AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 154 / 350

Plate 154 of 350 · Second World War · Carrier dive-bomber

Yokosuka D4Y1 Suisei

D4Y1 c/n 4316, painted as Yokosuka D4Y1 Suisei (Allied name ‘Judy’) c/n 4316, tail code ‘鷹-13’, the restored aircraft displayed in the Yūshūkan museum at Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo: a two-seat Imperial Japanese Navy carrier dive-bomber with a slim fuselage, an Aichi Atsuta inverted-V twelve-cylinder engine with a chin radiator, a three-bladed propeller, a long glazed canopy over pilot and radio operator-gunner, a low wing spanning 11.5 m and a tailwheel undercarriage, shown tail down on its wheels with the gunner’s canopy open and a drop tank under each wing: green upper surfaces over light grey undersides with a wavy dividing line along the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and both wing surfaces, yellow strips on the inner leading edges, the code ‘鷹-13’ in white on the fin, a green spinner and dark brown propeller blades with yellow tips (shape from a D4Y three-view scaled to the published span and length, with the nose from a D4Y1 side view, checked against photographs of this aircraft).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Yokosuka D4Y1 Suisei (Allied name ‘Judy’) c/n 4316, tail code ‘鷹-13’, the restored aircraft displayed in the Yūshūkan museum at Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo: a two-seat Imperial Japanese Navy carrier dive-bomber with a slim fuselage, an Aichi Atsuta inverted-V twelve-cylinder engine with a chin radiator, a three-bladed propeller, a long glazed canopy over pilot and radio operator-gunner, a low wing spanning 11.5 m and a tailwheel undercarriage, shown tail down on its wheels with the gunner’s canopy open and a drop tank under each wing: green upper surfaces over light grey undersides with a wavy dividing line along the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and both wing surfaces, yellow strips on the inner leading edges, the code ‘鷹-13’ in white on the fin, a green spinner and dark brown propeller blades with yellow tips (shape from a D4Y three-view scaled to the published span and length, with the nose from a D4Y1 side view, checked against photographs of this aircraft). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (D4Y1 & D4Y3 (Allied name ‘Judy’)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the D4Y1 c/n 4316 modelled here.

History

The D4Y1 ‘Judy’

In 1937 the Imperial Japanese Navy bought a Heinkel He 118 dive-bomber from Germany, and although it was not adopted, it helped shape the next requirement: a carrier dive-bomber fast enough to outrun fighters, to replace the Aichi D3A. The Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal designed it in-house, a slim, compact two-seater with an internal bomb bay, dive brakes and a licence-built Daimler-Benz DB 601 inline engine, unusual in a Japanese naval aircraft. The first prototype flew in December 1940, and production went to Aichi at Nagoya.

The new bomber was fast, but its wings fluttered in steep dives, and while that was cured the first aircraft were used as carrier reconnaissance machines; two pre-production Suisei flew scouting missions from the carrier Soryu at Midway in June 1942. The D4Y1 entered service as a dive-bomber in 1943, and a strengthened D4Y2 with a more powerful Atsuta followed. Its first major battle, in the Philippine Sea in June 1944, ended in heavy losses to American fighters and anti-aircraft fire. The Allies called it ‘Judy’.

The Atsuta proved hard to maintain, and the later D4Y3 and D4Y4 were given the Mitsubishi Kinsei radial instead. In the last year of the war many Suisei were flown on kamikaze attacks, and the D4Y4 was built as a single-seat suicide aircraft. On 15 August 1945, after the Emperor’s broadcast announcing the surrender, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki took off in a D4Y4 on a final kamikaze mission and was not seen again. 2,038 were built in all.

This airframe

D4Y1 Suisei c/n 4316

c/n 4316The airframe modelled

c/n 4316 is a D4Y1 Model 11 that was abandoned at Colonia airfield on the island of Yap in the western Carolines. In 1980 its remains were recovered with funding from Nippon Television and taken to Japan, where it was restored at Kisarazu, using parts from three D4Y2 wrecks and newly made parts. It was given to Yasukuni Shrine in 1988 and is displayed in the Great Exhibition Hall of the shrine’s Yūshūkan museum in Tokyo. The museum’s placard quotes the data of the D4Y2, reflecting the restoration; outwardly the two marks are alike. None is in a UK museum. The model shows it as displayed today, standing tail down on its wheels with the gunner’s canopy open and a drop tank under each wing: green upper surfaces over light grey undersides with a wavy dividing line along the fuselage, red hinomaru with white surrounds on the fuselage and above and below the wings, yellow strips on the inner leading edges, red lines on the upper wings, the code ‘鷹-13’ in white on the fin, grey main-wheel doors with a black ‘13’, a green spinner and dark brown propeller blades with yellow tips. Its shape comes from a D4Y three-view scaled to the type’s span and length, with the inline nose from a D4Y1 side view, checked against photographs of this aircraft. The lettering of the tail code is set in a standard typeface rather than the brush style painted on the aircraft.

Where to see one

Not on charge

A few survive, in Japan and the United States. None is in a UK museum.

All 350 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.