That's a very good question, that I don't have the answer for
. It appears to have been an excellent fighter, capable of holding its own against even the Hellcat and the Corsair, but I don't see anything suggesting a carrier version was ever attempted. Maybe it was because by the time the N1K2 entered service (1944) there simply weren't enough carriers left for it to be considered?It was an Army aircraft
I think you’re confusing the IJA’s Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Frank) with the IJN’s Kawanishi N1K1-J and N1K2-J (George) which were developed from the N1K1 Rex Floatplane.
To make things worse the Japanese made no systematic effort to recue downed pilots. Many Japanese pilots died, lost in the waters of the Pacific just flying from Japan to bases in the islands of the South Pacific, or South East Asia. The advantage of long range fighters was they could self deploy, but navigating over vast regions of open water, and jungle covered islands, in often poor weather conditions, with almost no navigational aids cost heavy operational losses.
Yes, you may be right about the carriers, or they were just waiting for the A7M. Even though it was made by a different company it looks so much like a Zero, it may have had an advantage in combat. When Hellcat's, or Corsair's encountered it they may have misidentified it as a Zero, and under estimated it. Once engaged the American got a very unpleasant surprise. From a casual look at it's stats, it was a heavier aircraft then the Zero, with a higher wing loading, so it might have been too hot a fighter. That is it may have had too high a stall speed, and needed more running room for take offs. Being originally a float plane it's structure should've been stressed enough for tail hook landings. If anyone knows more about the George please tell us more about it.That's a very good question, that I don't have the answer for
HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT THE GLORIOUS IJN WOULD BOW DOWN AND BEG PLANES FROM THOSE SCUMS IN THE ARMY!!!! COMMIT SEPPUKKU NOW!!!
The Allies thought for a time that the Japanese were producing, or at least using, the 190A-5 and gave it the code name "Fred"
... which would also beg the question... "how the hell would you even get from a Gladiator to a Spitfire MK XII or Tempest?" without assistance from a helpful ASB?
The N1/2K-J Violet Lightning was a Navy land based fighter, it wasn't an Army aircraft. It started has a float plane, then they took the pontoons off, and made it a land based fighter. But yes your right, the hostility between the army & navy was the worst inter service rivalry of any of the major powers in WWII. I think the Heer, and the Waffen SS got along better. The Japanese were fighting two barely coordinated war efforts, when Japan couldn't afford that kind of inefficiency. The idea of using a theater command system like the Allies had, with admirals, commanding army troops in one area, and generals commanding naval forces in another would never have even been tried by the Japanese. Then when you throw in the civilian ministries controlling their own shipping, and you have a real chaotic mess.
Only introduced in Germany August 1941, so same problem of not being available in the crucial early 1942 period.
You might be able to get near-Ki-43-I performance out of the Ki-27, but you're not going to be able to get near-A6M2 performance out of the A5M, mostly because the A6M2 was a higher-performance machine than the Ki-43-I. The A6M also throws on better range and, the big difference between it and the Ki-43, much better armament.
Or the Fiat G.55/56.
The thing is making those changes does away with your pod as you end up with the Oscar and Zero anyway, just with worse armament.
According to the Luftwaffe pilots, the G.55, C.205, and Re.2005 were all excellent aircraft - just too few and too late, fortunately for the RAF and USAAF over Italy...Or the Fiat G.55/56.
Fiat G.56[edit]
Fiat G.56
The Fiat G.56 was essentially a Fiat G.55 with a larger German Daimler-Benz DB 603 engine. Two prototypes were built, flight tests starting in March 1944.[12] On 30 March, Commander Valentino Cus reached speeds of 690/700 km/h (430/440 mph).[19] Official maximum speed was 685 km/h (426 mph) and the aircraft was armed with three 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, one firing through the propeller hub, the other two installed in the wings.[20] Performance was excellent, the aircraft proving superior to both the Bf 109K and Bf 109G and Fw 190A, outmaneuvering [2] all types in testing. Production, however, was not allowed by the German authorities.[12]
The problem would be the difficulty the Japanese had in producing high performance engines.
