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U.S. Navy photograph. From Francillon (1979) |
U.S. Army. Via ibiblio.org |
Kawanishi H8K2 “Emily”
| Crew |
10 |
| Dimensions | 124'8" by 92'4" by 30'0" 38.00m by 28.14m by 9.14m |
| Weights | 40,521-71,650 lbs 18,380-32,500 kg |
| Wing area | 1722
square feet 160.0 square meters |
| Maximum speed | 290 mph at 16,405 feet 467 km/h at 5000 meters |
| Cruising speed | 184 mph at 13,125 feet 296 km/h at 4000 meters |
| Climb rate | 28 feet per second 8.5 meters per second |
| Service ceiling | 29,035 feet 8850 meters |
| Power plant | Four 1850 hp (1379 kW) Mitsubishi MK4Q Kasei 22 fourteen-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engines driving four-blade metal propellers. |
| Armament | 20 mm
Type
99 Model 1 cannon in bow, dorsal and tail
turrets and two
beam
hatches 7.7 mm Type 92 machine guns in ventral, port and starboard fuselage sides and cockpit hatches |
| Bomb load | Two 800 kg (1760lb) torpedoes, or eight 250 kg (551 lb) bombs, or sixteen 60 kg (132 lb) bombs or depth charges. |
| Maximum range | 4445 miles 7150 km |
| Fuel |
3749 gallons 17,040 liters |
| Production | A total of 167 H8Ks were built by Kawanishi Kokuki K.K.
in their Naruo
and Konan plants as
follows: 1 H8K1 prototype (Dec 1940) 2 H8K1 pre-production aircraft (1941) 14 H8K1 production aircraft (1941-42) 112 H8K2 production aircraft (1943-45) 2 H8K3 prototypes (1944) (2) H8K4 prototypes modified from H8K3 frames (1945) 36 H8K2-L production aircraft (1943-45) |
The Emily was the successor to the Mavis
and was one of the few early Japanese
planes that could
fairly be described as rugged. It was well-armed and -armored and
equipped with a carbon dioxide fire extinguishing system and
partially
self-sealing fuel tanks. It formed the backbone of
Japanese naval
reconnaissance forces
after
1942.
The design dated to 1938, when the Navy specified
to the design team that the aircraft must exceed the performance
of the
Short Sunderland. Extensive
testing in wind tunnels and water tanks produced an excellent
design
that was probably the finest flying boat of the Second World War.
Allied fighter pilots
considered it
the most difficult of all Japanese aircraft to shoot down.
Because of its long range, the Emily figured in a number of Japanese schemes to bomb the continental United States. Most of these involved using both Japanese and German tanker submarines to refuel the aircraft. Nothing came of these schemes. However, the Japanese did mount an operation to bomb Pearl Harbor using H8Ks refueled by submarine at French Frigate Shoals. The aircraft found the harbor clouded in, dropped their bombs at random (doing no damage), and successfully returned. A repeat operation during the Midway campaign was canceled when an American seaplane tender was found at the refueling site: American code breakers had uncovered the Japanese plans.
Starting in 1943, some Emilys were equipped with Type 6 radar.
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References
Francillon
(1979)
Peattie (2001)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2014, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
