Super Rita

[finsrin]

Looks like Japan 46+ super Rita 

[jcf]

Z-Plane aka Fugaku
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,14582.0.html

The photo you posted is of the Fujimi 1/144 pre-painted, partially pre-assembled kit which was
sold gashopon style in that you didn't know what the paint scheme was until you got the box.
Mine is in a 1930s style green and brown cammo. The model came with both six bladed props
and eight-bladed contra-props.

[The Big Gimper]

The Fugaku is back. But this time it is not pre-assembled.

Hobby Search has it in stock:






Pretty Airplane. Would like to see it in 1/72.

[finsrin]

Yes 1/72, would go for it if price is OK.

[ysi_maniac]

I did not know it. Wwwoooowww!

[M.A.D]

Interesting!!
Going by the colour of the propellers, are Fugaku's propellers wooden?
Out of curiosity if I may, as fascinated as I am with the prospective size and capability of the Fugaku, and now that I suspect that they were wooden propellers, I have to ask the question if the Fugaku would have inherently had the structural weakness that plagued most (if not all) Japanese bombers?

M.A.D 

[jcf]

The Fugaku was never actually built, so you can make it out of whatever you want. 

As to the propellers, brown paint was a standard Imperial Japanese Navy color for metal props and the
supposed designation of G10N1 was an IJN desigantion, so therefore artists use IJN paint schemes.

Wooden props were in common use in high-performance aircraft by both the Allies and Axis during the war
and wooden propellers performed no more poorly than aluminum or steel propellers. Nor is a properly designed
wood structure automatically weaker than a metal structure.

Here's a page that may be of help:
http://www.enginehistory.org/propellers.shtml

As to inherent structural weakness in Japanese bombers, ?, what inherent weakness are you referring to?

[dogsbody]

Did Japan use wood in propeller blade manufacture? I don't ever recall hearing/reading this.


Chris

[Volkodav]

Like Jon said many aircraft made use of wooden blades at the time, many Spitfires if I recall correctly, as did the Firefly.  Interestingly a number of fatal air crashes, in the 60s and later, were caused by undetected fatigue cracking in metal blades that would not have occurred in wooden blades.