Ohka ("Cherry Blossom") was a suicide aircraft
designed for kamikaze attack on Allied warships. Most were powered by solid
rockets that gave a high speed but very limited range. They were generally carried within range of
an enemy task force by a conventional bomber, such as a Betty. The pilot then
lit off the rockets and attempted to dive his aircraft into a warship.
Ohka had a rudimentary set of controls and handled unlike
any conventional aircraft. This posed a problem for training and may have
contributed to the relatively low hit rate of these weapons. The Japanese tried
to solve this problem by developing a glider trainer and, later on, a powered
two-seat trainer. Both had retractable landing skids and replaced the warhead
with water ballast, which was released before landing to reduce the landing
speed to a barely tolerable 138 miles per hour.
Unbuilt planned variants were the Model 43A with folding
wings, to be launched from submarines, and the Model 43B, a catapult/rocket
assisted version, also with folding wings so that it could be hidden in caves
There is a sense in which the Ohka was a precursor to the
guided standoff missiles used by naval aircraft today. The chief difference is
that modern missiles use a microprocessor in place of a human suicide pilot.
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