World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe E9W submarine-borne reconnaissance seaplanes were the first aircraft designed and built by Watanabe Steel Foundry (Watanabe would spin off its aircraft manufacturing branch as Kyushu Hikoki K. K. in 1943, although that would be after E9W production had ceased). The first of the three prototype aircraft took flight in Feb 1935. They entered service in 1938 as the Navy Type 96 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane. Designed to be stowed aboard J-3 Type submarines, they could be assembled for flight in 2 minutes and 30 seconds and be disassembled in 1 minute and 30 seconds. The last of the 32 production examples built was delivered in 1940, by which time the E9W design was being superseded by another design by Yokosuka, though they would remain in active service until Jul 1942. Watanabe especially built a small number of E9W for Thailand for use aboard sloops. The Allies code name for the E9W aircraft was "Slim".

E9W Timeline

SPECIFICATIONS

E9W1

Machinery	One Hitachi Tempu II radial engine rated at 300hp
Armament	1x7.7mm machine gun
Crew	2
Span	9.91 m
Length	8.00 m
Height	3.71 m
Wing Area	23.51 m²
Weight, Empty	882 kg
Weight, Maximum	1,253 kg
Speed, Maximum	232 km/h
Speed, Cruising	148 km/h
Service Ceiling	6,740 m
Range, Normal	731 km

Photographs