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Mitsubishi B5M 'Kate 61', QuickTime movie, 440Kb, 260x195.
| | Mitsubishi B5M 'Kate 61'
B5M1: In 1932 the Imperial Japanese navy air force issued a requirement for a new carrierborne torpedo bomber, and this elicited responses from Aichi, Mitsubishi and Nakajima, which each built single prototypes. None of these was deemed satisfactory, however, and the service thus issued a 1934 requirement for a more capable type to replace the obsolescent Yokosuka B3Y.
The design selected for production was the Yokosuka B4Y, but this was regarded only as an interim type as the navy wanted a torpedo bomber offering greater compatibility of performance with the Mitsubishi A5M monoplane fighter.
In 1935, therefore, the Imperial Japanese navy air force issued its requirement for a three-seat attack warplane with folding wings and able to carry a 1,764 lb (800 kg) torpedo or an equivalent weight of bombs at a maximum level speed of 180 kt (207 mph; 333 km/h) at 6,560 ft (2000 m) with a powerplant of one Nakajima Hikari or Mitsubishi Kinsei radial piston engine. This new requirement resulted in designs from Mitsubishi and Nakajima. The former was the Ka-18, which was a basically all-metal cantilever low-wing monoplane with crew accommodation in a long cockpit under a 'glasshouse' canopy, and fixed tailwheel landing gear whose main units were nicely faired and carried spatted wheels. | |  |
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