The Nakajima A2N or Navy Type 90 Carrier Fighter was a Japanese carrier-borne fighter of the 1930s. It was a single-engined

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 ...

of mixed construction, with a fixed

tailwheel undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...

Design and development

The A2N was originally developed as a private venture by Nakajima for the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

. It was based loosely on the Boeing Model 69 and

Boeing Model 100 The Boeing P-12/F4B was an American pursuit aircraft that was operated by the United States Army Air Corps , United States Marine Corps, and United States Navy. Design and development Developed as a private venture to replace the Boeing F2B a ...

, examples of both having been imported in 1928 and 1929 respectively. Takao Yoshida led the design team and two

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

s, designated Navy Type 90 Carrier Fighter in anticipation of Navy acceptance, were ready by December 1929. Powered by Bristol Jupiter VI engines, these were rejected, not being regarded as offering a significant improvement over the

Nakajima A1N The Nakajima A1N, or Navy Type 3 Carrier Fighter, was a Japanese carrier-based fighter of the late-1920s and early-1930s. It was a licensed copy of the British Gloster Gambet fighter, built by the Nakajima Aircraft Company for the Imperial Ja ...

. Jingo Kurihara carried out a major redesign and another prototype, the A2N1, powered by a

Nakajima Kotobuki The Nakajima Ha1 Kotobuki (寿, "Longevity") was an aero-engine developed by Nakajima. It was a radial piston developed under licence from the Bristol Jupiter. Design and development In 1917, Chikuhei Nakajima set up the "Airplane Institute" a ...

2, was completed in May 1931. The type was adopted by the Navy in April 1932. A two-seat trainer, the A3N3-1 (Navy Type 90 Training Fighter), was later developed from the Navy Type 90 Carrier Fighter and 66 of these were built between 1936 and 1939.

Operational history

In 1932,

Minoru Genda was a Japanese military aviator and politician. He is best known for helping to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was also the third Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Early life Minoru Genda was the second son of a farme ...

formed a flight demonstration team known as "Genda's Flying Circus" to promote naval aviation and flew this type. The Navy Type 90 Carrier-based fighter flew from the , and . On what would become the first air battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War-Second World War for the air-combat units of these aircraft carriers, A2N fighter pilot

Akio Matsuba was an officer and ace fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific theater of World War II. Matsuba was officially credited with destroying a total of 18 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. ...

from ''Kaga'', flying air-cover in support of Japanese troop-landings in the ''

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan The also ...

'' on 16 August 1937, shot-down a

Chinese Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

Douglas O-2M on an attack mission against Japanese forces in Shanghai. A2Ns were soon completely superseded by the A4Ns and A5Ms fighters.

Variants

;A2N1:(Navy Type 90-I Carrier Fighter) - Guns located in both sides of the nose, but few produced. ;A2N2:(Navy Type 90-II Carrier Fighter) - Guns transferred to the upper surface of the nose, the fuel tanks mounted on the fuselage sides. ;A2N3:(Navy Type 90-III Carrier Fighter) - principal production variant. 5° of dihedral on upper mainplane. ;A3N3-1: (Navy Type 90 Training Fighter) two-seat trainer

Specifications (A2N1)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{Japanese Navy short aircraft designations A02N, Nakajima Biplanes A02N Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1929