OKA-1
Baka Bomb 1
Not your average WWII warbird. It’s made from simple materials that mean a quick build and trip to the flying field!
By Dick Sarpolus PHOTOGRAPHY: DICK SARPOLUS T 42
he military aircraft of World War II are likely the most popular sub- jects for scale modelers. The wide variety of aircraft types from many
different countries and their range of per- formance gives us so many designs to choose from. Warbirds make great electric foamy projects and, when looking for a new one, I came across an old book, Kamikaze, by Aero Publishers, 1966. The interesting history of the Japanese OKA series of sui- cide flying bombs and the information about those airframes gave me what was needed for a new design and building effort. The concept of manned suicide attacks against US Navy ships was first brought up in 1943 in the Japanese Navy, but the idea was not accepted until mid-1944, after the Japanese had undergone significant losses
of ships and aircraft. The OKA was de- signed, built, and the prototype tested by October, 1944.
The airframe had a 16-foot wing span and was 20 feet long, with a nose warhead con- taining 2645 pounds of explosive. It was powered by one rocket motor, and later fitted with two additional rocket motors for higher speeds. It was wood and metal construction, had a bubble canopy with good visibility, no landing gear, was very maneuverable, and had minimum instrumentation. It was carried into battle by a twin en-
gined bomber, the G4M Betty, and was to be released when within 25 to 50 miles from its target. The pilot would glide the OKA to the target area, ignite the rocket motor, and could achieve a speed of 600 mph in its final dive to the target.
There was to be another variation of the
OKA, fitted with a small jet engine for more maneuverability, but it did not get into serv- ice. When the US learned of these flying bombs, they called them “Baka Bombs,” and the term is still commonly used. The Japan- ese set up the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps; Kamikaze referring to the typhoon which frustrated the Mongolian invasion of Japan in 1280. The OKAs did a lot of dam- age to US Navy ships, but did not signifi- cantly change the course of the war. Electric power and sheet foam construc- tion are an easy way to model an unusual warbird. Some liberties were taken from an exact scale layout to insure a good handling model, but it at least looks like a “cartoon scale” of the actual OKA-11 and is quickly recognizable as the flying bomb of WW II.
MARCH 2013
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