Appendix 2

        Glossary of Naval Aviation Terms

Information for this appendix was drawn from the following sources: Hata and Izawa, Japanese Naval Aces, xiii–xiv; Lundstrom, First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat, 183–86; and consultation with Osamu Tagaya.

AIRCRAFT

Kansen (Kanjō sentōki):

Carrier fighter. Japanese romanized symbol: fc.

Kanbaku (Kanjō bakugekki):

Carrier bomber (usually meaning a dive bomber). Japanese romanized symbol: fb.

Kankō (Kanjō kōgekki):

Carrier attack bomber (sometimes employed as a torpedo bomber, sometimes as a horizontal attack aircraft). Japanese romanized symbol: fo.

Hikōtei:

Flying boat

Suitei (suijō teisatsuki):

Reconnaissance seaplane. Japanese romanized symbol: fsr.

Rikkō (rikujō kōgekki):

Medium land-based bomber. Japanese romanized symbol: f1o.

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATIONS

(See also app. 3 and app. 5.)

Kōkū kantai:

Air fleet (sea- or land-based)

Kōkū sentai:

Carrier division or land-based air flotilla

Kōkūtai:

In the broadest terms, this could comprise both a flight element and a base element of a land-based air group. In terms of the flight element, it was generally composed of eighteen to twenty-seven aircraft (sometimes more) and took the name of the air base where it was originally formed. It could be either homogenous or composed of different types of aircraft.

Hikōtai:

A carrier flight echelon or the flight echelon of a land-based kōkūtai

Hikō buntai:

The smallest administrative unit of aviation personnel (as opposed to operational/tactical formations of aircraft)

OPERATIONAL/TACTICAL FORMATIONS

Hikōkitai:

A carrier aircraft echelon that took the name of the carrier on which it was embarked (and that was as much a part of the carrier’s complement as any of the crew) or the flight echelon of a land-based kōkūtai that took the name of the air base on which it was located

Daitai:

Eighteen to twenty-seven aircraft

Chūtai:

Nine aircraft

Shōtai:

Three aircraft

AVIATION PERSONNEL

Fukuchō:

Executive officer; second in command of a ship or an air group

Hikōchō:

Air officer in charge of flight operations on a carrier or with a land-based kōkūtai. His was essentially a desk position, and he did not normally fly with his unit in combat.

Hikō buntaichō:

Sometimes called a buntaichō. Leader of a chūtai of around nine aircraft. Though buntai really has no appropriate English translation, for lack of any other accurate English term buntaichō has sometimes been translated as “division leader.”

Hikōtaichō:

Air group leader; the senior officer of an air group in combat

Seibichō:

Maintenance officer of either a land-based kōkūtai or a carrier-based hikōkitai

Shirei:

Commander of a kōkūtai; the equivalent of the kanchō (captain) of a ship. Usually an aviator of some experience. As a rule he did not fly with the air group in combat.