At the time of her commissioning, IJN Hiryu was the World’s fastest aircraft carrier with a top speed of 34.3 knots, about 63 km/h. This high speed was due to the design of her cruiser-type hull and its powerful 153,000 shp machinery.The reason that Hiryu had the command tower to port was due to the plans of using it coupled to her sister ship Soryu, in the so-called “flight deck in central rectangle theory”. This concept was also intended to be done with the Akagi and Kaga carriers, but the concept was totally unsuccessful.Hiryu could operate with one more aircraft than Soryu, having 57 operational and 16 in reserve, of similar types to those of the Soryu. It also had 3 lifts for aircrafts and had about 730 tons more fuel, that gave Hiryu 4,700 km more range than Soryu.
