Kyushu J7W1 shinden video !!!

For those of you whom never seen this treasure cove

An amazing web site….trust me…

Main site

On the bird

http://www.ijnafpics.com/jbwj7w1.htm

http://www.ijnafpics.com/jbwj7w2.htm

Thanks for the corrections folks,I’ve really gotta stop relying on my memory and actually look things up!

From the NASM site

The rear three-bladed propeller and dorsal fin were jettisoned by explosive bolts in an emergency, to allow the pilot to bail out safely using a pneumatic ejection seat. The seat, inclined 13 degrees to the rear, was ejected with a force of 20 times gravity. The ventral fin could be jettisoned for a belly landing.

Dave

In one of Eric Brown’s books, which I can’t lay my hands on immediately, I’m certain he says there was an arrangement to blow the whole rear prop off in an emergency.

Wonderful footage of an amzing machine,as others have said it seems remarkable that the film has survived.
The question of how a pilot might’ve bailed out is an interesting one. The Do335 was fitted with a primitive ejector seat propelled by compressed air,and it makes me wonder if the Japanese devised or copied a similar device for the Shinden. Does anyone have any details of Japanese ejector seats?
TT-being a pedantic g*t,I have to point out that the Do335 never had detachable prop blades,but it did have a detachable tail fin. Because of the type’s cruciform tail configuration,the lower tailfin was seen as being inconvenient in the event of a belly landing. For this reason the lower tailfin was attached via explosive bolts,which blew this lower fin off prior to a belly landing. Perhaps this is what you were thinking of?

The Hasegawa kits for the J7W1 and the jet powered J7W2 show what look like 2 pairs of rockets at the back of the pilots seat so maybe an early ejection seat taking the pilot away from the props?

Amazing!

Fantastic footage, I never knew any movie film of it had survived.

I have a book on the aircraft, which I have unfortunately misplaced. This has some poor quality shots that I am sure came from movie stills, and these show the bent propeller tips after they contacted the runway. It begs the question, is there more movie film of this aircraft out there?

All this makes me want to refurbish the model I made of this aircraft many years ago.

Steve

Amazing footage. I’d love to know the story of where it came from and how it survived – thankyou for sharing it with us Olivier!

Take moggy’s point about bailing out – presumably there was some sort of DO335 arrangements with pyros in the prop blades ….?

TT

I doubt it.

If they hadn’t even sussed that the tips would contact the ground when you rotated…

Probably thought if you were chicken enough to bail out you deserved automated Hari Kiri?

Moggy

Brilliant – well found Olivier!

Take moggy’s point about bailing out – presumably there was some sort of DO335 arrangements with pyros in the prop blades ….?

TT

Watching it you can’t help thinking that bailing-out wouldn’t be much fun if the motor was still running 😮

Moggy

Wow! What a find! Thanks for posting 🙂

Wonderful footage even if the quality is poor. Thanks for making it available.

Glyn

wow, very cool piece of footage!
I didn’t realize how big these fighters were, as most photos tend to make them look tiny, almost Me 163-esque.

Thanks for sharing

greg v

I think I’ll start it downloading tomorrow morning 😉

Looking forward to it though.

Moggy

Well, the soundtrack is terrible! So cheesy that Wallace and Gromit would probably try to eat it…

But that’s not the point! Where on earth did it surface, Olivier? Even with the quality issue, it’s an amzing bit of movie. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Adrian