Tuesday 4 July 2017

Aichi E13 - Various foreign users

Today we bring you some foreign users of this Japanese seaplane.
The Aichi E13A was a long range reconnaissance seaplane that was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1941 to 1945 and then by numerous countries.

  • Chinese Red Army: Apparently some of them were found derelict in Southern China, and they were employed by the Chinese Red Forces during the 1945-1949 period of the Chinese Civil War. As we couldn't find graphical evidence of these airplanes, the drawing should be considered as speculative. The fate of those airplanes is unknown, but they were, most likely, scrapped.
  • Republic of Korea: In 1949 a single airplane was found in the isle of Jeju which was a former Japanese base. It was entirely painted in white to be evaluated. Later, in August of that same year, the markings of the Republic of Korea Air Force were added and it was tested in a wind tunnel in Seoul. In August 1950 it was moved to an airbase North of Seoul, in order to push it into service, however, it was completely destroyed when a North Korean bomber bombed the base. As we couldn't find graphical evidence, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
  • New Zealand: In 1942 an airplane was captured by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, flown to Jacquinot Bay, in New Britain. It was entirely painted in white to be evaluated. However one of the floater broke, and started to leak. It wasn't repaired and it sank.









Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E13A
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=443
3. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E13A (translated)

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