| Histoire résumée | Credit for building the fastest gliders in the world must go to the Japancse, who produced two in the closing months of World War II. When the Japanese began their suicide "Kamikaze" attacks on US warships, they used standard tactical aircraft loaded with high explosives. These were relatively large and slow, and made good targets for defending fighters and anti-aircraft, so something more elusive had to be developed. This turned out to be the tiny piloted missile that was carried by a bomber and released some distance from the target, completing the one-way trip under the control of the human pilot. This device was named "Baka" (Japanese for " Fool" ) by the Allies and "Oka" by the Japanese.
The Oka had a wingspan of only sixteen and one-hall feet and carried 264O pounds of explosive in its 20 foot fuselage. Three liquid rocket motors in the tail gave it an impact velocity of 620 mph, although its normal glider speed was only 230 mph. It was necessary to get performance and operational data on the OKA before sending it into action, so a test program was inaugurated.
A number of OkAs were built as unpowered trainers, with a block of cast iron in an elongated nose replacing the warhead, the rocket tubes deleted and the tail cone faired over, and a few extra flight instruments. Major outward changes were the addition of flaps and a king-size landing skid. This had to be strong, for even with the flaps and light load, the landing speed of this tiny glider was estimated at something over 170 mph ! |
