- Yes
- No
- Ki-67
- P1Y1
- P1Y1 and Ki-67
- no
Ke-Go bombs model 106 (ケ号爆弾)
The Ke-Go was a Japanese infrared-guided aerial bomb. About 95 such bombs were made. The system worked better, but the war was over before mass production began.
History
In March 1944, on the initiative of the Land Forces Command, the 7th Military Laboratory was established to deal with infrared guided bombs. The Army assumed that the guided bomb would be able to destroy American ships from a safe distance.7 A military laboratory is ordered to design a new guided bomb. Three projects are created under the names B-1, B-2 and B-3, it soon turns out that B-2 and B-3 are useless and all the work is directed to the B-1 project, which gets the name Ke-Go. The work is directed by Major Fujita. Major Hizuta is in charge of aerodynamics, Major Sonoba is in charge of electronics, and Prof. Konishi of Osaka University is in charge of calculations.Prof. Sano (electronics) and Dr. Itakawa (aerodynamics) are also involved in the project. The bombs of the first two models (model 101 and 102) were already ready in December 1944, due to the lack of gyroscopes, these two versions are very inaccurate. Then the models numbered 103 (gyroscopes were already installed in this bomb), 104 and 105 were designed, none of them were built, but allowed for better designs of future versions.Thanks to previous experience, the 106 and 107 models were designed and built. 50 units of the 106 model and 30 units of the model 107 were produced, respectively. They started testing them and it turned out that although there were problems with the control systems, the bombs are very effective once they hit the target. In June 1945, testing was discontinued in order to design new models. This is how the 108 and 109 models were created, they were supposed to be ready for testing in September 1945, but the war ended before then.
Structure description
The Ke-Go bomb was cylindrical in shape with a nose and a conical tail section of the fuselage. It was divided into three sections, from nose to tail: the acorn homing gunner, the warhead, the instrument compartment, and the tail section the air brake. The tail of the bomb was cross-shaped, four wings with a span of 2 meters and four tail fins were arranged in the shape of the letter X. The hull plating of the homing head and the air brakes of the bomb were made of metal, the rest of the plating was made of wood.The warhead was located directly behind the homing warhead, the fuze contact sensors were moved to the front of the missile. The 200 kg or 300 kg HEAT warhead was designed to pierce the decks of battleships and aircraft carriers.To simplify the work of the guidance system, the trajectory of the bomb after dropping should be as close to vertical as possible. To extinguish the horizontal in the tail section of the “Ke-Go”, sliding truss air brakes were installed. Immediately after separating from the carrier, the brakes deployed and braked the horizontal element of the bomb’s flight. The maximum speed of the Ke-Go was limited to 530-580 km/h
U.S. Intelligence Report
Specifications
- Length: 4,74 m (15,5 ft)
- Wing Span: 2,0 m (6.5 ft)
- Wing Area: 1,4 square metres
- All-Up Weight: 725 kg ( 1,600 lbs)
- Warhead: 200 or 300 kg HEAT
Description of operation
A bomb dropped from a bomber plane fell in free flight. Moments after being ejected from the plane, the air brake on the back of the bomb was deployed, slowing it down and putting it in an upright position. A thermal tracking system was then activated, which searched for the warmest objects below it (e.g. aircraft carriers or battleships) and guided it to the target with the help of ailerons and gyroscopes. The bomb struck the target in a vertical position and, thanks to the HEAT warhead, was able to penetrate the deck.This application had a big problem. If you have already hit a ship and it catches fire, all the next missiles that will be dropped on a group of ships will fly only on the damaged one. In the game, the Ke-Go bomb will only work on battleships and aircraft carriers or ships that are on fire, due to the very early thermal tracking technology.
Aircraft carring Ke-go bombs
- KI-67 (U.S. report)
- P1Y1 (Japanese Sources)
- It was planned that it could be carried by any bomber with a carrying capacity of 800 kg
Summary
The Ke-Go bomb would be a very nice addition for Japanese aircraft in naval battles. Anyone who has played naval battles knows how difficult it is to get close to an enemy ship, and this bomb allows you to drop your payload from a safe height and escape. Anticipating questions about tanks, it didn’t work because it’s a very early thermal sensing technology and tanks wouldn’t be seen. I encourage you to discuss in the comments and to share your own knowledge on this topic.
Finally, I apologize for the linguistic and logical errors because unfortunately English is not my main language and I had to use google translator.
Internet Sources
Уголок неба ¦ Япония Ki-147 I-Go-1 (airwar.ru)
Ke-Go - Nevington War Museum
ケ号爆弾 - Wikipedia
Book Sources
- Japanese Secret Projects Experimental Aircraft 1939-1945 page 134-135
Japanese Secret Projects Experimental Aircraft 1939-1945 | PDF | Fighter Aircraft | Aircraft (scribd.com) - “Japanese Infra Red Devices Article 1 Control For Guidene Missles” - “Intelligence Targets Japan” of november 1945
Wayback Machine (archive.org)