Nakajima L2D

The Nakajima L2D, built alongside the Showa L2D, was a license-built version of the Douglas DC-3 and the most important Japanese transport of World War II, given the Allied code name Tabby. After licence production of the DC-2 from 1935, Nakajima bought the DC-3 licence rights for 90,000 dollars in February 1938. Its prototype flew in October 1939 with Pratt and Whitney radial engines and the type entered production in 1940 as the L2D1, after which Japanese engineers adapted the design to Mitsubishi Kinsei engines, with wood replacing metal in less critical structural areas because of material shortages. By 1942 Nakajima had built 71 L2D2 Navy Type 0 Transports, including the prototype, before turning to its own combat aircraft, and Showa built a further 416. Captured examples flew with the Royal Air Force, Indonesian nationalists and the French in Indochina after the war.