20,001 Leagues Under The Sea by Briney
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Description
The last word in submarine "aviation" until the inception of cruise missiles, the Aichi M6A1 "Seiran" was Admiral Yamamoto's baby, a submarine launched bomber designed to hit targets in the Americas from the IJN's hugely secret carrier submarines... attacking America from the Atlantic!
Originally intended to be a floatplane, the cut-backs in the "Sen Toku" program following Yamamoto's death meant that only two I-400 class submarines were completed. That in turn meant that each submarine had to launch its three bombers together to provide any kind of credible strike force. That made launch time crucial, not only to reduce fuel wastage but also to reduce the risk of discovery. It turns out the aircraft could be handled quicker without floats- but that meant they could only be used once. Of course, the deteriorating war situation soon made a standing order of "disposable" aircraft and pilots. The two I-400s were at sea preparing for a kamikaze strike when the Emperor announced the surrender. Needless to say, the allied crews who accepted the surrender of the huge submarines were probably fairly gob-smacked by the experience!
My Seiran and I400 models rendered in Vue 8 Esprit. In this case the floats have been rendered "transparent" for their single-use configuration.
Comments always welcome.
Comments (7)
debbielove
Damned impressive render of an aircraft I imagine very folks know about! Great job! Rob
neiwil
Very impressive image, very scary possibilities....I've read 'Kamikaze' by Richard Hoyt, he mentions the Sen Toku program in some detail.This is some very fine modeling and as Rob says 'something a lot of people will know little about'...thanks, another excellent post...
jac204
Great piece of history and render about a very interesting submarine.
Osper
Nice job on the models!!!!!
steelrazer
Nice to see the bits about the IJN. We tend to focus more on the west and these are very refreshing. Nice work!
chuter
Outstanding. A friend of mine commuted once a month from California to the Smithsonian to work on the M6A. I wonder if the aircraft were launched as depicted if the folding fin cap might have been removed also (as it was for the K) ... probably not ... I wonder what ever became of the K that was brought back ...
Huolong
The real big mystery of the I-400 series was the speed at which the Occupation towed them to deep water and sank them. The stated excuse was to prevent the Soviets from getting their share of this booty. They were recently found by deep sea explorers and the venture was shown on TV recently.