The Nakajima E2N (Type 15) was a Japanese

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using Aerial photography, photography), signals ...

of the inter-war years. It was a single-engine, two-seat,

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

with twin main floats.

Design and development

The E2N was developed in the 1920s for the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

as a short range reconnaissance

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

suitable for catapult launch from

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

s and

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

s. It was a wooden, twin-float

, carrying a crew of two in open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

s with

folding wing A folding wing is a wing configuration design feature of aircraft to save space and is typical of carrier-based aircraft that operate from the limited deck space of aircraft carriers. The folding allows the aircraft to occupy less space in a co ...

s and powered by a Mitsubishi "Hi" liquid-cooled engine. This layout gave better downwards view than the

Hansa-Brandenburg Hansa und Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke (more usually just Hansa-Brandenburg) was a German aircraft manufacturing company that operated during World War I. It was created in May 1914 by the purchase of ''Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke'' by Cam ...

inspired

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

s proposed by

Aichi is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefecture ...

and

Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal had many names, each depending on the period of its existence, and the circumstances at that time. Many of the names were acronyms that were derived from its military name or designation, which changed from time to time. The arsenal was sometim ...

, and the design was selected to become Japan's first locally designed shipboard

reconnaissance seaplane Observation seaplanes are military aircraft with flotation devices allowing them to land on and take off from water. Their primary purpose was to observe and report enemy movements or to spot the fall of shot from naval artillery, but some were a ...

in 1927. The E2N2 was a training version produced from 1928-1929 that featured dual controls.

Operational history

The E2N served with the Navy as the Nakajima Navy Type 15 Reconnaissance Floatplane (一五式水上偵察機). Eighty examples were produced between 1927-29 by Nakajima and Kawanishi; of these, two were bought for civil fishery patrol duties. The Navy machines were withdrawn from front-line units in the early 1930s, with the E2N1 being replaced by the

Nakajima E4N The Nakajima E4N was a Japanese shipboard reconnaissance aircraft of the 1930s. It was a two-seat, single-engine, equal-span biplane seaplane used primarily by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Development The first prototype of the Type 90-2 Reconna ...

, and either being reassigned to

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

duties or sold to civil buyers. The E2N2 trainer stayed in use a bit longer than the E2N1, where they served with the Kasamigaura

Kōkūtai A ''kōkūtai'' () was a military aviation unit in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS), similar to the Group (military aviation unit), air groups in other air arms and services of the time. Some comparable units included ''wing'' in th ...

until 1936.http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_nakajima_E2N.html

Variants

;E2N1 (Type 15-1 Reconnaissance Seaplane) :Short-range reconnaissance aircraft. ;E2N2 (Type 15-2 Reconnaissance Seaplane) : Trainer version with dual controls.

Operators

; *

Specifications (E2N)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakajima E2n E02N, Nakajima E02N Sesquiplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1927

Design and development

Operational history

Variants

Operators

Specifications (E2N)

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links