The was an unsuccessful attempt by
Nakajima Aircraft Company
The was a prominent Japanese aircraft manufacturer and aviation engine manufacturer throughout World War II. It continues as the car and aircraft manufacturer Subaru.
History
The Nakajima Aircraft company was Japan's first aircraft manufactur ...
to meet a 1935 requirement issued by the Japanese government for a modern
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...
to replace the
Mitsubishi Ki-1
The Mitsubishi Ki-1, also known as Mitsubishi Army Type 93 Heavy Bomber, was a bomber built by Mitsubishi for the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1930s. The Ki-1 design was heavily based on the Junkers K 37 and a mockup was ready in August 1932, wi ...
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...
.
Design and development
Unlike in earlier projects, the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
issued in February 1936 detailed specifications that had to be met by the new aircraft. These included a maximum speed at 3,000 m (9,840 ft); climb to altitude in under eight minutes; take-off in less than 300 m (980 ft); normal operating altitude from 2,000 m (6,560 ft) to 4,000 m (13,120 ft); and endurance of more than five hours at at 3,000 m (9,840 ft). Structural strength was specified as well, including a load factor of 6 while at high
angle of attack, and 4 while in a glide. Minimum bombload for short-range missions was to be with a variety of load configurations. Loaded, the bomber was to have a weight of less than . Other specified requirements were a crew of from four to six; engines to be either the
Nakajima Ha-5
The Nakajima Ha5 is a twin row, 14 cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engine built by the Japanese Nakajima Aircraft Company. The engine was a development of earlier single-row Japanese engines, the Kotobuki and Hikari, which had combined fe ...
or
Mitsubishi Ha-6; and three gun positions (nose, dorsal and ventral, each with one flexible 7.7 mm (0.303 in)
Type 89 machine gun). The Hi-2 (Type 94) or Hi-5 radio, and other details were also specified.
Nakajima's veteran design team included
Kenichi Matsumura as chief designer, assisted by
Setsuro Nishimura and
Toshio Matsuda, all of whom had previous twin-engine design experience on the Nakajima's licensed-produced version of the
Douglas DC-2 commercial
airliner project, and the short-lived
LB-2 long-range attack bomber project 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 surrend ...
.
The Ki-19 was a mid-wing
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
of all-metal construction with fabric-covered
control surfaces. The aircraft had a
bomb bay
The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over t ...
within a very streamlined
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...
as opposed to carrying the bombs externally. Douglas-type
hydraulic
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...
ally-operated retractable
landing gear
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
and split-
flap
Flap may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Flap'' (film), a 1970 American film
* Flap, a boss character in the arcade game ''Gaiapolis''
* Flap, a minor character in the film '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland''
Biology and he ...
s were used.
Performance testing by the Tachikawa Army Air Technical Research Institute with the competing
Mitsubishi Ki-21
The ( Allied reporting name: "Sally" /"Gwen") was a Japanese heavy bomber during World War II. It began operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War participating in the Nomonhan Incident, and in the first stages of the Pacific War, including ...
lasted from March to May 1937. Evaluation was continued at the Army's main bomber base at
Hamamatsu
is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. the city had an estimated population of 791,707 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, and a population density of . The total area of the site was .
Overview
Ha ...
for bombing and other operational testing beginning in June. Not completely satisfied with the combinations of
airframe and engines, the Army ordered to both Ki-19
prototypes to be powered by Mitsubishi Ha-6 engines, while the two prototypes of the Mitsubishi Ki-21 also converted to be powered by Nakajima Ha-5 engines.
Prototypes from the two companies were almost identical in performance, but the Army officially selected the Mitsubishi Ki-21 as the "Army Type 97 Heavy Bomber", Nakajima having lost the Army contract.
The fourth
prototype was converted to the
mail plane
A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail.
Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...
in April 1939 it got the new designation ''N-19''. It was commonly referred to as the ''N-19 Long-Range Communications Aircraft'' and sold to the ''
Domei Tsushin Domei is the name of:
* Dōmei Tsushin, former news agency in the Empire of Japan
* Japanese Confederation of Labour
The Japanese Confederation of Labour (Domei; ja, 全日本労働総同盟) was a national trade union federation in Japan.
The ...
'' (Domei Press Agency), under registration J-BACN and was named ''Domei No.2''.
Variants
* Ki-19 : Prototype for testing (2 units produced in 1937)
* N-19 : One prototype converted to mail plane.
Operators
;
*
Imperial Japanese Army Air Force
The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...
*
Domei Tsushin Domei is the name of:
* Dōmei Tsushin, former news agency in the Empire of Japan
* Japanese Confederation of Labour
The Japanese Confederation of Labour (Domei; ja, 全日本労働総同盟) was a national trade union federation in Japan.
The ...
Specifications (Ki-19)
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
External links
Axis History Forum
{{Japanese Army Aircraft Designation System
Ki-19, Nakajima
Ki-019
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Japan
Mid-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1937
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft