About This File
FS2002/FS2004 Mitsubishi Ki-15 "Babs" kamikaze version. The Mitsubishi Ki-15 (Kyunana-shiki sireibu teisatsuki) was a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft and a light attack bomber of the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War. It began as a fast civilian mail plane. It was a single-engine, low-wing, cantilever monoplane with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage; it carried a crew of two. It served with both the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy (as the C5M). During World War II it was nicknamed "Babs" by the Allies. Kamikaze (Kamikaze-go, registration J-BAAI) was a Ki-15 aircraft, sponsored by the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. It became famous on April 9, 1937 as the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly from Japan to Europe. The flight from Tokyo to London took 51 hours, 17 minutes and 23 seconds and was piloted by Masaaki Iinuma (1912-1941), with Kenji Tsukagoshi (1900-1943) serving as navigator. By Kazunori Ito.