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The Maeda Aircraft Corporation created the Ku-6. Maeda was designed by The Aeronautical Institute of the Imperial University in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. It is one of the notable aircraft concepts developed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
It was designed with all the requirements that the Army's Troop Transport Command needed.
The main problem that the army faced was the difficulty of moving armored fighting vehicles long distances over the main islands of Japan to resist seaborne invasion. They came up with the idea that it could be done by equipping the vehicle with wings, empennage, and take-off carriages. Once landed, all the items that needed to make the vehicle airborne would be quickly detached to allow it to go into action as a ground vehicle.
In 1939, the Japanese Amy Air Force Examination Department began the development of
Special Tank No.3 Ku-Ro that was initially given the name Sora-Sha (“air vehicle”). The glider for this project was given the Army designation Ku-6 (Japanese: ), which can also be read or abbreviated as "Ku-Ro", and thus that also became the code name for the tank the glider was intended to carry.
While
Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
built the special tank, Maeda Kōken Kōgyō constructed the wing and empennage. Maeda completed the prototype in January 1945.
Specifications
See also
*
Antonov A-40
The Antonov A-40 ''Krylya Tanka'' (russian: крылья танка, meaning "tank wings") was a Soviet attempt to allow a tank to glide onto a battlefield after being towed aloft by an airplane, to support airborne forces or partisans.Winc ...
, a Russian flying tank
*
Baynes Bat
The Baynes Bat (or sometimes Slingsby-Baynes Bat) was an experimental glider of the Second World War, designed by L. E. Baynes. It was used to test the tailless design that he had suggested as a means to convert tanks into temporary gliders ...
, an experimental British design
References
Ku-6, Maeda
1940s military gliders
World War II Japanese aircraft
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