At the end of World War II, Japanese imperialism was approaching the fate of defeat; while desperate and retreating, in order to protect the territory and people of their motherland from being infringed, they installed a large amount of explosives and fuel on their fighter planes and let their pilots crash into enemy warships. .
Although this kind of "suicidal" non-human behavior is very cruel, in the Pacific battlefield, suicide attacks are still effective. Many Japanese fighters directly detonated US warships in the Pacific; at the same time, suicide attacks can also do Japan is about to lose its life.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
At first, the suicide attack aircraft was not specifically designed to die with the enemy, but was modified on the basis of ordinary fighters to meet the special mission requirements of the Japanese high-level plan. Of course, it is too expensive to use ordinary fighter jets and the enemy at the same time, especially for Japan, which is about to be defeated, lack of resources is the biggest problem. So later, Japanese engineers developed a "good quality and low cost" suicide attack aircraft, which is also a weapon specially used to deal with US warships-MXY-7 Sakura Special Attack Aircraft
MXY-7 Sakura Special Attack Aircraft
MXY The -7 Sakura Special Attack Aircraft is a concept aircraft designed by Mitsuo Ohta of Japan; it is not powered by traditional aircraft engines, but is powered by three Type Four solid rockets, and can fly at a maximum horizontal speed. 650 km/h, the top speed can reach 900 km/h in dive flight. Bombs occupies a large proportion of the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft. Except for the propulsion device and the soldier-controlled directional device, there is almost no redundant design on the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft, which reduces the size of the aircraft as much as possible to reduce the aircraft The target may be shot down by anti-aircraft weapons in the air. The
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft has no landing gear. The
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft fixed by a trailer has a flying distance of only 35 kilometers. Apart from the rocket booster, it does not have any endurance devices. Therefore, when dealing with US warships in the Pacific Ocean, the range is obviously not enough, and other transportation devices must be used to launch them into the target area. For this reason, the Japanese finally regarded the Mitsubishi "One Bomber" as the carrier of the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft.
The MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft on the belly of the Mitsubishi "One Bomber"
used the Mitsubishi "One Bomber" to transport the MXY-7 Sakura to an area 35 kilometers away from the target, and then the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft separated from the "parent plane" And fly towards the target. Because of its small size and fast speed, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft is safer than the parent aircraft and is not so easy to be spotted by the enemy.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
The extremely poor practicality of the "MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft"
Although the previous plan was very thorough, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft seems to be able to repel the US attack in the Pacific. However, due to some reasons, the production volume of MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft is not very large, and the scale of use is far from half of the expected. In the final analysis, there are still many problems with the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft, especially the following three shortcomings.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
First, the flight distance of the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft is still too short. Use the parent aircraft to transport it to a distance of 35 kilometers from the target. The parent aircraft will be exposed to the enemy's reconnaissance range. In actual use, after the Mitsubishi "One-Type Bomber" projected the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft and was about to return home, most of them were shot down by the US military, and there were very few base aircraft that could fully return to the base. So under the double cost, the Japanese army began to lose confidence in the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
Second, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft is smaller and faster in the original plan, and should be more effective than the ordinary fighters used by the early Kamikaze. However, when approaching the target, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft was shot down by the US air defense weapons, causing very little damage to the enemy.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
is third. Compared with the ordinary fighters of the early Kamikaze, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft can carry the same or more bombs.The damage caused by the enemy should be greater. However, on the contrary, the detonation device of the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft often has problems. After hitting a US warship, the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft suddenly failed the bomb. Imagine that the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft did not have a landing gear. The scene of the death squad soldiers driving the attack aircraft and crashing to the US battleship is simply not too beautiful.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
Once, the Japanese death squad flew the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft to the USS Stanley (DD478) battleship. However, the bomb did not detonate in time. After hitting the battleship, the attack aircraft fell into the sea and exploded 20 meters below the Stanley; apart from causing slight damage to the hull, the US military did not suffer any losses.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
During the war, the Japanese army actually only used 74 MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft, of which 56 were shot down by anti-aircraft weapons after being separated from the Mitsubishi "One Bomber", or on the mother plane. They were shot down by the U.S. army while flying with the bomb. Although the MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft has a certain degree of innovation, it is not suitable for the battlefield at that time. It can be said that it is an immature semi-finished weapon. Of course, it can also be regarded as a kind of "meaningless resistance" when Japan was defeated.
MXY-7 Sakura attack aircraft
