If you get a chance, stop by Planes of Fame and take a look for yourself, it is worth the trip! Within 20 minutes, Hellcats had shot down all 18 bombers. (Aviation History Collection/Alamy). The tail gun was a 20mm cannon, though a relatively ineffective one. Other Betty bombers witness the Betty ditch and noted the location as "Sugaaba Island". Rather than pull all-nighters, he spent a lot of time in Cambridge playing poker. He omitted armor plate. It carried a huge explosive charge, and bore large wooden tailfins that stabilized it in flight and broke away when the torpedo entered the water. The aircraft is quite an impressive sight, even in it's current state and well worth a look. As a result of these modifications, the fuselage was shortened and the center-of-gravity shifted forward. Operationally, BETTY crews achieved much in their first year of combat. For the remainder of the war, the BETTY assembly line continued to run. For years it was assumed that the Japanese simply didn’t know how to make good paint, but the reason was even more basic. None of this mattered during the Sino-Japanese campaign, when Bettys were escorted by the new, long-range A6M2 Zero. The old-timers in the Imperial Japanese Navy were battleship queens, and it was thanks to them that Japan constructed two expensive but supremely useless super-battleships, Yamato and Musashi, both sunk before their crews even knew the way to the wardroom. One of the best-known Betty carcasses was on display for years at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, Calif. Learn how aviation and spaceflight transformed the world. Four days later, two BETTY bombers landed at Ie Shima Island. Evidently, only the pieces that survive today arrived at the storage facility at Park Ridge, Illinois, during the late 1940s. Betty’s Dream first flew in March of 1999 including it’s new bomb bay doors which were taken off while it was being used as a fire bomber. They devastated Clark Field, Philippine Islands, on December 8, 1941, and participated in sinking the British battleships HMS "Prince of Wales" and HMS "Repulse" on December 10. FS2004 FSX Mitsubishi G4M1 Betty bomber Codenamed Betty by the Allies, the Mitsubishi G4M long-range medium bomber remained in service with the Japanese navy from the first to the last day of the war. The only Betty remnant in Japan is owned by a wealthy automotive importer/exporter, Nobuo Harada. Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. One highly regarded Japanese book about Bettys in combat is titled Wings of Flame. Contributing editor Stephan Wilkinson recommends for further reading: Mitsubishi G4M Betty, by Martin Ferkl, and Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko ‘Betty’ Units of World War 2, by Osamu Tagaya. Grilled Hamburger, seasoned, hand-packed & grilled Make it a Classic with Bacon or Cheese +$1.50 – Choice of American, Cheddar, Swiss, Provolone, Blue, or Spicy Queso The Blackout $14 A Blackened Burger, topped with Blue Cheese, Grilled Onion and Bacon The Mustang $13 This feature originally appeared in the November 2018 issue of Aviation History. In the tail, he introduced a 20 mm cannon. It was recovered from New Guinea in 1991 by warbird salvager Bruce Fenstermaker, in a joint venture with the Santa Monica Museum of Flying. Damaged, this Betty reached Nuguria Atoll and ditched off Nugava Island at 4:25pm local time. The first production G4M rolled off the line in April 1941. The plane that was developed was the twin-engine Mitsubishi G4M Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber. Their fate is unknown, though the cockpit and nose of one, plus the tailcone, ended up in storage at the National Air and Space Museum. It was a surprisingly agile aircraft with a long range. So why not fill those positions with dedicated gunships? Like the Mitsubishi Zero Fighter (also in the NASM collection), the Hamaki soldiered on long after it became obsolete, even dangerous, to fly wherever Allied interceptors prowled. The D3A was the primary dive-bomber for … It is estimated that by the end of the war, 5,000 pilots had died making Tokko attacks and the damage they wrought was severe. Crewmen on the destroyer USS Ellet observe the wreckage of a Betty that crashed during an attack off Guadalcanal on August 8, 1942. Its Allied reporting name was “Betty”. The Japanese might have thought that amusing, but they called the Mitsubishi G4M Rikko, truncating their phrase for “land-based attack bomber.” (The G4M’s predecessor, the Mitsubishi G3M “Nell,” was also called Rikko.). Lieutenant Den Sudo emerges from the cockpit of his Mitsubishi G6M1-L—a “wingtip escort” heavy fighter variant of the G4M1 “Betty” bomber converted to a transport—at Ie Shima on August 19, 1945. It currently consists of a fully restored fuselage, much of it fabricated by Harada’s restorers, in a museum near Tokyo. The Betty was the product of excellent engineering pushed to the limit and then slightly beyond, to meet requirements created not by aviators but by military bureaucrats. The IJNAS requirements were a top speed of 247 mph, a maximum range of almost 3,000 statute miles and a loaded range of 2,300 miles. Click on any of the below pictures for full resolution. Drum-fed from an archaic 47-round pancake magazine atop the gun, the Lewis had a long history of aviation use. The Mitsubishis were large, ponderous targets and needed to follow stable courses during torpedo runs. Nor did he provide armor for the crew. The U. S. Army Air Corps conducted a similar experiment using a modified Boeing B-17 bomber designated the B-40 but this idea too failed to survive operational testing and was soon abandoned. They were painted in special 'surrender markings,' white overall with green crosses replacing the Japanese Hinomaru or red "meatball" national insignia. The benefits of laminar flow were probably illusory on Bettys, since IJNAS aircraft of all types had paint jobs that ranged from beater-bad to junkyard special, peeling and flaking in a manner that would have tripped any incipient laminar airflow. Only two months later, the Navy issued a specification to Mitsubishi for a NELL replacement. The admiral’s own noted punctuality doomed him, for the two G4Ms carrying him and his aides intersected perfectly with 16 P-38 Lightnings sent on a precise mission to intercept him over Bougainville, and Yamamoto died in the very airplane that he had helped create. Travel Photo by Dan Collier. Nobody is sure how many torpedoes hit the two British battlewagons, but three days after Pearl Harbor, wave after wave of Nells and Bettys achieved at least nine Type 91 hits and possibly as many as 21. Some ships never knew they had been attacked, since the Ohkas glided into the Pacific before even coming within sight. One ran off the runway during takeoff from Ie Shima and damaged its landing gear; the other ran out of fuel and ditched short of its destination in Japan. Destined to be the main Japanese land-based bomber for the entire war, it was, like other Japanese planes, state of the art at the beginning of World War II but grossly outmatched by American models later in the war. Mitsubishi produced a total of 2,414 G4M airplanes but few remained when the war ended on August 15, 1945. Betty Bomber. Striking distance meant 20 miles or less, thanks to the Ohka’s tiny load of rocket fuel, and Betty pilots too often pulled the release handle early. Against limited fighter opposition, the lack of armor and self-sealing fuel tanks was no hindrance. The Japanese built more of them than any other bomber during World War II. The Japanese had become outstanding night pilots during the Sino-Japanese war, when they flew 500-mile missions in darkness purely by dead reckoning, sometimes serving as navigation lead ships for their own fighter escorts. The Betty’s swan song would have involved a fleet of some 60 troop-carrying G4Ms (their roomy fuselages made them particularly appropriate for this) that were to simultaneously land on Guam, Saipan and Tinian. Two major portions survive: the nose including the entire flight deck, and ten feet of the fuselage. In the confusion, the Japanese troops were to destroy as many B-29s as possible and then head into the jungles to continue fighting as guerrillas. Recognize your favorite air or space enthusiast. The Type 91 was a remarkable torpedo that could be dropped at speeds in excess of 230 mph. The Mitsubishi G4M was a medium bomber similar in role and configuration to the North American B-25 Mitchell, Heinkel He 111 and the Vickers Wellington. One specially detailed Betty crew was even assigned to seize a Superfortress and fly it back to Japan. Her first flight after restoration was in March of 1999. Initial results were impressive, but the Navy shelved the bomber for a time in favor of a variant to be called the G6M1. Fifteen of the 17 unescorted Bettys were shot down. Airpower proponent Billy Mitchell might have told them this was a dumb idea, having demonstrated in the early 1920s what bombers could do to capital ships. Same engines, same twin-engine configuration, same size, give it some guns…just make it a lot faster and longer-legged.”. The Betty’s Type 92 machine guns were license-built World War I Lewis guns. Betty crews carried no parachutes, since bailing out wasn’t an option. Sorry, there was a problem. Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, English astronomer who confirmed Einstein's theory of relativity. (U.S. Navy). The end had arrived for the Japanese and the BETTY bomber. The Rikko assignment went straight to Mitsubishi, which had already paid its bomber-building dues with the G2M and G3M. Casualties were horrific. Whether his engineering team found it aesthetically pleasing is open to question. In total, eighteen Betty bombers were shot down and two others crash landed, including this bomber. The Japanese more genially nicknamed the Betty “Hamaki” (cigar), and many sources have assumed this was a reference to the airplane’s flammability when struck by enemy fire. After arriving at the airfield, the first G4M was reassembled and flown by test pilot Katsuzo Shima on October 23, 1939. He incorporated 7.7 mm (.30 cal.) See our COVID-19 message. Get the best deals on betty boop jackets & coats and save up to 70% off at Poshmark now! Hier findet ihr eine arme Irre, die gerne über ihre Fails lacht und eher ruhigen Gemütes ist. Like its stablemate, Mitsubishi's Zero Fighter (see NASM collection for two examples), the Hamaki soldiered on long after it became obsolete, even dangerous, to fly wherever Allied interceptors prowled. Japan's newest and most advanced bomber made the trip, disassembled and stacked on five ox-drawn farm carts, over unpaved roads! After the war, the USAAF was test-flying at least one Betty that had been captured in the Philippines, one of four or five flyable G4Ms that the U.S. liberated. [ September 21, 2020 ] CAF Dixie Wing to Feature PT-17 Stearman/N2S Kaydet Aircraft Restoration [ September 18, 2020 ] New WWII ... Home Betty’s Biscuit Bomber Betty’s Biscuit Bomber. It was propelled by a tiny radial engine fueled by kerosene and compressed air, and had a surprisingly sophisticated automatic roll-control mechanism. You have successfully signed up for our newsletter. The white-painted airplane carried officials charged with arranging details of the Japanese surrender. Mitsubishi aircraft were delivered to combat units in natural metal and spray-painted with camouflage in the field…without the benefit of primer. Betty was actually a waitress in Pennsylvania. The fuselage was streamlined but rotund to allow space for a bomb bay within the wing center section and to allow the 7 to 9-man crew to move about. History of B-25 Mitchell bomber SN 45-8835. A Brief History. Now they revived the technique with night torpedo missions against U.S. ships that were essentially blind. These photos of this submarine were taken by Dan Collier from his last visit to Guam. Another hulk is in the collection of Australia’s Darwin Aviation Museum. Find out what we’re discovering. With a relatively slow rate of fire and rifle-caliber (7.7mm) ammunition, the hand-held Type 92 wasn’t about to frighten away .50-caliber Browning-equipped Grumman F4F Wildcats, to say nothing of F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs. The Allies called it the BETTY but to the men that flew the airplane, it was popularly, but unofficially, the 'Hamaki,' Japanese for cigar, in honor of the airplane's rotund, cigar-shaped fuselage. They would disgorge hundreds of commandos dressed in USAAF uniforms. This is probably why the wreck of the Betty Bomber is one of the most popular small dives in the Lagoon. Anti-aircraft guns decimated them. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, died on April 18, 1943, along with his entire staff when U. S. Army Air Corps P-38 Lightnings (see NASM collection) intercepted and destroyed the two BETTY bombers that carried them. The Airacomet was the first jet aircraft in U.S. service, and this example, s/n 12-108777, is believed to be the tenth airframe in the production run. 655 Jefferson Drive, SW guns in the nose, atop the mid-fuselage behind the cockpit, and on both sides of the fuselage behind the wing. From my understanding, the Betty will be restored, but there is no current schedule for it. The NASM G4M Model 34 BETTY is not complete but it is the best-preserved example of this famous aircraft in the world. A visit to the crash site of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's G4M1 Betty 2656 on southern Bougainville, near Kokopo Village. In fact it was another moniker based on its shape, chosen long before G4Ms began igniting frequently enough for Americans to call them Zippos. The deal with Santa Monica somehow got derailed and the hulk was instead acquired by Ed Mahoney, who put in on display in Chino—a wrecked fuselage, inboard wings, engines and nacelle—as a jungle diorama. This extremely rare Bell YP-59A Airacomet is under restoration to flying condition. Of 23 Bettys that set out from Rabaul that day, only five returned. The aircraft is regularly flown to airshows throughout North America. Few would know it by its official designation, the Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber. The ‘Betty’, as the Mitsubishi bomber was called in the Allied code, proved itself an excellent combat aircraft on all fronts. Frederick Hill Collection/U.S. The aircraft was operated by the 105th Naval Base Air Unit. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. The rubber mat shaved about 6 mph from the G4M’s speed and reduced range by almost 200 miles. In August 1942, during the Guadalcanal campaign and this time escorted by fighters, 18 out of 23 attacking Bettys were shot down—the single worst G4M loss during the entire campaign. The G4M2 was a complete redesign but it did not overcome the airplane's vulnerability to Allied firepower. After 663 Bettys had been manufactured (some 2,400 would ultimately be built), Mitsubishi began to fireproof the wings by applying a thick self-sealing layer on the outside of the lower wing skins. About half the crew manned the defensive gun positions. 202-633-2214, 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway More -. Sans glass, the tail gun compartment is remarkably intact. Aichi D3A2 Type 99 Carrier Bomber (Allied Code Name: “Val”) Developed in the late 1930s, the D3A was a low-mounted monoplane aircraft with fixed landing gear capable of take-offs and landings from an aircraft carrier. Honjo gave the Betty a full complement of guns in waist, dorsal-turret, nose and tail positions, and the roomy fuselage was intended to give the airplane’s seven-man crew (later reduced to five when it became increasingly difficult to recruit aircrew) space to move around during long flights and to fill multiple positions. Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher, educator and writer. The nose art features Betty Grable, the number one pinup girl of the World War II era.The aircraft's name takes after a song made very popular by Doris Day in 1945. Whatever you're shopping for, we've got it. Both aircraft had unprecedented range but they were also extremely vulnerable to the machine gun and cannon fire from Allied fighter aircraft. Front-line combat units operated many variants and subvariants with different engines and armament packages. Had they tried putting a matching mat on the exterior top of the wing tanks as well, the airplane probably would never have gotten off the ground. When carrying an 800-kg (1,768 lb) torpedo or the same weight in bombs, the Navy needed the bomber to fly at least 3,700 km (2,300 mi). There are currently no complete examples of the Betty in preservation in the world save for a rather fragile, belly-landed example (G4M1 Model 1 1 m/n 1280) recov ered by Bruce Fenstermaker from Babo Airfield in Indonesia during 1991. Thank you. The plane was shot down … The final version of the Betty, the G4M4, had an entirely new laminar-flow wing with integrally self-sealing fuel tanks. The next time the Mitsubishi bombers attacked Allied ships, on February 20, 1942, they were after the U.S. carrier Lexington and its task force. The two rearmost and outermost Nells were, no surprise, found to suffer the highest casualties from opposing fighters. The Allies called it the BETTY but the men that flew the airplane nicknamed it the 'Hamaki,' Japanese for cigar, a reference to the airplane's rotund, cigar-shaped fuselage. We teamed up in 2010 to bring our 30+ combined years of experience and artistry to the Savannah restaurant scene with Butterhead Greens Café. Mitsubishi incorporated this same design feature in the Zero, for the same reasons and with the same results. Mitsubishi also learned that the heavy cannons compromised the Betty’s handling. A member of the three-man intelligence team that picked the names thus immortalized a one-night stand. The “white Bettys” flew from Japan to Ie Shima, a small Okinawan island, where the Japanese were transferred to a C-54 and carried on to Manila to meet with Douglas MacArthur and his staff. Few would know it by its official designation, the Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber. G3Ms attacked in large vee formations of 27 aircraft stacked in nine mini-vees of three aircraft each, a formation-flying nightmare. The British had assembled a Singapore-based task force around the battlecruiser Repulse and the battleship Prince of Wales, with which they intended to protect their Southeast Asian territories. In one stroke, it totally removed the Royal Navy from any effective role in the Pacific War. The Betty Bomber. The end had arrived for the Japanese and the BETTY bomber. The Classic Bomber $10 The All-American Classic, 6 oz. This photo can also be found in Warpath Across the Pacific. Chantilly, VA 20151 Air Force Academy via Jack Fellows, Mitsubishi’s G4M bomber went by many names, but perhaps the most appropriate would have been “flaming coffin.”. Apollo 11 was a global event. (U.S. Navy). Sentimental Journey (44-83514) is the nickname of a B-17G Flying Fortress bomber. In 1994 restoration was started to create Betty’s Dream. The firm changed the wing to a single-spar configuration and installed self-sealing fuel tanks with a capacity about one-third less than earlier versions. So the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service laid down the parameters of what would become the Betty by basically saying, “Build a better Nell. Please ensure your details are valid and try again. The U.S. Army Air Forces would later try the same thing with its YB-40s, which were B-17s carrying 18 or even more .50-caliber guns, flying as formation escorts. Mitsubishi tried again to reduce the bomber's tendency to burn. (Perhaps something is lost—or gained—in translation.) Navy crews suffered 4,300 fatalities and 5,400 casualties, or seven percent of all crew casualties incurred during the entire Pacific war. It was brought to the United States aboard a U. S. Navy aircraft carrier along with 145 other Japanese aircraft selected for test and evaluation. Nakajima had no such opportunity with the G5N, which turned out to be underpowered and overly complex. These tanks were much lighter in weight than explosion-proof (also called 'self-sealing') gas tanks. Subscribe here! (6m x 19.5m, 7000kg, 25m), For more information, visit the Smithsonian's, There are restrictions for re-using this media. Maybe all the remaining relatives of those slave labourers, denied even the dignity of a bullet, could crowd fund the static restoration of a Betty, and gift it to the Yakusuni shrine, to stand in memory, invariably, of brave pilots and common loss, but under the paint let the story be allowed of … The BETTY was so prone to ignite that the Allies nicknamed it the 'flying lighter.'. During the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945, the U. S. Navy lost 21 vessels sunk and 217 damaged. The savings in airframe weight allowed the G4M to attack targets at unprecedented ranges. This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. The Japanese called them “wingtip escorts,” assumedly so-named from their position in the main formation, and they were gunned up with extra 20mm cannons in place of light machine guns. Their next stop was the Philippines where the Allied delegation, led by General Douglas MacArthur, would witness the Japanese officials signing the surrender agreement. Those procurement officers were aware of the airplane’s main flaw but chose to accept it, dooming many crews. Air Show Report D-Day Squadron Flypast Over Washington, DC May 17, 2019 Editor 0. It was the first time that aircraft alone had sunk fully maneuverable capital ships at sea. We called her Betty. Members of the Japanese delegation debark from their aircraft and prepare to board a C-54 for a flight to Manila, where they will receive instructions concerning the surrender and American occupation. Yamamoto’s weapon of choice was the torpedo, and the Betty was first and foremost a torpedo bomber, carrying a single 1,890-pound Type 91 tin fish—the world’s most accurate and powerful aerial torpedo right up until the end of the war. Bettys flew on the opening day of WWII, and they helped close out the war as well. It is either on loan or in storage. This Betty was abandoned at the edge of the runway at Babo Airfield. Washington, DC 20560 Yamamoto’s idea, however, was not to build more ships—you could buy a thousand airplanes for the cost of a warship, he once said—but to build a land-based bomber with huge range and great speed that could quickly fly far out to sea and fight naval battles, either defending the fleet’s capital ships or attacking the enemy. When you walk up to the Betty site the first thing you see is the huge tail standing like an enormous monolith at the site. To re-balance the bomber, dihedral was added to the horizontal stabilizer. Lieutenant Den Sudo emerges from the cockpit of his Mitsubishi G6M1-L—a “wingtip escort” heavy fighter variant of the G4M1 “Betty” bomber converted to a transport—at Ie Shima on August 19, 1945. Add his or her name to the Museum’s Wall of Honor. But none of this mattered, because the Betty had a fatal flaw, and Kiro Honjo knew it. The Type 91 had been designed specifically for the Hawaii attack and Pearl Harbor’s shallow water, though there it was carried by single-engine, carrier-launched Nakajima B5N2 Kates. Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States. John Von Neumann, Hungarian-born mathematician. She is now based at the Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot, ND. Few would know it by its official designation, the Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber. The Japanese built more of them than any other bomber during World War II. The white-painted airplane carried officials charged with … The brainchild of Pearl Harbor planner Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, G4M1s fly in formation off the Japanese coast. Kagamigahara was 48 km (30 miles) to the north. A Betty bomber is escorted by BETTY’S DREAM of the 499th Bomb Squadron on August 21, 1945 after the surrender delegation met with Allied officials at Manila. This version was called the G4M Model 34. The Nell was the scourge of China, ranging far and wide during the Sino-Japanese war that preceded WWII. Navy leaders hoped that by increasing the number of defensive cannons, the G6M1 could become a heavy escort fighter for other bombers but this diversion failed to live up to expectations, and the Navy ordered the G4M1 into production. The aircraft was probably based at Oppama Air Field near Yokosuka, Japan, but no record of the unit or service history is known. On October 23, 1939, the Japanese G4M, named the “Betty” bomber by the Allies, made its maiden flight. There was no self-sealing mechanism, which would have required a 1¼-inch-thick soft rubber layer weighing about 660 pounds, either inside or outside the fuel tanks, substantially reducing the tanks’ capacity. The G4M air wings eventually learned that daytime missions against well-defended U.S. ships would result in unacceptable losses. Mitsubishi said the bomber would need four engines to accomplish that, but the IJNAS insisted on a twin-engine configuration. Share your story and read what others have to say. From the first day of war until after the surrender, BETTY bombers saw service throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. For the Betty, however, it was all downhill from there. The lunar module represents one of humanity’s greatest achievements: landing people on another heavenly body. Six escorting Zeros flew guard but in a matter of seconds, the Air Corps pilots shrugged off the escorting fighters and sent both BETTYs crashing down in flames. The Japanese thought that was unfair, and Yamamoto’s desire to build a fleet of very-long-range torpedo bombers—no aircraft carriers needed—was in part a way to circumvent the Washington treaty: If we can’t build floating warships, let’s build flying warships. 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