Plane: Nakajima B5N2 Kate
Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 5,024 lb / 8,378 lb / 9,039 lb
Wing Area: 405.8sq ft
Wing Loading: 12.3 lb/sq ft / 20.6 lb/sq ft / 22.3 lb/sq ft
Length: 33' 10"
Span: 50' 11"
Wing Aspect Ratio: 6.4
Engine: 1,000hp Nakajima NK1B Sakae 11 Radial
Flaps: 2 settings
Visibility:
Control Feel:
Stall Speed 1k (No Flaps/Full Flaps) 60mph / 50mph
Guns:
| type/ammo | ROF | Duration | WB Punch | Muzzle Velocity | Ammo/Gun | |
| No pilot-controlled guns | ||||||
| Otto: | 1x7.7mm Type 92 MG (tail) | 9.7/s | 69.6s | 1.2x.30cal/ping | 2,500ft/s | 679 |
Ordnance:
0: 1xTorpedo
1: 2x500lb bombs
2: 1x1,000lb bomb
3: 1x500lb bomb
Fuel Time/Percent: 65 seconds/percent
Power/weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 5.0 lb/hp / 8.4 lb/hp / 9.0 lb/hp
Corner Velocity: 195mph
Durability: Horrible
WEP time: No WEP
Accleleration:
| 1,000ft | 5,000ft | 10,000ft | 15,000ft | |
| Stall-200mph | 49s | 66s | 195mph max | 180mph max |
| 150mph-200mph | 33.6s | 38.7s | - | - |
| 200mph-250mph | - | - | - | - |
| 250mph-300mph | - | - | - | - |
Climb:
1k-5k: 92s
5k-10k: 128s
10k-15k: 150s
Zoom Climb:
1k 400mph:
1k 300mph: +2,200ft
Dive:
| Max Speed | After 30s | After 60s | |
| 15,000ft to 10,000ft | 330mph | 225mph | 200mph |
| 15,000ft to 5,000ft | - | - | - |
| 10,000ft to 5,000ft | 345mph | 235mph | 210mph |
| 10,000ft to 1,000ft | - | - | - |
| 5,000ft to 1,000ft | 345mph | 240mph | 220mph |
Max Speed
| 1,000ft | 5,000ft | |
| Climbing before levelling | 210mph | 210mph |
| Diving before levelling | 210mph | 210mph |
Turn Performance
| 300mph | 1,000ft | 5,000ft | 10,000ft | 15,000ft |
| One 360 | - | - | - | - |
| Two 360s | - | - | - | - |
| 250mph | ||||
| One 360 | 11.6s | 11.5s | 11.5s | 12.8s |
| Two 360s | 23.8s | 24.4s | 26.9s | 30.2s |
| Sustained | ||||
| No Flaps | 13.9s | 15.3s | 16.5s | 20.3s |
| Full Flaps | 14.1s | 15.1s | 16.3s | 20.5s |
| Best Flap | none | full | full | none |
| Speed/best | 105mph | 85mph | 80mph | 95mph |
Corner Speed and Radii (1,000ft):
Speed: 195mph
Radius: 277ft
Sustained Turn Speed: 100mph
Sustained Turn Radius: 324ft
Full Flaps Speed: 90mph
Full Flaps Radius: 296ft
| Corner Times | 1,000ft | 5,000ft | 10,000ft | 15,000ft |
| 180 degrees | 4.8s | 5.2s | 5.7s | 6.1s |
| 360 degrees | 9.7s | 10.3s | 11.4s | 12.4s |
Roll Rate:
150mph: 7.7s
200mph: 8.5s
250mph: 11.3s
300mph: 19.8s
350mph:
400mph:
Minimum Full-Flaps Full-Power Split-S altitude:
150mph: 800ft
200mph: 1,300ft
250mph: 1,700ft
300mph:
Hoof's Tips and Opinions:
The Nakajima B5N2, or Kate as the Allies called her, was the best torpedo bomber in the world before the war with America, and during the first year or so of the war. Rock solid stability, extremely low wing loading, and impressive ordnance load, including carrying the exceptional Japanese Torpedoes of the time all add up to an exceptional plane.
The Kate is a pleasure to take off and land with on a carrier. Like it's carrier-mate, the Val, the Kate has a 50mph stall speed, allowing her to have only a 20mph takeover speed while approaching a carrier. This of course is a tremendous help in landing. The low stall speed has another bonus, it allows an extremely slow speed for dropping the torpedo, the American torpedo bombers used inferior Torpedoes that had much narrower deployment parameters and the planes deploying them had much higher stall speeds requiring higher deployment speeds.
In addition to the traditional torpedo bombing role, the Kate hauls an impressive load for a carrier bomber of the time. She can carry a 1,000lb bomb, or a pair of 500lb bombs, and the Warbird's version comes standard with a Norden Deluxe Dead-Eye bombsight (the same found on WB's B17/B25/Ju88), with the same innards as the Otto Deluxe Aiming and Tracking Gun mounts (found on all the bombers). Thus this baby can drop a 1,000lb bomb from 25,000ft to within 30ft or less.
Unfortunately, the Kate is a bomber through and through. While the Val can fight quite well 1 vs 1 against the fighters of the early years of the war, the Kate cannot. Substantially slower, with a worse climb rate/diving performance/power loading, the only advantage she has is an extremely fast and tight turning ability. Like the Val, the Kate can turn with a Zero. Unfortunately there are no forward firing guns, so the Kate is practically defenseless, and is about the slowest ride in the game. Thus if there is *any* threat of attack, the Kate needs lots of escorting Zeros or Ki43s to keep it alive, and is extremely vulnerable to fire to boot (no self-sealing tanks or pilot armor).