In 1935, the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered Mitsubishi and Nakajima to build a prototype aircraft called the Ju-Shi Carrier Attack Aircraft.

The Navy’s requirements were far more stringent than those of the Type 96 carrier-based attack aircraft, which had just been adopted at the time, and Nakajima, which received the request to build a prototype, had been defeated by Mitsubishi in competitions for all major naval aircraft models, so it put its entire company on the line and took on the development.

The Type 97 carrier-based attack aircraft, incorporating many innovative features, was the first low-wing monoplane carrier-based attack aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy with an all-metal monocoque structure. It adopted revolutionary hydraulic retractable main landing gear, and the fuselage width was narrowest near the cockpit for a three-seater aircraft.
The adoption of upward-folding main wings shortened the overall width, allowing for a smaller storage space inside the aircraft carrier. The propeller was an all-metal two-stage variable-pitch three-blade propeller, which efficiently exerted engine power according to each situation, whether it was takeoff, climbing, cruising, or at high speed, and performance was greatly improved.

Features

• Typical Hasegawa attention to detail all over this kit.
• Fuselage panels, cockpit interior and engine detail are particularly well done.
• Flaps can be posed in raised or lowered positions.
• The kits’ wings can be assembled either folded or extended.
• One-piece canopy.
• Tires molded with flattened sides.
• Comes with 800kg deck piercing bombs and markings for two different aircraft in the first wave of the attack against Pearl Harbor.
• Shigeo Koike box art.