A foundry takes to the air

Watanabe Tekkōjo was a steel foundry in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, that started building aircraft in 1935. Its first notable design was the E9W, a tiny reconnaissance seaplane for the navy’s submarines, which first flew in February 1935. It could be dismantled for stowage in a submarine hangar and reassembled in two minutes thirty seconds. Thirty-five were built, entering service in 1938 as the Type 96 small reconnaissance seaplane, Allied codename Slim.

Seaplanes in a submarine

Much of the firm’s work was training aircraft. It built the K9W Momiji, a licensed Bucker Jungmann, of which 339 were produced in Japan, and helped build the Yokosuka K5Y Red Dragonfly trainer. It also built a seaplane for the Royal Siamese Navy, the K6W. In 1943 the aircraft business was split off as Kyūshū Hikōki, while the parent became Kyūshū Heiki.

From Shinden to car bodies

Under the Kyushu name came the K11W crew trainer, of which 798 were built, the Q1W Tōkai anti-submarine patrol aircraft, first flown in September 1943, and the extraordinary J7W Shinden, a canard pusher interceptor. The Shinden first flew on 3 August 1945, twelve days before Japan surrendered; only two were completed, and one survives in the Smithsonian. After the war the company became Watanabe Jidōsha Kōgyō, making car bodies, until it was dissolved in 2001.

Továrny

• Fukuoka works · Fukuoka, Kyushu

Lidé

• Masayoshi Tsuruno · naval officer and designer — Originated the Shinden canard concept and flew its first flight