Refuel Japan!

[Romantic Technofreak]

One more call out of the "Help the Axis"-campaign.;)

We all know that Japan was very short of fuel, not at least due to Allied submarine activities. There have been plans to refuel Japan by air, but the plane designed for that, the Kokusai Ki-105 Ohtori,

(only good site available is in Spanish)

http://www.raravia.com/ohtori.htm

consumed 80% of its fuel payload on its back and forth to Japan, so the project was stopped. In the last days I got the idea why not use the Tachikawa Ki-77 record plane

http://avia.russian.ee/air/japan/tachikawa_ki-77.html

for this task? The distance between the oil fields of Northern Borneo and Southern Japan (Kyushu) is approximately 3.000 km. The Ki-77 has a range of 18.000 km. So, travelling back and forth, it only consumes 1/3 of its fuel payload and is able to deliver the rest!

So gentlemen, what do you say to this thought experiment? (Allied fighter experts please keep your P-38s over Bougainville, if only for some time! [8D])

[GregP]

It would be a long campaing since they only built two of the record aircraft.

Had they been available in some numbers, I doubt Japan could have kept up with the need for aviation fuel alone, much less fuel for cars, ships, and other internal combustion engines in use at the time. Still, the notion is interesting. I'd probably have recommended a modified Kawanishi H8K Emily flying boat.

Stripped of weapons and with addition tankage installed, it could haul a pretty good load and the entire ocean was a landing strip.