access panel piece of G4M Betty Bomber

[Oceansider]

This was a bring back by a US Army officer who marked it as being from a "Betty Bomber."

It has nice paint and markings on it, but I have no idea where it was located on the fuselage.

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[beretta1934]

Cool piece but not from a Betty as it was a purely Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft. On all IJN planes the backside (inside) finish on the aluminum would be Aotake which is a bright aqua blueish finish.

Definitely an IJA aircraft and pretty much impossible to ID the exact one given such a broad search category. Assuming the GI was correct in it being a twin engine bomber perhaps a translation of the kanji could help somewhat but what the overwhelming examples of stories associated with Japanese aircraft souvenirs brought back by vets show all fighters were "Zeros" and all bombers were a "Betty"

I attached a few pictures of 3 IJN items I own to show the inside coating color. This finish was extremely effective and the zero item pictured was actually from a recovered aircraft in the the past 10 years!

One has two pieces which could definitely have come from a Kate - but the blurb about Pearl Harbor is a ridiculous. The kanji translation is accurate - "torpedo stop"

Second one is from a known A6M3 crash site


The other two items pictured are from my collection of different IJA planes. Notice how the vet scribbled "PART OF JAP ZERO" on the bare aluminum one

[Oceansider]

Thanks for the insights. The curved red paint on this cover just does not match up with red balls on Bettys so I was skeptical. This officer was in an aviation engineers unit during occupation and likely bought this and his other war souvenirs from some young hustling enlisted man

Cool piece but not from a Betty as it was a purely Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft. On all IJN planes the backside (inside) finish on the aluminum would be Aotake which is a bright aqua blueish finish.

Definitely an IJA aircraft and pretty much impossible to ID the exact one given such a broad search category. Assuming the GI was correct in it being a twin engine bomber perhaps a translation of the kanji could help somewhat but what the overwhelming examples of stories associated with Japanese aircraft souvenirs brought back by vets show all fighters were "Zeros" and all bombers were a "Betty"

I attached a few pictures of 3 IJN items I own to show the inside coating color. This finish was extremely effective and the zero item pictured was actually from a recovered aircraft in the the past 10 years!

One has two pieces which could definitely have come from a Kate - but the blurb about Pearl Harbor is a ridiculous. The kanji translation is accurate - "torpedo stop"

Second one is from a known A6M3 crash site


The other two pictured are from different IJA planes. Notice how the vet scribbled "PART OF JAP ZERO" on the bare aluminum one

[Oceansider]

Based on the paint job this panel covered part of a straight red line. I did a little quick and dirty Photoshop example of how it looked. There are photos online of unit markings with red stripes similar to this:

stripe.jpg

[Striking 9th]

I think this https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/ is the forum that has helped ID parts in the past.

[rabbit indy]

点検孔=Inspection panel
スラット連動桿=Interlocking rod for slats

The Japanese military aircraft that had slats was a naval aircraft called Saiun.
I think the Betty had no slats.
Nakajima C6N Saiun is code name MYRT.
Betty is Mitsubishi Navy Type 1 attack bomber(G4M)


yoshiyuki

[rabbit indy]

Sorry Nakajima J1N Gekko(code name:Irving) also had slats.

yoshiyuki

[Oceansider]

点検孔=Inspection panel
スラット連動桿=Interlocking rod for slats

The Japanese military aircraft that had slats was a naval aircraft called Saiun.
I think the Betty had no slats.
Nakajima C6N Saiun is code name MYRT.
Betty is Mitsubishi Navy Type 1 attack bomber(G4M)


yoshiyuki

Thank you so much! Do you know which IJA air force aircraft had slats, since piece is not Navy.

[rabbit indy]

I have two access panel for WW2 Japanese aircraft.
First panel has Philippines Island Luzon 8-29-45 Jap bomber on back.
Second panel has SDCH on back, that means Super Duralumin.

[rabbit indy]

Thank you so much! Do you know which IJA air force aircraft had slats, since piece is not Navy.

I think the paint color of your panel is that of a naval aircraft.
The green color of the army aircraft and the navy aircraft is different in color.
In the latter half of the war, the inside Aotake paint was often omitted.
So even if the back side remains duralumin, there is a possibility of a naval aircraft.

The Japanese Army aircraft with slats is a Type 99 assault aircraft (Mitsubishi Ki-51)

yoshiyuki

[GHP]

Yoshiyuki-san,

Just a slight correction to your excellent post.

点検孔=Inspection panel

点検窓
Tenken mado
Inspection Window [i.e., Inspection Panel; Access Panel; Access Window]


-- Guy

[rabbit indy]

Yoshiyuki-san,

Just a slight correction to your excellent post.

点検窓
Tenken mado
Inspection Window [i.e., Inspection Panel; Access Panel; Access Window]


-- Guy

Hi,

Sorry my mistake!
Nakajima Tenrai J5N also had slats.
This is a twin-engine prototype fighter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_J5N


yoshiyuki

[GHP]

Hi,

Sorry my mistake!
Nakajima Tenrai J5N also had slats.
This is a twin-engine prototype fighter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_J5N

yoshiyuki

[rabbit indy]

I know which aircraft your panel belongs to. I think it's definitely a
Nakajima J1N Gekko (code name: Irving) panel.
Look at the attached drawing.
Gekko was used to shoot down the B-29 as a night fighter.
Therefore, the underside of this aircraft is often painted dark green.
I think there is no doubt that a part of the access panel is shaded with a Japanese red flag.

yoshiyuki

[Mauser HSc]

Great panel! Congratulations and thank you for posting!