Offered by Over The Blue Horizon and recently obtained in Tokyo is a clean, long out-of-print Maru Mechanic #23 on the Yokosuka P1Y Ginga, better known in the West as the FRANCES.

This vintage (1970) 80-page, 7.5 x 10.25 inch softcover has the normal Maru Mechanic format – numerous exceptionally well-done detail drawings, b/w photographs, color profiles, and Japanese text – all with an emphasis on the mechanical aspects of the aircraft, and very useful to the aviation historian and the advanced military modeler. 

The Yokosuka P1Y GINGA (translated as GALAXY) was a twin-engine, land-based bomber developed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in World War II. It was the successor to the Mitsubishi G4M BETTY and given the Allied codename FRANCES. The P1Y was designed by the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal to demanding Imperial Japanese Navy specifications calling for speed matching the ZERO, range matching the G4M BETTY, a one-ton bomb load, and the ability to dive-bomb as well as carry torpedoes. As a result of the challenges trying to meet these very difficult requirements, the construction suffered from excess complexity, difficulty of manufacture, and poor serviceability. Problems with the Nakajima Homare engine led to its replacement by the Mitsubishi Kasei. The first flight was in August 1943, and Nakajima eventually manufactured 1,002 examples.  A night-fighter version, the P1Y2-S KYOKKO (AURORA) was equipped with radar and upward and forward-firing, 20 mm cannon. A total of 97 were produced by Kawanishi, but due to inadequate high-altitude performance against B-29s, many were converted back to GINGA bombers. 

Condition of the book is VERY GOOD bordering on LIKE NEW – tight, bright and exceptionally clean. 

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