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I Know the complete story of this aircraft, my father was there the day of the capture. I HAVE the pilots Aviation watch and money from Korea. Spools of war
I Know the complete story of this aircraft, my father was there the day of the capture. I HAVE the pilots Aviation watch and money from Korea. Spools of war
There was only one captured aircraft and that was painted in Marine colors. I have interest in because my ownership of the Aviation watch, as for the other aircraft that was flown when the airfield was taken, (not captured) The self destructed was due to ball bearings, and the excessive heat that the engine because they ran too hot and the bearing was inferior material. If you have any details of the pilot of the captured KI-61 and the squadron I would be grateful. P.S you read brief information about this aircraft before, but not the detailed incident as you now know now.Hello Steven Tullius,
This particular capture has actually been documented in a few places.
This is not the first time I have heard about this particular aircraft.
Perhaps if we do a little bit of digging, we can find a few more specifics.
Do note though that this was not the only Ki 61 that was at Yontan, so there might be a little bit of confusion between aircraft especially after they have been repainted after capture.
Your particular aircraft was obviously airworthy because it was flown in.
At least one of the other aircraft (I believe it started off missing its landing gear fairings) was repaired and then test flown about three times before its engine showed signs that it was self destructing.
I believe the second photograph in this link might be of the aircraft being described here.
Do note that the photograph has been reversed (Intake is on the wrong side as is the Pitot Tube).
Ki 61 Odd Paint
- Ivan.
Long ago I found a book mentioning the problems with the Ha-40 bearings and posted two comments in a very old thread Japanese Piston Engines and Japanese Piston Engines. Alas I long ago returned the book to a library but it might have some interesting information and is also mentioned in Inverted V engine vs. V engine. It does seem clear that the heat treatment of the crankshaft pin of the Ha-40 was inferior to that of the equivalent part in a German DB601.Hello Steven Tullius,
Thank you for the insight as to why the engines were so prone to failures. Was this a quality control problem as with many of the other Japanese engines at this stage of the war or was this something peculiar about the manufacturing of this particular engine?
....snip...
Long ago I found a book mentioning the problems with the Ha-40 bearings and posted two comments in a very old thread Japanese Piston Engines and Japanese Piston Engines. Alas I long ago returned the book to a library but it might have some interesting information and is also mentioned in Inverted V engine vs. V engine. It does seem clear that the heat treatment of the crankshaft pin of the Ha-40 was inferior to that of the equivalent part in a German DB601.