Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (Judy)

The Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (彗星, "Comet"), codenamed "Judy" by the Allies, was designed at the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal and first flew in November 1940 (December 1940 in some English-language sources). It was accepted as a dive bomber in March 1943 as the successor to the D3A Val.

The D4Y was designed for speed, reaching 552 km/h with its Aichi AE1A Atsuta engine (a licensed copy of the Daimler-Benz DB 601), making it one of the fastest dive bombers of the war. It carried a 500 kg bomb internally. The D4Y1 used an inline liquid-cooled engine, while the D4Y3 switched to the Mitsubishi Kinsei radial engine due to Atsuta reliability problems.

The Suisei participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and was used extensively during the Philippines campaign. In the war's final stages, many were converted to D4Y4 kamikaze configuration. On October 24, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a single land-based Suisei bombed the light carrier USS Princeton, which was lost to the resulting fires. (The October 15, 1944 sortie of Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima, sometimes described as a forerunner of the kamikaze, was flown in a G4M bomber, not a Suisei.) Total production reached 2,253 aircraft according to Japanese sources (2,038 in some English-language sources), manufactured by Aichi under Yokosuka design.