The Nakajima C6N Saiun (彩雲, "Iridescent Cloud") is a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in World War II.

The C6N originated from a 1942 Imperial Japanese Navy specification for a carrier-based reconnaissance plane with a top speed of 350 knots (650 km/h) at 6,000 m and range of 2,500 nautical miles (4,960 km).

[1] Nakajima's initial proposal, designated N-50, was for a craft with two 1,000 hp (750 kW) engines housed in tandem in the fuselage, driving two propellers mounted on the wings.

[2] Like Nakajima's earlier B6N Tenzan torpedo bomber, the vertical stabilizer was angled slightly forward to enable tighter packing on aircraft carrier decks.

[3] Performance of the Homare engine was disappointing, especially its power at altitude,[3] and a series of 18 further prototypes and pre-production aircraft were built before the Saiun was finally ordered into production in February 1944.