CHECK SIX: Ships Sunk or Damaged by the Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka

Hasegawa model kit box art showing a G4M releasing an Ohka
(Hasegawa Models)

The Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka ("Cherry Blossom") kamikaze flying bomb was conceived by Ensign Mitsuo Ohta of the 405th Kokutai of the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was considering how to overcome the dense anti-aircraft defenses of Allied warships. His design solution, aided by students from the University of Tokyo, was for a rocket propelled kamikaze aircraft that would be flying too fast in its terminal approach to the target to be shot down. He submitted his ideas to the IJN for consideration and his proposals were refined further by engineers at the IJN's Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal which resulted in the MXY7 design which was essentially an anti shipping missile with a 2600 lb warhead with a kamikaze pilot as its guidance system. 

The Ohka had three rocket engines which could be ignited at once or in sequence. Dropped by the Mitsubishi G4M "Betty", the Ohka had a range of approximately 23 miles and had a terminal approach speed between 580-620 mph, significantly faster than piston engined kamikazes. 

The Yokosuka arsenal would build 155 Ohkas while the Kamisagura Air Arsenal would built over 600 Ohkas. It was planned to debut the Ohkas at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but the ships transporting the Ohkas to the Philippines were sunk enroute. The Ohka's operational debut would be in the Battle of Okinawa with mixed results:

12 April 1945: USS Mannert L. Abele, destroyer, sunk by one, possibly two Ohkas.

12 April 1945: USS Jeffers, a destroyer converted to a minesweeper, damaged.

12 April 1945: USS Stanly, a destroyer, damaged.

4 May 1945: USS Gayety, a minesweeper, damaged.

4 May 1945: USS Shea, a light destroyer coverted to a minelayer, damaged.

11 May 1945: USS Hugh W. Hadley, a destroyer, damaged.

Interestingly, the captain of a support vessel who witnessed the sinking of the USS Mannert L. Abele had this to say: "It is difficult to say what it was that hit the DD 733. This officer personally saw what appeared to be two (2) planes orbiting in a northerly direction from the DD 733, and then suddenly, what appeared to be, one plane, accelerated at a terrific rate, too fast for us to fire at. This plane dove at an angle of approximately 30 degrees, starting at about four miles [7.5 km] away. Since we had no air search radar, the above statements are merely my own conclusions."

That captain's report was the first to indicate that the Ohka was operational. 

Further reading:

The Coming Kamikaze Threat We Never Faced

The 1937 Kamikaze Flight That Didn't End in a Fiery Crash

Task Force 38's Unheralded Contribution to the Fall of Japan

CHECK SIX: Trans World Airlines Goes All-Jet

As the sun rose on 7 April 1967, history was made as TWA became first US airline to go all pure-jet, having retired its Constellations and Starliners the night prior. The last TWA passenger Connie service was Flight 249 JFK-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh-Columbus-Louisville-St. Louis. The next day the last one flew to storage in Kansas City where there were 35 other Super Constellations and Starliners awaiting their fate. The night of 6 April, ground service crews put a booklet in all the seat back pockets of the TWA passenger aircraft titled "Props Are For Boats". 

The introduction of the Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-9 accelerated the Constellation retirement which by the 1960s were relegated to short haul domestic routes and some cargo flying. Two Connies soldiered on after 7 April on cargo-only duties, though. From the introduction of the Lockheed Constellation with TWA's dramatic 1944 delivery flight to Washington flown by Howard Hughes to its retirement to the 1967 retirement from passenger service, the Constellation family served TWA for 23 years with over 140 examples. 

Within two years, by 1969, Trans World Airlines had surpassed the iconic Pan American in the number of passengers carried across the Atlantic. 

Further reading: 

Amidst Internal Turmoil, TWA Orders the Boeing 727

The History of the TWA Moonliner

The Cadillac of the Constellation Line

The Holy Grail of Nonstop Transcontinental Service

(Photo: FlyerTalk Forums)

CHECK SIX: The 1937 Kamikaze Flight That Didn't End with a Fiery Crash

"CHECK SIX" is new little feature I'm going to be introducing here and there here at Tails Through Time as a little filler in-between my primary articles. The name for this feature is because they're going to be quick looks back in aviation history that don't necessarily warrant my more in-depth articles. The titles for these short tidbits will always start off with "CHECK SIX". 

This particular Mitsubishi Ki-15 with the registration J-BAAI was the first Japanese aircraft to fly to Europe when it left Tokyo on this day (April 6) in 1937 for a oodwill flight to London Croydon Airport. Sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper as part of the celebrations for the coronation of King George VI, the plane was named "Kamikaze-go" and flew Tokyo-Taipei-Hanoi-Vientiane-Calcutta-Karachi-Basra-Baghdad-Athens-Rome-Paris-London. The pilot, Masaaki Iinuma, was only 26 at the time and both he and his navigator, Kenji Tsukagoshi, were awarded the Legion of Honor by the French. 

Total elapsed time from departure in Tokyo was 94 hours, of which 51 hours were actual flying time. Iinuma later served as a test pilot in Japan and was killed in action in December 1941 in Cambodia. The navigator, Tsukagoshi, was on the Tachikawa Ki-77 prototype when it set of for a flight to Germany from Singapore in 1943, but the Ki-77 disappeared over the Indian Ocean. 

The Japanese classical music composer Hisato Ohzawa wrote the Piano Concerto No.3 "Kamikaze" in honor of this record breaking flight. If you're a fan of the composer Sergei Prokofiev, Ohzawa's work is in that Impressionistic style. 

(Photo: Wikipedia)