By
Scott Schwartz
Roughly
two weeks prior to Petty Officer Motoji Ichikawa being asked to volunteer for
the suicide missions, Lt. Commander Tadanao Miki, a designer at the Naval
Aeronautical Research Laboratory, was asked to report to the laboratory Chief’s
office to meet with a man who had plans for a new type of “glider-bomber”. This irritated Miki, because the laboratory
was in the midst of a crash (no pun intended) program to design jet-powered
aircraft based on German design data. He
did not have time to discuss yet another cockamamie plan for a new “super-weapon”. None of the previous proposals had ever been
built, because the guidance systems (one of which was a heat-seeking device-
imagine that!) were too advanced and impractical. Nevertheless, Miki dutifully reported to his
Chief’s office, where he was introduced to Sub-Lieutenant Shoichi Ota. The Chief prompted Ota to continue the
conversation that had been taking place prior to Miki’s arrival – the
discussion of a “sure-hit” bomb. Ota
then produced a he drawing depicting a small craft suspended beneath a
Mitsubishi Betty bomber. The little craft did not have a propeller or
landing gear. Ota explained that the new
aircraft would be powered by a rocket engine.
To be continued....
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