Nice little Japanese fighter. The Japanese turned out some good ones, probably ironically too many to mention, but as good as the allied fighters nonetheless - pilots weren't wonderful against the USA's ones they mostly encountered.

Everybody know the sad story of the Hayate of this photo?
After testing by US air force, the Hayate was owned by one collector. After that, the owner presented it to FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRY which used to be 'NAKAJIMA AIR PLANE". That time, the Hayate was full flying condition. However, one day FUJI H.I. gave up to maintain it and sold the Hayate to one museum. It was the start of this sad story. The new owner set it outside where rain came. The Hayate had become not to fly by being exhibited under this condition. After that, the new owner sold the Hayate to next owner. Then, the main bone of legs was cut for moving it to new museum. It means that the plane become the never flying. The sad Hayate has been exhibiting in Chiran museum in Kagoshima Japan now.
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~r_dom/haya_index.htm

Agreed! I've always loved Nakajima fighters the best, in particular love Nakajima's wing design from ki27 to ki84. It is a thing of beauty really. The wing on the ki43 is one of the most attractive designs in aircraft history... IMO.

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!

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.

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.

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!

are there any original aircraft of this type left today?