Japanese fighters training Aircrafts

gekho · Aug 25, 2011

Best of all Japanese fighters available in quantity during the last year of the war, the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (gale) not only possessed a reasonable performance but (unusual among Japanese aircraft) carried a powerful armament capable of knocking down the heavily armed and armoured American bombers. Not flown in prototype form until April 1943, the Ki-84 met with immediate approval by Japanese army air force pilots, but was subjected to lengthy service trials which undoubtedly delayed its introduction to combat operations. Production got under way at Nakajima's Ota plant in April 1944, pre-production aircraft having equipped the 22nd Sentai in China the previous month. Immediately afterwards 10 sentais of the Ki-84-I, codenamed 'Frank' by the Allies, were deployed in the Philippines to confront the advancing American forces. In an effort to accelerate production of the excellent new fighter, Nakajima opened up a new line at its Otsonomiya plant, and as Boeing B-29 raids began to take their toll of Japanese cities a new 'bomber destroyer', the Ki-84-Ic, was produced with an armament of two nosemounted 20mm cannon and two wing-mounted 30mm cannon. Some measure of the importance attached to the Ki-84 may be judged by the fact that in the last 17 months of war 3,382 aircraft were completed, this despite the tremendous havoc wrought by the B- 29 raids and the fact that, owing to such damage at Musashi, Nakajima's engine plant had to be transferred elsewhere.

gekho · Aug 25, 2011

The Kawasaki Ki-61-II with the company's Ha-140 engine was seen as an interim high-altitude interceptor to tackle the USAF's Boeing B-29s at their cruising altitude of some 9000m. However, development of the Ha-140 as a reliable powerplant was terminated finally when the Akashi factory where the engine was built was destroyed during an air raid. With the requirement becoming daily more urgent, Kawasaki was instructed to convert the 275 Ki-61-II airframes gathering dust in the Kagamigahara factory with alternative powerplant. No other similar engine was available and adaptation of the slender fuselage of the Ki-61 to allow installation of a large-diameter radial engine at first appeared impractical. However, Kawasaki's design team converted three airframes to serve as prototypes, installing a Mitsubishi Ha-112-II engine which had the same power output as the unreliable Ha-140. When the first of these was flown, on 1 February 1945, Kawasaki discovered that it had a first class fighter, one that some commentators have described as Japan's premier fighter aircraft of the Pacific war. By the end of May 1945 all of the remaining 272 Ki-61 airframes had been converted to the new configuration, entering service as the Army Type 5 Fighter Model 1A, which was identified by the company as the Kawasaki Ki-100-Ia.

With the Ki-100 proving such a success, it was decided to initiate production of this aircraft, the resulting Ki-100-Ib differing only by having the cutdown rear fuselage and all-round-view canopy that had been designed for the proposed Ki-61-III. A total of 99 of this version was built before production was brought to an end by the growing weight of USAAF air attacks. A more effective version had been planned, to be powered by the Mitsubishi Ha-112- Ilru engine which incorporated a turbocharger to improve high-altitude performance, but only three of these Ki-100-II prototypes had been built and flown by the end of the war.

Gnomey · Aug 25, 2011

Good stuff!

Wayne Little · Aug 26, 2011

Excellent, the Ki-100's are from the 5th Sentai, denoted by the stylized V

gekho · Aug 30, 2011

The famous Mitsubishi A6M, popularly known as the 'Zero', was the first carrierborne fighter in the world capable of outperforming any contemporary land-based fighter it was likely to confront. Because of inept Allied intelligence it was able to achieve immediate air superiority over the East Indies and South East Asia from the day Japan entered the war. Designed under the leadership of Jiro Honkoshi in 1937 as a replacement for the neat but obsolescent A5M, the prototype A6M1 was first flown on 1 April 1939 with a 582kW Mitsubishi Zuisei 13 radial; production A6M2 fighters with two wing-mounted 20mm guns and two nose-mounted 7.7mm guns were fitted with the 708kW Nakajima Sakae 12 radial, and it was with this version that the Japanese navy escorted the raiding force sent against Pearl Harbor, and gained air superiority over Malaya, the Philippines and Burma. In the spring of 1942 the A6M3 with two-stage supercharged Sakae 21 entered service, later aircraft having their folding wing tips removed. The Battle of Midway represented the Zero's combat zenith; thereafter the agile Japanese fighter found itself ever more outclassed by the American F6F Hellcat and P-38 Lightning. To counter the new American fighters the A6M5 was rushed to front-line units; this version, with Sakae 21 engine and improved exhaust system, possessed a top speed of 565km/h, more A6M5s (and subvariants) being produced than any other Japanese aircraft. It was five A6M5s of the Shikishima kamikaze unit that sank the carrier St Lo and damaged three others on 25 October 1944. Other versions were the A6M6 with water-methanol boosted Sakae 31 engine and the A6M7 fighter/dive-bomber. Total production of all A6Ms was 10,937. (The reporting name'Zeke' was given to the A6M, and 'Rufe' to a float version, the A6M2-N.)

gekho · Aug 30, 2011

More pics

gekho · Sep 1, 2011

The Nakajima A6M2-N, known to the Allies as the "Rufe", was merely the seaplane version of the carrier-based Mitsubishi A6M Reisen fighter, the famous Zero. The Japanese Navy saw the need for this type of combat aircraft in 1940. What was required was a single-seat fighter that could be used primarily in military installations on small Pacific islands, where it was impossible to build landing fields. The design was entrusted to Nakajima, which was already building Zeros along with the Mitsubishi company. The new plane was almost identical in structure and configuration with the Zero, except for the central and side floats and some minor structural changes. And its performance was not greatly inferior to that of the Zero. A total of 327 aircraft were built between 1941 and 1943. They were in service until the end of the war.

Wayne Little · Sep 2, 2011

gekho · Sep 4, 2011

The Mitsubishi J2M Raiden was designed by the same team that had designed the famous A6M Zero, though the Raiden was not as successful as its predecessor. The emphasis on the design was for a quick-response interceptor, and the requirements for the aircraft specified that it to climb to 19,685 feet (6000 meters) in about five minutes, and have a speed of 373 mph at that altitude. The high performance requirement meant that a powerful engine was essential, and the large-diameter engine that was chosen resulted in an interesting placement of the engine somewhat farther back in the fuselage. This allowed the front part of the nose to be more tapered to reduce drag, though it required the use of an extension shaft between the engine and the reduction gear. The first prototype flew on March 20, 1942, and after some modifications it went into production in October of 1942. Subsequent teething problems meant that the Raiden would not go into service until December of 1943, and by then the model version was the J2M3. Engine changes, turbochargers, and superchargers were tried on different models, though reliability with the aircraft continued to be a problem. The Raiden was used until the end of the war, gaining notable success against Allied bombers in the defense of the Japanese home islands.