Video: restored Ki-43 flying

[Jenisch]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JYo-Un6bSk

Beautiful bird! Unfornately the engine is original. Anyone has details of this aircraft, like which model it is?

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Very interesting Jenisch! It is a Pratt Whitney but not sure what model of engine.

 

[Jenisch]

Japanese warbirds are so interesting. We all wish more of them could have been around. One very nice and little know IJA plane was the Ki-10 biplane, which was was one of the top machines of it's type. Shame that I think no one is know to exist. =/

 

[fubar57]

Read on another site it's a P&W-1830. I noticed that the wheel wells were silver and not metallic blue(or green?). Was the metallic just by certain manufacturers? And they might want to have a word with the decal makers. On the right wing root, at the 2:30 mark, the decal reads "NO ENTR" Fantastic to see another warbird flying. Great video Jenisch.

Geo

 

[A4K]

Where is this Jenisch? Was only aware of the Ki-43-I in New Zealand. This model (I presume) is a -II with the 3 bladed prop.

 

[Shinpachi]

I think that video comes from
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf1_7UbMdBA.
Narrator says it a Ki-43 IIIa(ko) with P&W R-1830 engine.

 

[Torch]

She's a beaut,great to see it fly.

 

[proton45]

Nice...thanks for the post

 

[Lucke.stz]

Nice Video !

 

[Gnomey]

Cool video! Thanks for sharing.

 

[ColesAircraft]

Read on another site it's a P&W-1830. I noticed that the wheel wells were silver and not metallic blue(or green?). Was the metallic just by certain manufacturers? And they might want to have a word with the decal makers. On the right wing root, at the 2:30 mark, the decal reads "NO ENTR" Fantastic to see another warbird flying. Great video Jenisch.

Geo

The video is of a reproduction of a Ki-43 III (w/ separate exhaust stacks) in the colors of the 54th Sentai / 2nd Chutai. This unit served in the Sakhalin area at the time of the Soviet invasion in August 1945, though most of its aircraft had by then been sent to the Philippines (and lost there). Three of these Ki-43 reproductions have so far been built.

I did a commissioned painting of one nearly identical aircraft for the Wings Museum in Surrey, UK - as they recovered several Ki-43s of the 54th back in 2006:

This is a Ki-43 II, however.

Regarding the blue/green paint: That so-called "Aotake" primer was a clear coat applied (and tinted blue/green to be visible) as a corrosion preventative agent much like zinc chromate was applied by US manufacturers. While Japanese manufacturers used their own various colors of paint in their aircraft production (some according to military specifications, but that didn't include interior colors), the Aotake primer was mandated and used universally by different companies for the interiors of aircraft. Some companies, like Mitsubishi, over-painted crew areas with a mat green or other colors. To this day, Japanese aircraft languishing on Pacific islands are overall much better preserved than Allied aircraft exposed to the same elements - thanks to Aotake.

Should the Ki-43 in the video have Aotake wheel wells? Hard to say. By late war many aircraft were being built without paint or primer, and the pieces I have from real Ki-43s reveal a few areas where Aotake was applied - but not many.


Ron Cole

Cole's Aircraft Website:index

 

[A4K]

Great info Ron, and great art work!

 

[fubar57]

Thank you for the reply Ron and a very nice painting.

Geo

 

[Lucky13]

Great video and great info!
Would be nice to see more Japanese machine about...