Tuesday 3 April 2012

Yokosuka E1Y3

Photos from a vintage publication of a Navy Type 14-3 Reconnaissance seaplane or Yokosuka E1Y3, of which 102 were built by Aichi between 1931-1934. It has a 4-blade propeller, a 450hp Lorraine 3 engine and was carried aboard the battleship "Kongo" as indicated by the katakana on the tail and fuselage.
Note also the beautifully colourised photo.

4 comments:

Harold K said...

I'm puzzled by the color of the aircraft's tail in the shipboard photo. Was that done correctly, when the photo was colorized?

Arawasi said...

Yes, I was puzzled too. It seems that the artist chose the same color with the turrets. I don't think it's correct. At that time it was typical for IJNAF planes to have red tails.
I'm not sure about the wooden color of the floats either. The E1Y3 had metal floats.

Harold K said...

Red tails; agreed.
I had noticed the floats, too. As if there was some sort of wooden decking on them. Could that have been something temporary, placed over the tops of the floats to give ground crews better traction, then removed before flight?

Arawasi said...

There were three types of E1Y with minor differences. Regarding the floats Type 1 (E1Y1) had wooden floats. Type 2 (E1Y2) had metal. Type 3 (E1Y3) had also metal but it is possible they could be replaced with wooden ones. In the top photo they were definitely metal. The wooden brown color in the colorized photo is puzzling but intriguing too at the same time because it is not clear what exact color the dark looking in b/w photos floats were painted with. It was certainly a paint that should have protected from the water and the friction so perhaps this was the precursor of the red brown primer we see on later types.