Mitsubishi G4M

The Mitsubishi G4M, the Navy Type 1 attack bomber that the Allies called Betty, was a twin-engine land-based medium bomber flown by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. Built as the successor to the G3M, it had excellent range and speed but a flimsy structure with no crew armour or self-sealing fuel tanks, so Allied pilots nicknamed it the Flying Lighter. Its prototype flew on 23 October 1939 and the first production aircraft was completed in April 1941. It was the most widely produced Japanese bomber of the war, 2,435 in all, took part in sinking Prince of Wales and Repulse, and later carried the Ohka suicide weapon. A G4M1 carrying Admiral Yamamoto was shot down in 1943.