Kiro Honjo

Kiro Honjo (本庄 季郎, Honjō Kirō) (1901–1990) was a Japanese aircraft designer who worked for Mitsubishi and designed aircraft used in World War II such as the Mitsubishi G3M (Nell) and the Mitsubishi G4M (Betty).[1]

During the American occupation of Japan following the end of World War II, Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi, were banned from producing aircraft. For this reason, Honjo began work on non-aircraft products for civilian use.[2] For example, he designed the Mitsubishi “Cross” bicycle (jujigo), which was made of surplus duralumin left over from wartime aircraft production.[2] Honjo also designed the winning glider used by Oka Ryoki in 1977 in the first Japan International Birdman Rally.[2] On April 21, 1990, Honjo died at the age of 88 from prostate cancer.

He was portrayed in the 2013 Japanese animated movie The Wind Rises as a colleague of the designer of the Zero fighter, Jiro Horikoshi, going back to their days at Tokyo Imperial University. In reality, however, Honjo was senior to Horikoshi.[2]