Tachikawa KKY
The Tachikawa KKY, full name Tachikawa Army Small and Light Ambulance Aircraft was designed to rescue injured or sick patients from places without established airfields. Following two earlier prototypes, 21 production examples were built between 1936 and 1940 and served in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Design and development The Japanese Army placed an order for a small ambulance aircraft, capable of using rough airstrips and holding two stretcher cases and a medical attendant, in August 1932 with what was then the Aeroplane Factory of Ishikawajima Shipbuilding Company. Though the prototype was completed in December 1933, its development was protracted and it was not ready for production until 1936. By then the Ishikawajima concern had become the Tachikawa Aeroplane Co. It was a single bay cabin biplane with wings attached to the upper and lower longerons and braced on each side with near-parallel interplane struts. The wings had wooden structures and were fabric-covered. The KKY was powered by a Cirrus Hermes IV four cylinder air-cooled, inverted inline engine and the later KKY-2 by a Gasuden Jimpu seven cylinder radial engine. The fuselage had a welded steel tube structure, flat-sided behind the engine, with a windowed cabin that included the pilot's seat