Japanese Army Navy

Did the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air
Force operate any of the same make of aircraft?

As a rule, no. The requirements were quite different up to 1941, when
they sudden moved closer together. (That's why the Nakjima Ki-43
Hayabusa was suddenly yanked off the shelf and put into service: the
army was told that it required a 500-mile-range fighter for the Malaya
invasion.)

I think both services operated Japan-built DC-2s and 3s, but even here
I think of the Douglases as navy planes. The army used a Japan-built
Lockheed Super Electra for dropping paratroops, and used bombers for
heavy cargo.

Army planes had French throttles: you pulled the throttle toward you
for full power; the navy followed English-American style. So it would
take some retraining before a pilot could fly an airplane from the
other service.

Army and navy radios couldn't communicate with one another. An army
machine-gun bullet wouldn't fit a navy machine gun nominally of the
same caliber. They made the famously contentious U.S. army and navy
look like models of interservice cooperation.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

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