SEIRAN
The Aichi M6A Seiran (晴嵐, Clear Sky Storm) is a submarine-launched attack floatplane designed and produced by the Japanese aircraft manufacturer Aichi Kokuki KK. It was operated solely by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. The M6A is the only floatplane to have been designed primarily to perform offensive missions.
The M6A was developed during the early 1940s to be the airborne component of the IJN's envisioned fleet of submarine aircraft carriers, specifically the I-400 class submarine. It was envisioned that submarine-launched M6As would conduct surprise aerial attacks against various Allied targets, including the Panama Canal, American aircraft carriers operating at Ulithi Atoll, and coastal cities on the continental United States. Work on the M6A commenced after it proved untenable to adapt the existing Yokosuka D4Y dive bomber to perform the mission; the aircraft's design, such as its folding wing and foldable tail unit, was shaped by the limited dimensions of the I-400's cylindrical-shaped hangar. The need for a speedy launch process, which was aided by a catapult, also dictated the design of the undercarriage and the atypical technique for starting the aircraft's Aichi AE1P Atsuta 30 V12 engine.
The first prototype M6A was completed in October 1943 and quantity production of the type was authorised in early 1944. In addition to the standard submarine-based M6A, a land-based trainer variant was also evaluated. Production numbers were curtailed in line with cutbacks to the I-400 programme, of which only two operational submarines were completed; the manufacturing effort was also hampered by the 1944 Tōnankai earthquake as well as by American strategic bombing striking Aichi's production facility. While the M6A and the 1st Submarine Flotilla both attained operational status during early 1945, the Surrender of Japan occurred before the first mission, which planned to conduct kamikaze attacks upon American forces at Uthili, was completed. Accordingly, the M6A did not ever perform the missions that it was intended to perform. A single example has been preserved on static display at the Smithsonian Institution.
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