Takasou TN-6

Last updated
Takasou TN-6
Rolesingle seat biplane
National origin Japan
Manufacturer(and designer) Takayuki Takasou
First flightlate 1917
Number built1

The Takasou TN-6 was a Japanese single seat biplane, much modified through its relatively long career as a trainer. Its last rebuild brought it an extra seat and a change of name to Yasui TN-6 Kai.

Contents

Design and development

The TN-6 was a wooden-framed, fabric-covered, two bay, unequal span biplane. Its wings were braced without stagger by pairs of parallel interplane struts. The ailerons were on the outer part of the longer span upper wings. [1]

Its fuselage was flat-sided with the nose metal-covered around the lower half of its 65 hp (48 kW) Hall-Scott water-cooled V-8 engine. This had a car style front-mounted radiator behind a two-bladed propeller. The TN-6 was flown from an open cockpit under the upper trailing edge. Its fixed landing gear was conventional, with mainwheels on a single axle. [1]

The TN-6 was completed in the autumn of 1917. It was used briefly as a trainer in Osaka but was soon damaged in an accident. After repair it was sold in August 1918 to Soujiro Yasui, who learned to fly it under Takasou's instruction. It suffered a series of accidents, each leading to modifications. After several such improvements the aircraft was sufficiently changed that Yasui renamed it the Yasui TN-6 Kai or Yasui TN-6-modified. [1] [2]

The wings of the Yasui TN-6 Kai were new. Though still of rectangular plan, both upper and lower wings had the same, 11.50 m (37 ft 9 in) longer span and both carried ailerons. The main interplane struts were unchanged but the central upper wing was held high over the fuselage with parallel pairs of cabane struts from the upper longerons. Its upper engine cowling was completed with further aluminium sheet and its utility as a trainer enhanced by the addition of a second seat in an elongated cockpit. A small cut-out in the upper trailing edge improved the pilot's field of view. It also had a redesigned fin, though details are lacking. Together these changes increased the length to 9.50 m (31 ft 2 in). [2]

Operational history

It is not known exactly when the final modifications were completed and the aircraft renamed but Yasui flew it on 3 January 1920 in an important New Year celebration flight over Kyoto, his home city. The following New Year he joined a similar flight over Osaka. It was used along with his next aircraft, the Yasui No.3, to train several new pilots. In its various forms the TH-6 and its Hall-Scott engine, flown from 1917 to at least 1921, had a long working life by contemporary standards. [2]

Specifications (Takasou TN-6)

Data from Japanese Aircraft 1910-1941 [1]

General characteristics

Performance

Related Research Articles

The Kawasaki KDC-2 was a 1920s Japanese light civil transport which Kawasaki developed from its Kawasaki Army Type 88 Reconnaissance Aircraft. Two were built and flown in 1928 and flew both regular and irregular services; the last retired in 1935.

The Nakajima P-1 was a 1930s Japanese single engine, single seat biplane intended for night mail flights, derived from the Nakajima E4N3 Naval reconnaissance seaplane. Nine were built.

The Perry Beadle T.1 was a single-seat, single engine biplane built and flown in the United Kingdom in 1913. In 1914 it flew with a more powerful engine and other modifications as the Perry Beadle T.2, which was acquired by the Royal Navy Air Service at the outbreak of World War I.

The Sopwith Admiralty Types 137 and 138 were a pair of single-engine, two-seat naval biplane floatplanes, built to a British Admiralty order in 1914. They were similar in design, but having a more powerful engine the Type 138 was the larger and heavier. They were used in early torpedo dropping experiments in 1914.

ASL Viking

The ASL Viking was a single-engined two seater biplane aircraft designed and built by Horatio Barber's Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd. at Hendon. It was first flown in January 1912.

The Corcoran 65-1 was a motor glider of very unusual configuration, a twin engine biplane. It was designed and built in the United States in the 1960s; only two were completed.

Caudron C.68

The Caudron C.68 was a two-seat French training and touring aircraft, built in the early 1920s, which attracted interest at the time because of its simple and fast wing folding arrangement. Only a few were produced.

Caudron C.25

The Caudron C.25 was a large, three-engined, biplane airliner, designed and built in France soon after the end of World War I. Its enclosed cabin could accommodate up to eighteen passengers.

The Tokyo Koku Aiba-Tsubame or Tokyo Aviation Aiba-Swallow was a 1930s Japanese civil transport with seats for three passengers. It was intended to be cheap to produce so, although its fuselage was a new design, its wings and undercarriage were those of another Japanese aircraft. Two were built and flew taxi services and joyrides.

The Kawanishi K-6 was a passenger-carrying biplane floatplane, built in Japan in the 1920s. The sole example took part in an around Japan flight then flew as a transport with Japan Aviation.

The Shirato Iwao-go was Japan's first civil seaplane. It was a single engine biplane floatplane and performed well enough to give a number of exhibition flights.

The Itoh Emi 2 was a revised and cleaned up development of his first aircraft, the Itoh Emi 1.

The Itoh Emi 3 was the first Japanese civil passenger carrying seaplane, flown in 1917 and used for commercial demonstrations and passenger flights.

The Itoh Tsurubane No.1 was a single seat aviation demonstrator and trainer biplane first flown in Japan in 1918.

The Itoh Emi 13 was a two seat Japanese trainer, designed for the Itoh flying school and introduced in two versions in 1920 and 1921.

The Itoh Emi 14 was a Japanese biplane designed in 1920 for a long distance competitive flight from Tokyo to Osaka and back, which it won. It was also successful at a contest later that summer, before suffering terminal structural failure during aerobatics a few weeks later.

The Itoh Emi 16 Fuji-go (Fuji), built in 1920, was intended as a cheap and simple general purpose civil biplane but gained publicity with exhibition flights and successful speed and altitude contests against higher-powered fighter aircraft.

The Itoh Emi 29 Taihoku-go was a 1920s Japanese civil transport with its two passengers in a enclosed cabin. It was the first of this "limousine" type to be built in Japan; the only example flew the Osaka-Tokyo route for a while.

The Itoh Emi 30 was a small, single-engined, sports biplane built in Japan in 1922. Though it attracted attention by being the smallest Japanese aircraft of its time, the sole example was mostly used as an aerobatics trainer.

The Fukunaga Tenryu 10 was the largest Japanese civil passenger aircraft when it first flew in 1922. Its passenger cabin seated four.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Mikesh, Robert C.; Abe, Shorzoe (1990). Japanese Aircraft 1910-1941. London: Putnam Publishing. p. 35-6. ISBN   1 55750 563 2.
  2. 1 2 3 Japanese Aircraft 1910-1941. p. 43-4.