and a wooden wing, with two floats. The trainee and instructor sat in individual open cockpits. The first of three prototypes made its maiden flight on 6 July 1938 was handed over to the Navy for testing in August that year. Nippi's submission (the K8Ni) was disqualified from the competition because it was completed too late, and the K8K was found to be much better than the K4Y which it was intended to replace. It was selected in preference to Watanabe's

Watanabe K8W The Watanabe K8W was a Japanese floatplane trainer designed and built by Watanabe for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Development and design In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy drew up a specification for a 12-shi primary floatplane trainer to repla ...

and placed in production as the Navy Type 0 Primary Seaplane Trainer. After 12 more aircraft had been built, however, production was stopped, as the Navy had decided to use the more powerful

Yokosuka K5Y The was a two-seat unequal-span biplane trainer that served in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Due to its bright orange paint scheme (applied to all Japanese military trainers for visibility), it earned the nickname ''"aka-tomb ...

to carry out primary floatplane training.

Specifications

References

* {{Japanese Navy short aircraft designations K08K, Kawanishi K8K Single-engined tractor aircraft