Nakajima Fugaku

The Nakajima Fugaku, whose name means Mount Fuji and which is also written G10N, was a planned Japanese ultra-long-range heavy bomber of the Second World War. It grew out of Project Z, a requirement for an intercontinental bomber that could take off from the Kuril Islands, bomb industrial targets in the United States and fly on to land in German-occupied France. The idea was driven by Chikuhei Nakajima, the head of the Nakajima Aircraft Company, and the design called for six piston engines, straight wings and contra-rotating propellers. Development began in January 1943 and a design and manufacturing facility was built at Mitaka in Tokyo, but the engine meant for it, a 36-cylinder Ha-54, was dropped as too complex. As Japan's war position worsened the project was cancelled in July 1944 and no prototype was ever built.