|
|
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.
| MODEL | Ki-84 |
| CREW | 1 |
| ENGINE | 1 x Nakajima Ha-45, 1416kW |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 3890 kg | 8576 lb |
| Empty weight | 2660 kg | 5864 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 11.24 m | 36 ft 11 in |
| Length | 9.92 m | 32 ft 7 in |
| Height | 3.39 m | 11 ft 1 in |
| Wing area | 21 m2 | 226.04 sq ft |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Max. speed | 631 km/h | 392 mph |
| Ceiling | 10500 m | 34450 ft |
| Range w/max.fuel | 2168 km | 1347 miles |
| ARMAMENT | 2 x 20mm cannons, 2 x 12.7mm machine-guns, 2 x 250-kg bombs |
 | A three-view drawing (752 x 1111) |
| Mick Dunne, hotideas(@)hotmail.com, 23.11.2008 I agree with you Mike...the Japanese A/C designers were as good as any in the world! The Ki48 was a gem...great engine too (2,000hp out of a short stroke engine only slightly bigger than the Nakajima Sakae!!!) Only let down by dismal production standards at the 'wrong' end of the war! | | Mike Kaier, kaim(@)ymail.com, 18.09.2008 It's fascinating to see information about late-war Japanese aircraft; with all the setbacks they had during the war, as late as 1944 they were building competative aircraft like the KI-84; the Germans really had nothing on the Japanese. | | Ronald, toolkeeper123(@)adelphia.net, 18.09.2008 Ever since the Frank and Mustang first met in China the dogfights that ensued were reputed to be among the most ferocious of WW2!
The Ki 84 potentially had everything a balanced air superiority fighter needed except reliability. It was fast, far ranging, light on it's feet, fast climbing, armored and hard hitting, and in strong numbers. Only lacking high altitude performance to the degree of the USAAF or RAF. However it had the agility to turn inside all of them. It's like a Bf 109K or Yak-3 but with long range. Terminal dive was good at 495 mph. Initial climb was in the 4,000ft/min class and level speed was better than any mass produced fighter from Japan at 427 mph (with high octane fuel). But as the war was ending, factory quality was fading - even muzzle velocity of it's fast (850 rpm unsynchronized!) world beating 20mm cannons decreased. | | Mick Dunne, hotideas(@)hotmail.com, 29.12.2007 Yes! Rebuilt by Bud Mahurin in the USA and restored to full flying condition, it was 'repatriated' to Japan and is owned by a collector there who maintains it as a 'flyer'. Incidentally, this same aircraft, when filled up with some decent fuel and the engine 'plumbing' attended to, the plane reached 420 mph and easily outperformed the P51 and P47 in in climb and maneuverability! Imagine what the little sucker could have done with a decent propellor! | | simon, g1h9o7s3t(@)shaw.ca, 28.09.2007 are there any original aircraft of this type left today? |
|
Do you have any comments about this aircraft ?
|
| |
