History

The Nakajima G5N (Allied code name ‘Liz’) was an unsuccessful long range strategic bomber developed in Japan prior to the Pacific War. Only six were made and were used as long range transports by the Japanese Navy.

The Nakajima G5N was designed to meet a Japanese Navy requirement for a bomber capable of carrying a heavy load of bombs or torpedoes a minimum distance of 5,600 kilometres.

Japanese industry lacked the experience to design such an aircraft so this new bomber was copied from a Douglas DC-4E imported into Japan in 1939.

The prototype G5N first flew on 8 April 1941 but proved disappointing due to a combination of excessive weight, unreliable engines and overly complex design.

Only six G5Ns were manufactured and four of them were relegated to use as long range navy transports.

Anigrand 1/144 kits completed by Leigh Edmonds in September 2019.

Data

MODEL: Nakajima G5N2

ROLE: long range bomber

TIME PERIOD: 1941-1945

ENGINES: four Nakajima NK7A ‘Namori 11' 14 cylinder air cooled radial engines of 1,365kW each

WING SPAN: 42.12m

LENGTH: 31.02m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 32,000kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 420 km/h

RANGE: 3,529km

CREW: 11

ARMAMENT: two 20mm cannon, four 7.7mm machine guns and up to 4,000 kg of bombs and torpedoes

SCALE: 1/144

KIT:

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