Yokosuka B4Y1 Type 96 ("Jean")
(also made by Nakajima and Mitsubishi)

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The Yokosuka B4Y, (Navy Type 96 Carrier Attack Plane), carrier attack aircraft was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1936 to 1943. The B4Y replaced the Mitsubishi B2M2 and was the last biplane bomber used operationally by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Allied reporting name was "Jean". In 1932, the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a requirement for a new carrier-borne attack aircraft to replace the obsolescent Yokosuka B3Y. The B4Y was designed at the First Naval Air Technical Arsenal at Yokosuka. Regarded only as an interim type, the Navy wanted a torpedo bomber offering performance comparable to the Mitsubishi A5M monoplane fighter. The result was a biplane with fixed landing gear and an all-metal structure with metal or fabric skin. To speed development and production, the B4Y utilised the wings from the Kawanishi E7K. The B4Y1 was also the first Navy carrier attack aircraft to utilize an air-cooled engine, as the prototype that was equipped with the Nakajima Hikari 2 radial engine. The crew of three occupied two cockpits. The pilot in the open front cockpit and the other two crewmen, (navigator and radio operator/gunner), in the enclosed rear cockpit. On 12 December 1937 3 B4Y1s were involved in the Panay incident during a Japanese attack on the United States Navy gunboat Panay while she was anchored in the Yangtze River outside of Nanjing. Although primarily used as a carrier-based aircraft, the B4Y1 was also used as a land-based bomber on occasion. In 1940, the Nakajima B5N replaced the B4Y1 as the primary carrier attack aircraft, though the B4Y1 did remain in service as an advanced trainer, and flew from Hōshō and Unyō until 1943. Before its replacement, the B4Y1 had flown during the Second Sino-Japanese War and did serve at the Battle of Midway during June 1942, where eight of them were operated from Hōshō. It was one of these planes from Hōshō which took photographs of the burning Hiryū on 5 June 1942.  (info from Wikipedia)

Yokosuka B4Y1 Type 96

Type:           carrier-borne attack aircraft (trainer)
Service: 	Japanese Navy Air Force (JNAF)
Crew:           three (pilot, navigator, radio operator/gunner)
Armament:       one flexible rear-firing 7.7mm Type 92 machine gun
		one 1,764 lb torpedo, or 1,102 pounds of bombs
Reference: 	Francillon: 449

Specifications:
        Length:         33' 3.6" (10.15 m)
        Height:         14' 3.6" (4.36 m)
        Wingspan:       49' 2.5" (15 m)
        Wing area:      538 sq. ft (50 sq. m)
        Empty Weight:   4409 lbs (2000 kg)
        Max Weight:     7900 lbs (3600 kg)

Propulsion:
        No. of Engines: 1
        Powerplant:     Nakajima Hikari-2 9-cylinder radial
        Horsepower:     840 hp

Performance:
        Range:          978 miles (1575 km)
        Cruise Speed:   n/a
        Max Speed:      150 knots, 171 mph (278 km/hr) 
        Ceiling:        19,700 ft (6000 m)

Production:		205 B4Ys (all variants) built

Additional information on this aircraft can be found at Wikipedia HERE.

For a very nice scale color drawing of this aircraft, see here.

Additional color schemes for this aircraft can be found here.



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