When in mid-1935 Kawasaki, Mitsubishi and Nakajima were instructed by the Imperial Japanese Army to build competitive prototypes of advanced fighter aircraft, Nakajima responded with a single-seat monoplane fighter derived from the company's Type P.E., which it had started to develop as a private venture. Service trials proved, the Kawasaki Ki-28 to be fastest of the three contenders, but the Nakajima Ki- 27 was by far the most manoeuvrable and, on that basis, 10 pre-production examples were ordered for further service evaluation. Following further testing m late 1937 the type was ordered into production as the Army Type 97 Fighter Model A (Nakajima Ki-27a). Late production aircraft which introduced some refinements, including a further improved cockpit canopy, had the designation Ki-27b.

Nakajima could not have guessed that 3,399 aircraft would be built, by Nakajima (2,020) and Mansyu (1,379), before production came to a halt at the end of 1942, but the type's entry into service over northern China in March 1938 gave an immediate appreciation of its capability, the Ki-27s becoming masters of the airspace until confronted later by the faster Soviet Polikarpov I-16 fighters. At the beginning of the Pacific war the Ki-27s took part in the invasion of Burma, Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies and the Philippines. Allocated the Allied codename 'Nate' (initially 'Abdul' in the China- Burma-India theatre), the Ki-27 had considerable success against the Allies in the initial stages before more modern fighters became available. When this occurred they were transferred for air defence of the home islands, remaining deployed in this capacity until 1943 when they became used increasingly as advanced trainers. As with many Japanese aircraft, their final use was in a kamikaze role.

3-View

A three-view drawing (752 x 931)