Nakajima-Fokker ambulance aircraft

The two Nakajima-Fokker ambulance aircraft were Japanese Army medical conversions of Fokker Super Universal monoplanes that Nakajima built and engined. The Army became interested in air ambulances during the Manchurian Incident of 1931, after a publicly funded conversion of a Kawasaki-built Dornier Merkur. Two Nakajima-built Super Universals followed, the first in 1932 and the second six years later, each also paid for by public subscription. A long-time Army advocate of ambulance aircraft redesigned the six-passenger cabin to carry two stretcher patients and two seated patients plus a medical attendant or surgeon, with oxygen and intravenous feeding supplies. The structure and dimensions matched the American original, but Nakajima Jupiter and later Kotobuki radial engines replaced the Pratt and Whitney Wasp: the first ambulance had the Jupiter and the second the Kotobuki, whose extra power raised cruising speed by 27 percent while shortening range by 14 percent. The individual service histories of the two aircraft are not known.