@ Dulles, VA
August 2018
From a 2018 visit to the excellent Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. This unique aircraft is the Aichi M6A1 Seiran (“Clear Sky Storm”), designed specifically for the Imperial Japanese Navy to be launched from the I-400 class “Sen-Toku” submarines, essentially turning a submarine into an underwater aircraft carrier. The primary goal of the Seiran and the I-400 submarines was a surprise strike on the Panama Canal to disable the locks. Only 28 would be produced before the end of WWII. This sole-surviving Seiran was surrendered to an American occupation contingent by Lt. Kazuo Akatsuka of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who ferried it from Fukuyama to Yokosuka.
