Seiran Questions...

- D
- Drew Hill
  
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posted
15 years ago

Sat, Sep 20, 2008 7:26 AM

Hey all you meatball lovers!

Was watching a special on Discovery Channel about trying to find the I-400 series subs. Was looking at the Seiran they had at the Garver Center and noticed it's an inline water cooled a/c. I thought that the IJN etc. only had 1 other inline engined a/c. Since I'm very lazy, am a historian who HATES Wikipedia, don't have my books here with me in Korea, and am too lazy to do the good research on the web I figured i'd ask you guys...

Did the Seiran ever drop bombs in anger? Was it launched from the subs to do so? What was maintenance like when it was both out of and inside the sub? Since it's one of only three IJN a/c with two floats (A version of the Zero and a biplane) how easy was the assembly when it was removed from the sub? And has anyone heard any more about the search for the subs?

Thanks for the responses dudes! Believe it or not, as a historian I've been directing people to this newsgroup for years. We modelers tend to be FAR better informed than most "Real Historians" when it comes to equipment as we are far more intersted in doing detail research.

-andyh

- S
- Stephen Bierce
  
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posted
15 years ago

Sat, Sep 20, 2008 6:35 PM

I have an issue of Model Art, which I reviewed for IPMS/USA, which profiles the I-400 sub and the Seiran. Of course, it's all in Japanese, so I'm not sure I can find you the answers to your questions so quickly.

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Note that there is a diagram of how the Seiran was stored and how it was unfolded for deployment on the linked website. The floats were stored on a separate deck of the sub. When the plane was pulled from its hangar and the wings were unfolded, the plane was set atop the floats and the floats were attached. The Seiran could be launched without the floats if necessary, for example to carry a larger bomb load a shorter distance. See the photo of the partial model sub for more details.

The Seiran used the exact same DB601-derived engine that the Ki-61 Hien had. So by then it was a known quantity and problems could be planned for.

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Hope this helps!

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922

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- frank
  
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posted
15 years ago

Sun, Sep 21, 2008 8:03 AM

Never used in combat. Probably would have never survived first use.

Both subs were sunk by USN after the war. Supposedly to keep USSR from getting technology after they were studied.

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- Andy
  
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posted
15 years ago

Sun, Sep 21, 2008 3:27 PM

But the Soviets fooled us in the end.....

In a secret project never made public in the West, they designed a special top-secret vessel - named the Glomarevitch Explorsky - to retrieve artifacts from these Japanese subs.

They concluded this project after bringing up two anchors and a rudder

- claiming the project to have been a resounding success.

Top secret information obtained by the Navy of Papua-New Guinea indicated that the project actually ended when the Soviets attempted to lift a 200-ton object with a 100-ton crane. This, combined with a crewman's forgetting to turn off the flooding valves used to lower the ship in the water, resulted in the ship sinking to the bottom - directly on top of the I-400 submarine they were working on.

The Japanese government subsequently sued and won a case against the Soviet navy for trespassing.

You read it here first.