"Sir, why does the syllabus not have a section about how to return to base and land?'

At least the training manual is cheap. They can dump the whole chapter on 'landings'...

That looks like an interesting, if dark, project.

So in this story wetre the bombs not dropped. and therefore Operations Olympic and Coronet, for early 1946 are a go? and are jaapense plans Ketsu Go 6 and Ketsu Go 9 in effect? I read a book where a thunderstorm struck the test tower for the trinity device and spread radio active material for hundreds of yards when the charges went off asynchronously, delaying the bomb development by several months.

Scott

Not so much. The history is more an alternate career for my alternate Shinano. The Ohka22 program is pushed a bit sooner, allowing first batches to be prepared for action by late August. The atomic attacks are only delayed by weeks, so the Soviet declairation of war against Japan is something to worry about.
The instructor is a combat veteran, previously badly burned, which is how he is still around. Along with training pilots for the Ohkas, he expects to fly a modified N1K1(Rex) that has it's float removed and would be catapult launched as an expendable fighter screen.

So the Shinano would be a Hybrid? and would you have a rail launch system aboard for the Ohka 22's? And the instructor has a non float Kyofu (N1K2 George)< or still float bearing? One of the really heavilly armed picket shisp for the US Navy a tiny ship called a LCS, has been berthed at mare island (which is now a park rather than a naval refit facility any more), and on deck you have to squeeze around 40mm tubs. Most heavily armed whole inthe water for it's size in the navy at the time.Friends are helping with the restoration. You would need rockets to get bast the rings fo these and the Destroyers.

The Ohka22s would be launched from simplified standard catapults on the weather deck with a rocket booster supplement to insure useful airspeed. The rocket would be lanyard ignited to go off just at the thing clears the ramp.
The expendable fighters were de-floated N1K1 "Rex", only a few still available, but figured to be a more effective use of the type. They'd be launched from standard catapults off the flight deck. The ship would also carry some N1K2 "Georges" which would be expected to land back home if they survive. There would also be some A6M5s which could land back aboard if the ship survives.
The ship is very much a hybrid, with the forward configuration of a Yamato class, with flight decks flanking the superstructure and a full flight handling area aft long and wide enough for aircraft landings. I'll have proper drawings later on.

I'd love to read this. I've been collecting Japanese militaria since I was stationed on Okinawa back in the 80s. (I even have one of the uniforms like Capt. Usagi is wearing if you need any detail photos.)

This reminded me of an old Ohka picture I had drawn back in 1990 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8862058/ an idea for a story with a female pilot that I never got around to doing. Basic plot: she was an aviatrix before the war, her husband was also a pilot, killed in the war, she wanted to volunteer and was finally reluctantly accepted as a desperation measure near the end of the war.

A tandem "bakka bomb"?

In RL, a batch of two-seat glider trainers were actually built and flown. So, it isn't too much of a stretch to have a two-seat Ohka22. Especially as this would be a catapult launched version with a supplemental rocket boost, a bit trickier than the air-launched version, so could use some pilot training. Our Captain is an experianced pilot as well as having flown one of these just days earlier, so can coach the young cadets on how to manage the thing, then can fly it for a landing after the student has safely gotten into the air and shown proficency in handling it.

The operational version would be a bit different than the RL version, with a slightly larger wingspan to deal with the slow initial launch and sea-skimming cruise (the Campini-type jet was not very powerful/fast) though would have two or three solid rockets for either high-speed evasion sprints from defending USN fighters or for a fast final attack.