what is it?
The Kawanishi H3K, also known as Navy Type 90-2 Flying Boat (九〇式二号飛行艇), was a Japanese biplane military flying boat from the interwar period. The H3K was a development of the Short S.8/8 Rangoon. The first of the H3Ks was built by Short Brothers and the remaining four by Kawanishi in Japan.
How to recognise it: 3 piston engines with propellers · 31.1 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 96 years ago, in 1930.
- Top speed is 1.7× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 31.1 m: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
- Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1930-10-10
- introduced
- 1930
- retired
- 1936
- status
- retired
- number built
- 5
- role
- maritime patrol flying boat
- makers
- Kawanishi Aircraft Company
- engines
- 3× Rolls-Royce Buzzard
- length
- 22.6 m
- wingspan
- 31.1 m
- height
- 8.8 m
- max take-off weight
- 15 t
- top speed
- 226 km/h
- cruise speed
- 169 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 4,040 m
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1405769, Wikipedia: Kawanishi H3K (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.