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    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces
    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces
    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces
    Ebook211 pages1 hour

    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces

    By Nicholas Millman and Ronnie Olsthoorn

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    About this ebook

    The story of the elite Japanese Army Air force (JAAF) aces that flew the Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Swallow), and the Ki-100 Goshikisen in the Pacific Theatre of World War 2.

    The former, codenamed 'Tony' by the allies, was a technically excellent aircraft, possessing power, stability and a good rate of climb - differing radically from the usual Japanese philosophy of building light, ultra-manoeuvrable fighters. Its pilots soon realised, however, that the type was plagued by a number of dangerous mechanical issues. Then as the war moved relentlessly closer to Japan's doorstep, a desperate, expedient innovation to the Ki-61 airframe by fitting it with a radial instead of inline engine resulted in one of the finest fighters of World War 2 - the Ki-100.

    This book uses the latest findings to provide a gripping account of some of the most remarkable and hard-pressed fighter pilots of the war. It reveals how these men, unlike so many of their unfortunate late-war colleagues, could surprise Allied aircraft in high-performance fighters and claim successes in the face of enormous odds.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateNov 20, 2015
    ISBN9781780962979
    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces
    Author

    Nicholas Millman

    Nicholas Millman is one of Britain's leading researchers of Japanese military aviation. In addition to publishing articles in specialist journals, his own range of reference materials and supporting the research of other authors, he runs a website dedicated to the subject which attracts visitors from 175 countries. He is a member of Pacific Air War History Associates, an exclusive international group of authors and researchers working in this specialist field. Having spent much of his working life in the Far East he has an abiding interest in the history of military aviation in this part of the world, and first hand knowledge of the geography, languages and people.

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    • 4/5
      Another good study by Millman with particular emphasis on the machine's use in New Guinea and the Japanese home islands, where in the later theater the Ki-61's reliability issues could be somewhat mitigated.

    Book preview

    Ki-61 and Ki-100 Aces - Nicholas Millman

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    INTRODUCTION

    The Kawasaki Ki-61 ‘Hien’ (‘Swallow in Flight’ – Allied codename ‘Tony’) or Type 3 single-seat fighter was the only Japanese inline-engined (liquid-cooled) operational fighter to serve in World War 2. However, it was not the first inline-engined fighter to serve in the Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun Kokutai (the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force or IJAAF).

    The aircraft section of KK Kawasaki Zosensho, which began production in Kobe in 1919, had specialised in aircraft designs using imported German technology and licence-built inline-engines since 1926, when it commenced production of the Army Type 89 Heavy Bomber (Kawasaki-Dornier Do N). Licence rights to manufacture BMW water-cooled engines had been awarded to Japan, then an Allied nation, as part of German reparations following World War 1.

    In 1928 Kawasaki produced the experimental KDA-3 parasol wing fighter based on the Dornier Do H Falke and powered by a Hispano-Suiza 300 hp engine (for which Mitsubishi held the import and production rights), hoping to win an IJAAF contract in competition with Mitsubishi and Nakajima parasol designs. Despite rejection of the KDA-3 by the IJAAF in favour of the Nakajima design (which became the Type 91 fighter), Kawasaki persevered with the inline engine and, in 1930, its KDA-5 biplane fighter was accepted by the IJAAF as its Type 92 biplane fighter.

    A fast 199 mph biplane, the Type 92 was designed by Dr Richard Vogt, Kawasaki’s Chief Designer, and Takeo Doi, who would feature prominently in designing later Kawasaki fighters. The KDA-5 pioneered an all-metal construction, with very carefully finished alloy skin and fabric covering that was a hallmark of Kawasaki manufacture. The engine initially fitted was a Kawasaki licence-built version of the 500 hp BMW VI, but after 1933 a version of the BMW VII was used instead. The engine was capable of producing more cruising power at lower rpm, utilising a reduction gear to allow its maximum output to be increased to 750 hp.

    A total of 385 Type 92 aircraft were built for the IJAAF, seeing service in Manchuria and China from 1932 to 1935. Despite being faster and possessing a greater rate of climb than the Nakajima-built Type 91, the Type 92 was not popular with pilots, who found it unstable during takeoff and landing, or groundcrews, who found the engine difficult to access and maintain.

    In 1933, at the behest of the IJAAF, Kawasaki embarked on the design of the Ki-5 – a radical monoplane fighter intended to replace the Type 92. The Ki-5, which incorporated a fully spatted undercarriage and inverted gull wing, was powered by a Kawasaki-built 850 hp Ha-9-I engine enclosed in a streamlined cowling. This engine was an experimental design BMW IX that Kawasaki undertook to develop to production status. Its engineers focused on improving the supercharger to increase power and altitude performance, as well as making it more reliable. The Ha-9-I marked Kawasaki’s emergence as an aero-engine developer in its own right.

    However, numerous issues with the Ki-5, including a lack of in-flight stability, engine vibration and cooling problems, led to it being shelved in preference to further development of the Type 92. This resulted in production of the later Type 95, or Ki-10, biplane fighter. Powered by the 800 hp Ha-9-II Ko 12-cylinder vee engine – practically a BMW IX de-rated to improve reliability – the Ki-10 was accepted by the IJAAF in 1937 and served long enough to be allocated the Allied reporting name ‘Perry’.

    Although the Ki-5 had failed to enter operational service, manufacture and testing of the prototype provided Kawasaki with valuable experience in monoplane fighter design. A similar civil development that had been built in parallel – the C-5 – was to achieve fame by setting several speed and distance records whilst being flown by its owners, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

    Kawasaki’s next fighter design began to show the first vestiges of the eventual Ki-61 configuration and wing planform. Work on the experimental Ki-28 commenced in November 1935 in anticipation of an IJAAF competition announced in 1936. This aircraft was again powered by the Ha-9-II Ko engine. Up against the radial-engined Mitsubishi Ki-33 and Nakajima Ki-27 (the latter eventually codenamed ‘Nate’ by the Allies – see Aircraft of the Aces 103 – Ki-27 ‘Nate’ Aces for further details), the Ki-28 demonstrated sparkling performance in speed, acceleration and climb. Although it had a wider turn radius, the Ki-28’s higher speed ensured that the aircraft could travel 360 degrees in the same lapsed time as the other fighters. The Kawasaki machine could not cut inside the turns of the Ki-33 and Ki-27, however, and with an almost obsessive doctrinal priority on manoeuvrability and turn radius, the IJAAF rejected this promising design.

    After the failure of the Ki-28, but still persevering with aircraft designs powered by liquid-cooled engines, Kawasaki turned its attention to gaining a production licence from Daimler-Benz to manufacture its respected DB 600 and DB 601 engines in Japan. This move was forced on Kawasaki for two reasons – BMW’s abandonment of liquid-cooled engine development and the fact that the Ha-9-I had reached the end of its life.

    In March 1938 the company secured a licence with high hopes that it could interest the IJAAF in initiating suitable design projects to exploit the new powerplant. Eventually, in February 1940, drawing on doctrinal lessons learned from aerial combat during the Nomonhan Incident with the Soviet Union, the IJAAF issued a requirement for Kawasaki to build a prototype experimental heavily armed fighter, which would become the Ki-60, and a ‘lighter’ general-purpose experimental fighter, which would become the Ki-61. The design of the Ki-60 was to emphasise speed, dive and climb performance, whilst the Ki-61 was planned to deliver the more general-purpose offensive capability required for the recently established doctrine of ‘aerial exterminating action’ (see Aircraft of the Aces 103). In fact the early versions of the Ki-61 had a higher loaded weight (2950 kg) than the prototype of the Ki-60 (2750 kg).

    In April 1940 Kawasaki obtained the rights to manufacture the latest version of the Daimler-Benz engine, the DB 601A, with blueprints and pattern engines arriving from Germany that same year. The first Kawasaki-built DB 601A, designated the Ha-40, was available from July 1941, and by November it had passed all ground-running tests. Kawasaki, however, struggled with the responsibility of developing both the home-manufactured engine and the airframe design that it was intended to power. This resulted in a lengthy delay in the fighter’s introduction to service. An irony lay in the fact that the ultimate – and arguably most successful – development of the Ki-61 would be the radial-engined Ki-100, which was the product of expediency rather than design.

    The Ha-40 inverted-vee engine that would power the Ki-61 (an imported DB 601 was installed in the prototype Ki-60) was slightly lighter than the DB 601, but more powerful – it was rated at 1175 hp. Kawasaki had been unsuccessful in gaining licence manufacturing rights for the DB 601’s all-important Bosch fuel injection system, so it had to incorporate a Mitsubishi-designed alternative instead. This proved effective enough, but in frontline service various engine-related problems with the Ki-61, which were magnified in the unforgiving environments to which it was deployed, were to ultimately blight the aircraft’s operational record.

    The three Ki-60 heavy fighter prototypes. The Ki-60 is sometimes described as the forerunner to the Ki-61, but the two designs were initiated in parallel to meet different specifications. Development of the Ki-60 was given priority, although it was subsequently terminated because of the aircraft’s disappointing performance, dangerous spin characteristics and a lack of manoeuvrability. The more promising Ki-61 design was concentrated on instead (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

    CHAPTER ONE

    A DIFFICULT BIRTH

    The development of the Ki-60 heavy fighter, of which three prototype examples were built, was given priority over the Ki-61 design. This was fortuitous because it enabled Takeo Doi and his design team to work through the shortcomings that soon became apparent with the Ki-60 design and to incorporate that experience in improving the Ki-61. The Ki-60’s disappointing performance, dangerous spin characteristics and radical lack of manoeuvrability led to abandonment of the project. Indeed, the heavy fighter concept ultimately proved to be a blind alley in terms of Japanese fighter development and doctrine, not least because of the entrenched preference for traditional dogfighting manoeuvrability throughout the IJAAF.

    Nakajima’s more successful heavy fighter competitor, the Ki-44, achieved limited production status, although it too was regarded with suspicion and disliked by many IJAAF pilots (see Aircraft of the Aces 100 – Ki-44 ‘Tojo’ Aces of World War 2 for further details). Attention was now focused on the more conventional and promising Ki-61, Kawasaki planning on combining the speed, climb and dive performance of the heavy fighter concept with an acceptable level of manoeuvrability. The Ki-61 would be no aerobat like the Ki-27 or Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Peregrine Falcon), Allied reporting name ‘Oscar’ (see Aircraft of the Aces 85 – Ki-43 ‘Oscar’ Aces of World War 2 for further details), but its other flight characteristics, protection and armament were expected to more than compensate for that quality.

    Much has been made of the similarity of the Ki-61 to Heinkel’s He 100, three Block II A-0 examples of which were imported by Japan in the summer of 1940. The negotiations to obtain these aircraft had begun in November 1938, with drawings of an earlier version of the He 100 being passed on to a Japanese trade delegation a month later – one of them labelled as a Japanese version designated ‘He 113’. In reality, the basic configuration of the Ki-61 had already been created in the fixed undercarriage Ki-28, which was flying in competition with other potential IJAAF fighter designs nearly two years earlier.

    The Ki-61 is often characterised as a copy of Germany’s Heinkel He 100 because of superficial similarities. However, the basic Ki-61 airframe was developed from the Kawasaki Ki-28 designed more than two years earlier. The He 100 was imported to Japan by the IJNAF with the intention of licence-building the type, and Kawasaki had access to an example during Ki-61 development. Some technical aspects of the He 100 were studied and influenced the design of the Ki-61 while other details were used and improved upon (via Robert Forsyth)

    Also, initial interest in the He 100 was primarily from the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force (IJNAF), and there is evidence of plans to build the type under licence – one of the imported He 100s undertook propeller vibration tests at the Naval Air Arsenal in Yokosuka. However, there is little doubt that technical aspects of the He 100 design were studied, utilised and/or improved upon by Kawasaki’s Takeo Doi and Shin Owada in the design of the Ki-61, especially the mounting of the DB 601 engine to the airframe. These included the cowl structure, engine mounts and improved versions of the external cover plates over the engine mounting pins. The Kawasaki design team also incorporated scaled-down versions of the He 100’s steam separator tanks to replace the swirl chambers usually attached to the coolant outlet ports of the DB 601. However, the Ki-61 employed a large fixed radiator beneath the rear fuselage, in a configuration similar to that of the P-51 Mustang.

    The Ki-61 superficially resembled an enlarged version of the He 100, but it was by no means a copy. Instead, the Japanese fighter incorporated many advanced and superior features that were not a part of the German design.

    The Ki-60 gets attention during test flights. The domestic Ha-40 engine fitted to the Ki-61 was lighter and more powerful than the imported Daimler-Benz DB 601 installed in the Ki-60. It was also fitted with a Mitsubishi fuel injection system rather than the Bosch system of the imported engine (San Diego Air & Space Museum)

    The prototype Ki-61 (c/n 6101) was completed in December 1941, this aircraft being the first of 12 experimental prototypes to be manufactured and tested (c/n 6101-6112) through to July 1942, culminating in the manufacture of the first production model (c/n 6113) in August 1942.

    FIRST ENCOUNTER

    In April 1942 during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, US aircrew got their first glimpse of the sleek fighter that they would later tussle with so fiercely in the skies over New Guinea. At the time of the raid only five Ki-61 prototypes had been constructed (c/n 6101-6105), these aircraft being subjected to tests and trials by the Army Flight Test Centre at Fussa.

    On 18 April 1942 Major Yoshitsugu Aramaki and WO Ryozaburo Umekawa of the Flight Test Centre had been flying the second and third Ki-61 prototypes in gunnery trials from Mito airfield, and were relaxing on the ground smoking cigarettes, when they were alerted to the raid. Through binoculars, they spotted

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