Picture of the Day - Miscellaneous (1 Viewer)

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Would love to see this one day, it's at the aviation museum at Misawa, which has a complete, but beat up Ki-54.
The Ki-54 is now held by Tachihi Holdings (former Tachikawa Aircraft Co) in Tokyo. I hope it will be restored in the future.

Caption says "This will be displayed at Tachihi from November 2022"
Ki-54_at_Tachihi.jpg

Source: おかえりなさい!日本で唯一残る「立川 一式双発高等練習機(キ54)」が製造元の立飛で一般公開される(11/25〜28)ってことで一足先に見てきた | いいね!立川
 
A fuel cooler...was that a common item on WW2 aircraft? I have never heard of one before in that context.

About the fuel cooler.

IJN

As a matter of course, as the ceiling got higher, vapor-locking problem arose. At the beginning of the appearance of such a Zero fighter, because Japan's research on the outfitting was delayed, they prepared the fuel of low boiling point as an immediate countermeasure while two other methods for solution were studied - providing a fuel cooler or providing a fuel booster pump. As a result, the latter became popular as the most positive and reliable method.

Source: The Whole Picture of Aviation Technology (1953) by Jun Okamura


IJA

For the Ki-43-II Kai, a fuel cooler was equipped on the underside of the fuselage in order to prevent vapor-locking which was caused due to a rise of lubricating oil temperature. It is said that this cooler was diverted from the Type 93 heavy bomber.

Source: Japanese Fighters (1961) by Minoru Akimoto


The Ki-61 would have been on this IJA policy IMO.
 
Didn't Kawasaki restore a Ki-61 for their own company museum? Maybe they could help this guy out!
 
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