carpenoctem1689 said:
Both the Ki-84 and the Ki-100 were good aircraft and a match for fighters of the era that the british and americans could throw at them, but were simply not good enough as interceptors. The japanese seemed to have some defieciency when it came to making effective interceptors, in terms of armament (for the most part, though some aircraft were armed with 20mm and 30mm cannon) and armor. They all had good range which equaled loitre time for an interceptor, but they couldbt make enough of them, nor train enough pilots to fly them (they used trainers as kamikaze late in the war, and inexperienced pilots and even experienced ones, not to mention aircraft and fuel were burned off in these suicidal fights for there beliefs). Therefore high flying heavy bombers armed to the teeth with good armor to match, were pretty much out of reach to the JAAF and IJNAF. They were working on several projects near the end of the war, but they wouldnt have the pilots nor the fuel, but produciton was still pretty high in underground facilities, built into sides of the mountains. Just like the germans, they had perfectly good planes, but no pilots, fuel, and in the german case ball bearings to get the damn things up against our aircaft.
The USA was generally not able to send "high flying bombers" against Japan. The jet-stream was a new and relatively unknown phenomna back then. The B-29 was built for just such high altitude missions but when it came time to fly them, the jet-stream, which is very strong above that part of the world, made them extremely dangerous to fly. Planes would be blown off course and given the navigation of the time, get lost and have to ditch. As a result, extra fuel was loaded, making the average payload for such missions less than 4000 lbs, which kind of defeated the point. In the end the US decided to conduct a relatively low-altitude night bombing campaign against the Japanese.
The Japanese had a variety of planes capable of intercepting bombers at B-17 altitudes (20-25,000 feet). These included the "Frank" (Ki-84), "George" (N1K-2), "Jack" (J2M - 20mm and 37mm cannon), "Tojo" (Ki-44? - 20mm and 37mm cannon and a 40mm grenade launcher of sorts), and perhaps the "Nick" (Ki-43?) twin engine fighter. All had problems at high altitude however - the Japanese had difficutly with low-pressure fuel systems through the end of the war.
As for armor and armament - the Frank came armed with as much as 2 x 20mm and 2 x 30mm cannon, though there is no evidence the 30mm ever saw action (the Frank Ic and IIc were being held in Manchuria awaiting the "final battle for the Empire" - the US invasion of Japan). However the 4 x Ho-5 version definitely did see service. The Frank sported 13mm of pilot armor to the rear, as well as additional armor for the pilot from the sides. As far as I know, 13mm was the thickest plate on any signle engine fighter of the war. The George and late model Jacks also employed reasonable pilot armor. However, Japanese pilots were known to remove the armor because it was "cowardly".
The Japanese never had decent self-sealing fuel tanks, but self sealing fuel tanks were of little use vs. .50 class guns anyway. The could seal hits from .30 class guns, or fragments from HE rounds, but a direct hit from a .50 put a .5" entry hole and a 6" exit hole in a US self sealing tank (the best), far to big to seal. This is why the P-47N ustilized fuel cells rather than self sealing tanks. If a fuel cell got hit, it leaked but since you had 6 or so on each wing, the loss was minimal. So the key became preventing fires with nitrogent backfilling and CO2 extingishers.
Finally, I'd point out that the Japanes horded something like 20-25 thousand aircraft, mostly relatively late model planes, for the "final battle" which never occured. Many were stationed in Manchuria, while others were placed in caves designed to allow the planes to take off right out the cave mouth. Needless to say, the A-bomb convinced the Emperor to step in and surrender - so these planes never saw combat.
=S=
Lunatic