Hybrid Aircraft

THIS post over at Borepatch's reminded me of the aircraft from the anime Sky Crawlers.  The Sanka Mk B.

The picture I obtained from HERE.

The Sanka appears to be based on the Japanese Kyushu J7W Shinden pictured below.

Kyushu J7W Shinden / Wikimedia Commons

The Shinden was originally designed with propeller propulsion, but the design was made so that it would be easy to convert to turbo jet propulsion, as better jet technology came into being.  Only two of the prototypes were built before the end of the war, but they were intended to be Japans answer to the B-29 Super Fortress, with 4 forward firing 30 mm canons.

The reason this plane sticks in my head, is the acrobatics they do in the movie during the dog fight sequences,  were both believable and beautiful.  Coupled with the planes own sleek lines, I'd love to be able to fly something like this myself.  There are several model companies that produce models of the Sanka you can build for yourself, and there are a few flight simulator programs that have mods written for them, so you too can fly the Sanka, if only in simulation.  I think I might look into that myself.  It might be the only way I could actually reasonably fly this beautiful plane for myself.