AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 166 / 346

Plate 166 of 346 · Second World War · Interceptor fighter

Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden

J2M3 c/n 3014, painted as Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden (Allied name ‘Jack’) c/n 3014, coded ‘ヨD-1158’, the only surviving Raiden, as displayed at the Planes of Fame Air Museum, Chino, California: a single-seat Imperial Japanese Navy interceptor with a stubby, deep fuselage, a Mitsubishi Kasei fourteen-cylinder radial set well forward in a tight cowling on an extension shaft, a four-bladed propeller, a small raised canopy, a low wing spanning 10.8 m with four 20 mm cannon and a tailwheel undercarriage, shown tail down on its wheels: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey undersides, a matt black anti-glare panel on the cowling, two yellow lightning bolts on each side of the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and upper wings and plain red below, yellow leading-edge strips on the inner wings, the code ‘ヨD-1158’ in white on the fin, three pink cherry-blossom victory marks on the port side, a white spinner and black propeller blades with yellow tips (shape from a Polish 1:50 three-view scaled to the published span and length and checked against photographs of this aircraft; the drop tank and bombs displayed beside it are not shown).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Mitsubishi J2M3 Raiden (Allied name ‘Jack’) c/n 3014, coded ‘ヨD-1158’, the only surviving Raiden, as displayed at the Planes of Fame Air Museum, Chino, California: a single-seat Imperial Japanese Navy interceptor with a stubby, deep fuselage, a Mitsubishi Kasei fourteen-cylinder radial set well forward in a tight cowling on an extension shaft, a four-bladed propeller, a small raised canopy, a low wing spanning 10.8 m with four 20 mm cannon and a tailwheel undercarriage, shown tail down on its wheels: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey undersides, a matt black anti-glare panel on the cowling, two yellow lightning bolts on each side of the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and upper wings and plain red below, yellow leading-edge strips on the inner wings, the code ‘ヨD-1158’ in white on the fin, three pink cherry-blossom victory marks on the port side, a white spinner and black propeller blades with yellow tips (shape from a Polish 1:50 three-view scaled to the published span and length and checked against photographs of this aircraft; the drop tank and bombs displayed beside it are not shown). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.6 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (J2M3 (Allied name ‘Jack’)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the J2M3 c/n 3014 modelled here.

History

The J2M3 ‘Jack’

In 1939 the Imperial Japanese Navy asked for its first true interceptor, the 14-Shi requirement: a land-based fighter built to climb fast and catch bombers, rather than to escort them over long distances like the Zero. Mitsubishi gave the job to Jiro Horikoshi, the Zero’s designer. The only engine powerful enough was the Kasei, a big fourteen-cylinder radial made for bombers, so Horikoshi set it well forward on an extension shaft inside a tight, streamlined cowling, with a fan to force cooling air through it, and built a short, deep fuselage behind it. The first prototype flew on 20 March 1942.

Development was slow and troubled. Test pilots disliked the poor view over the long nose and the small curved windscreen, and the J2M2 production version suffered from heavy vibration that took months to cure and was blamed for several crashes. Mitsubishi was also busy building Zeros, and the Raiden did not reach front-line units until early 1944. The main version, the J2M3, added a second pair of 20 mm cannon in the wings, giving four in all.

The Raiden was flown mostly in defence of Japan, by units such as the 302nd Kokutai at Atsugi near Tokyo and the 352nd at Omura, against the B-29 raids of 1944 and 1945. It climbed well and was heavily armed, and its pilots counted it a match for the American bombers, but it lacked the power to perform at the B-29’s highest altitudes and it was outclassed by the American escort fighters that arrived in 1945. The Allies called it ‘Jack’. Only about 620 were built, and one survives.

This airframe

J2M3 Raiden c/n 3014

c/n 3014The airframe modelled

c/n 3014 was captured in the Philippines in 1945 and shipped to the United States for evaluation. It later joined the collection of what is now the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California, where it is displayed indoors. It is the only Raiden in existence, and none is in a UK museum. The model shows it as displayed, standing tail down on its wheels: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey undersides, a matt black anti-glare panel on top of the cowling, two yellow lightning bolts on each side of the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and upper wings and plain red ones underneath, yellow strips on the inner leading edges, the code ‘ヨD-1158’ in white across the fin and rudder, three pink cherry-blossom victory marks below the cockpit on the port side only, a white spinner and black propeller blades with yellow tips. Its shape comes from a published Polish three-view scaled to the type’s span and length and checked against photographs of this aircraft. The drop tank and bombs displayed beside it are not shown.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only survivor is at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California.

All 346 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.