Shipbucket

Fujimoto T-55

Being brought about as a result of the navy's request for a new carrier fighter in 1935, The Fujimoto T-55 was considered by many to be one of the best fighters of this day, much like many other requisition requests from the Navy, requirements for the Navy new carrier fighter were quite stringent, with the biggest one being that the aircraft must be equipped with a radial type engine, due to these types of engines being seen by the Navy higher ups as been easier to maintain and being more reliable then contemporary inline engines, another requirement was that the canopy had to be completely enclosed, which for the time was an unusual feature to see on a fighter, the Armament that the navy requested was to be two 13.2mm fully automatic heavy machine guns,

entering service in 1936 the T-55 would be primarily used by The Zipang Naval Air Service, also seeing some use the Imperial Japanese Navy and other co-prosperity sphere countries, even in the early days of the second world war, the aircraft would prove itself to be a formidable opponent against American F4F Wildcats and P40 Kitty Hawks, however by 1942 the aircraft was considerably outdated, leading to its withdrawal from the frontline service, however some aircraft would be used in the 1944 Zipang Rebellion, against the Japanese install puppet government forces.

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Work list: 1. various pre-1900 Zipang ships 2. Some protected cruisers and other miscellaneous projects

I drew a cursed thing. It's not polished at all because after a short while it became increasingly painful to work on. I suffered and so now you all must suffer. Loosely inspired by the Westland-Hill Pterodactyl VI.

Almost no solid records survive about the Plane known only as "The Abomination". Legend has it the plane was so objectively awful the responsible nation has been scrubbed from the history books. The few second hand records which do still exist in a damaged state speak of an aircraft which was "Slow to take off, slow to climb, slow to turn but also quick to crash, quick to burn and quick to kill". Designed approximately in late 1933 and early 34 for an Unknown Nation's Air Force tender for a counter-bomber aircraft, the resulting design had an unique layout of a pusher prop, biplane wing and forward turret (mounting twin .30-06 caliber machine guns) which made the aircraft both visually distinct and atrocious to fly. Yaw and Roll control were both record as poor while Pitch was described as "almost nonexistent".

Construction was predominately metal with fabric control surfaces. Crew arrangement had the pilot in a paradoxically large and cramped cockpit accessed via either side by suicide doors with a gunner in forward ball turret capable of a full 360 degrees of revolution. The Ball Turret was entered via a hatch on the rear and entry/exit thus required the turret be locked facing fully aft. While for entry this was rarely a problem, the turrets tendency to jam led to many crew being trapped inside when a quick egress was necessary.The aircraft was propelled by a V-12 engine of dubious reliability and the structural mounting for the engine had serious engineering defects. In severe crashes the engine had a tendency to become dislodged, punch it's way through the fuel tank into the cockpit to crush the pilot. Fuel leaks and engine fires were frequent occurrences which combined with the flawed turret led to the death of multiple gunners. The weak fixed landing gear was also a prone to breakinbg which led to severe spinal injuries.

Between 9 and 12 aircraft were manufactured, all of which were lost in various accidents. At least 19 crew were killed during the course of the program, including allegedly the lead designer during the aircraft's maiden flight. The program was terminated on September 3rd of 1936 when Aviation Gods, tired of witnessing the horror show, unleashed their full diving wrath and smote the entire nation and it's people out of existence.

Lyandul Aeronautics Institute D-5 Avocet

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“The horror! The horror!”

JSB cannot access the forum at the moment, so I am posting the submission they shared on the Shipbucket Discord.

The poll for the interwar fighter is now available and can be accessed through this link.

Responses will be accepted until the 16th of June, with the poll closing at 23:59 UTC-12 (International Date Line West).
A countdown timer can be found here for those wondering how much time they have left.

Please consider each submission honestly. Responses which give the maximum score to one or two entries and the minimum score to all other submissions will be excluded from the final result.

As is my custom, I like to provide a feedback on the FD scale designs. I have to say that all of these were of good quality.

Rasping Leech, Hughes Caballero: I liked the looks of this, you seemed to capture the civilian side well, it reminded me more of an interwar racing aircraft. You explained the choice of wing layout, it does seem a very short wing cellule so this fighter would probably be better suited for speed than agility. Saying that reloading the machine guns would be easy! Very well drawn.

Imperialist, Siemens-Schuckert Ss 55: I really liked this one, looks 100% genuine which sadly lost some originality marks but it looks a good sound design.

Hood, Ridgefield Type 342 Rapier: self-criticism time again, I went a little mad and mashed up the features of two real Westland experimental types of the period, one of which was a bomber! I wanted something sleek but not too advanced for the early 1930s date. Thought about adding a 37mm COW gun behind the cockpit firing upwards but that felt like overkill! The cockpit location is perhaps not ideal for the fighter but this was designed to hunt bombers coming across the English Channel. I like how it turned out.

Rhade, Ford Model 20M: a crazy concept of operations but something that has a ring of truth about it, old Henry was prone to some crazy ideas. The aircraft is beautifully drawn. The lack of any vertical tail surfaces is an omission, I can see why you ditched them, some designers in the 30s did try that, but most saw sense in the end. I do like the 1930s car vibe in the fuselage design though and those rear cooling louvres.

Bordkanone 75, Nakajima YM A4N1: looks so real it that it is real! Good drawing, but lost on originality being a real design.

Aiseus, Gazinia Consortium SN-10: this design strongly reminded me of some of the V-12 engined Boeing P-6 family and the PZL gull-wing fighter series. A nice looking design, the drawing is good but maybe reduce the use of black lines for wing roots and some of the wing panel lines. Good overall though.

Lemachina, abrikejo de Aviadiloj Montalvo (FAM) C291: a first post by a new member and a very good first drawing. A classic late biplane fighter in style and looks good.

jjx indoweeb, C.27: generally drawn ok but there are some ragged lines instead of smooth curves and I'm not sure why both tailplanes on the top view do not match. Of the design itself, the mid-mounted is very ambitious for 1927 given the extended driveshaft needed, but beyond this I think the undercarriage is located too far forward and the ailerons look a little too small.

APDAF, Tukhachevsky Tu-6: one of your best drawings so far, a good design overall but the two tails look a little small for an aircraft of this size. It does look a little dated for 1932 and I would have expected something a little sleeker, and something more advanced than just a ring mount for the rear MGs.

Armoured Man, Fujimoto T-55: a chunky little design, reminds me a lot of the Gloster Gladiator. The wings are stubby but look ok, overall very nicely drawn.

Corp, The Abomination: well someone got inspired by the Westland Pterodactyl! Well its odd and its novel! I don't think this would fly, not so much the wing layout as having the engine so far back. The wing panel lines need some work, but overall you did well to convey the oddness of this design.

Kiwi Imperialist, Ranaimo F.9: again a good standard looking biplane fighter. My gut feeling is that the rear fuselage is a little too long, but overall a nice design.

Cardinal, Lyandul Aeronautics Institute D-5 Avocet: an interesting monoplane design that looks like it fits for the period. My only nitpick is that the engine cowling looks too small to fit a 750hp V-12 engine.

JSB, Supermarine Type 225: an interesting take on how the S.6 might have evolved into a floatplane fighter. Needs a little refinement and use of 3-pixel canopy framing where possible, but overall an interesting design and looks like a real Supermarine project.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

The poll for the interwar fighter challenge is now closed. 14 entries were submitted before the deadline. While this number is small compared to some of our other challenges, the results were not disappointing. The community has produced an excellent collection of interwar fighters, with most artists favouring the 1930s. Corp’s Abomination and Rhade’s Ford Model 20M were particularly interesting. I was pleased to see some new members of the community participating, and I am eager to see more of their art in the future. It is also great to see other members of the community improving and evolving. I wish to thank everyone who participated, and the 17 people who responded to the poll.



Congratulations to Hood who achieved first place with the wonderful Ridgefield Type 342 Rapier. Imperialist was second with the excellent Siemens-Schuckert Ss 55, and also received the highest score in the drawing quality and suitability categories. I was surprised to discover that my own Ranaimo F.9 has catapulted me to third place. Thanks everyone! It was a result I truly didn’t expect. Bordkanone 75 and Corp deserve special mentions, as they achieved the highest scores in the design realism and originality categories respectively. The Second World War aircraft carrier is now open for those interested.

Congrats to the winner.

I did pick an unorthodox approach and try to make remade one of indeed crazy idea of Ford, model 15P know that realism and suitability of such design based on failed project would be rather dubious. And as it shows I was right, the least points in in both (well almost second from down place on realism)... it was not an easy project I must say, far from my "safe zone".

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

I propose to create type of forum sign to be showed in signature for winners of competition.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!