- Takeo Doi (aircraft designer)
nihongo|Takeo Doi|土井 武夫|Doi Takeo|extra=
31 October 1904 -24 December 1996 was aJapan ese aircraft designer. He designed manyWorld War II fighter aircraft used by theImperial Japanese Army Air Force . His most important work was the nihongo|"Army Type 3 Fighter"|三式戦闘機|Sanshiki sentoki, akaKawasaki Ki-61 nihongo|"Hien"|飛燕|Hi-en ("flying swallow") or "Tony". Also he was one of the chief designers of theNihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC) YS-11.Biography
Takeo Doi was born in Yamagata city,
Yamagata prefecture , Japan in 1904. He graduated from the Yamagata Higher School in 1924, and Department ofAeronautics , Faculty ofEngineering , Tokyo Imperial University in 1927.Jiro Horikoshi andHidemasa Kimura , who designed theMitsubishi A6M "Zero fighter" and the "Koken" (Tokyo Imperial University Aeronautical Research Institute) Long-range Research-plane, respectively, were his classmates at the department in the university.In 1927, he started his career in Aircraft Department of Kawasaki Dockyard Company Limited (
Kobe , Japan), which later became Kawasaki Aircraft Company Limited in 1937. These are the predecessors of presentKawasaki Heavy Industries Aerospace Company reorganized in 1969. [ [http://www.khi.co.jp/overview/history_e.html History KHI] ] At that time, Dr. Richard Vogt was also working for the Kawasaki Dockyard Company Limited,Kobe (1923 - 1933). The company invited Vogt from Germany as a technical advisor to teach its engineers in the construction techniques ofDornier aircraft which Kawasaki was building under license. As a chief designer, Vogt trained new-face engineer Doi to be his successor. They worked jointly on several aircraft projects, including the (KDA-5 Army Type 92 biplane fighter, KDA-2 Army Type 88 reconnaissance biplane, KDA-3 single-seat fighter, and KDA-5 Army Type 92-I biplane fighter). [ [http://users.skynet.be/Emmanuel.Gustin/faq/jap_mil.txt Liste der in Japan von Richard Vogt entworfenen Flugzeuge auf users.skynet.be] ]During this period, Doi was dispatched to
Europe , where he worked for one and a half years. In Europe, he studied the art of aircraft engineering in the field of airplane industry. When Doi was in theUnited Kingdom , he paid attention to the technology ofGeorge Dowty , founder of Dowty Aviation. As Dowty's technology in aviationhydraulic system s was state-of-the-art and met the requirement of the Japanese military, Doi chose his product as thelanding gear of Type 92-I biplane fighter. This decision helped Dowty to develop his company, Dowty Aviation, and became a milestone for the expansion of the Dowty Equipment group thereafter. By strange coincidence,Dowty Rotol , descendant of the company, was the supplier ofNAMC YS-11 propeller .After Vogt returned to Germany, Doi became the key person in the design bureau of Kawasaki Aircraft until the company ceased operations at the end of
World War II His most important and outstanding work was the design of Army Type 3 FighterKawasaki Ki-61 "Hien". Ki-61 "Hien" demonstrated surprising performance that surpassed the famousMitsubishi A6M Zero,World War II fighter equipped by theImperial Japanese Navy Air Service . A total of 3,159 Ki-61 "Hien" and its variants were built. Fact|date=September 2008As mentioned above, designer of A6M Zero wasJiro Horikoshi , a classmate of Doi at university.After WWII, Doi was forced to interrupt work on aircraft design until the
Treaty of San Francisco came into force in 1952. During this period, he worked as a day laborer, while continuing to have faith that he would eventually return to aviation field. He continued to study the latest technology with Kimura who was fired the professor ofUniversity of Tokyo . [ [http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?osu1104324814 Swords into plowshares: Civilian application of wartime military technology in modern Japan, 1945-1964 (PDF)] ] Kimura was Doi's best friend. When the treaty lifted the ban on designing and operating aircraft, Doi returned to his original work. In 1956 theMinistry of International Trade and Industry of Japan announced a domestic production plan of middle-sized commercial aircraft, i.e. the YS-11. The consortium of companies, theNihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), was established. NAMC includedMitsubishi Heavy Industries , andFuji Heavy Industries , Shinmeiwa Manufacturing,Japan Aircraft ,Showa Aircraft , andKawasaki Heavy Industries (Kawasaki Aircraft). Doi was nominated the chief designer of equipment team.Doi assumed the professor to
Meijo University after he retired Kawasaki Heavy Industries. He also serve on a councilor of the Japan Society for Aeronautical Science, a trustee of Japan Aeronautic Association, and an advisor emeritus of Kawasaki Heavy Industries.Details of his philosophy on aircraft design were written in his memoirs, regarding the designing policy, developmental history of the aviation technology, and his friends, published in Japan in 1989.
Aircraft of his design
*
Kawasaki Ki-10 (Army Type 95 Fighter)
*Kawasaki Ki-45 "Toryu" (Army Type 2 Two-seat Fighter)
*Kawasaki Ki-48 (Army Type 99 Bomber)
*Kawasaki Ki-56 (Army Type 1 Transport Aircraft)
*Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien" (Army Type 3 Fighter)
*Kawasaki Ki-100 (Army Type 5 Fighter)
*NAMC YS-11
*Kawasaki P-2J (customizedLockheed P-2 Neptune ,anti-submarine warfare aircraft)
* and moreWritings
* 航空機設計50年の回想 ("Fifty Years Recollections on Aircraft Design") by Takeo Doi (Kantosha, October 1989), ISBN 978-4873570143
* 軍用機開発物語 ("Story of Warplane Development") by Takeo Doi (Kojinsha, August 2007), ISBN 978-4769823346References
External links
* [http://www.khi.co.jp/index_e.html Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.]
* [http://www.khi.co.jp/aero/index_e.html Kawasaki Aerospace Division]
* [http://www.aviastar.org/air/japan/a_kawasaki.html Kawasaki Aircraft]
* [http://www.aero.or.jp/web-koku-to-bunka/sakaidraftpart1.html "Fifth Alumni of Department of Aeronautics, Tokyo Imperial University (Part 1)"in Airforum] (in Japanese)
* [http://www.aero.or.jp/web-koku-to-bunka/part2sakaidraft.html "Fifth Alumni of Department of Aeronautics, Tokyo Imperial University (Part 2)"in Airforum] (in Japanese)
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