Kawasaki Ki-100-I OTSU 1/48 Hasegawa 09138

Kawasaki Ki-100-I OTSU

1/48 Aircrafts, Planes

Hasegawa 09138

Manufacturer: Hasegawa

Scale: 1/48

Material: Plastic

Paint: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue.

Condition: New in Box

The Kawasaki Ki-100 was a fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The Japanese Army designation was "Type 5 Fighter". No Allied code name was assigned to this type, although it may have been misidentified as a Tony due to the similar profile and appearance.

The emergency measure of adapting a Ki-61-II-KAI fighter to carry a Mitsubishi radial engine resulted in one of the best interceptors used by the Army during the entire war. It combined excellent power and manoeuvrabilityand, although its high-altitude performance against the USAAF Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers was limited by the lack of an efficient supercharger, it performed better than most other IJAAF fighters.Operational missions began in March 1945. From the first engagements, the Ki-100 performed well against the B-29 and showed itself to be equally effective against U.S. Navy carrier fighters.In mid-1944, the Ki-61 was one of the best fighters of the IJAAF. It was the only production Japanese fighter to have an inlinepowerplant (the Kawasaki Ha-40, a Japanese adaptation of the German Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine) during World War II, as well as the first one with factory-installed armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. It also had respectable performance, more in line with contemporary American and European designs of the time, with a focus on speed and rate of climb instead of manoeuvrability and range. It was an effective design, but suffered from engine shortages and reliability problems.

These problems as well as the performance advantage of enemy fighters, especially the Grumman F6F Hellcat, led to the development of an improved model, the Ki-61-II (later Ki-61-II-KAI), powered by the new 1,120 kW (1,500 hp) Kawasaki Ha-140 engine, which was unfortunately heavier than the Ki-61-I-KAIc it replaced. Maximum speed increased from 590 km/h (370 mph) to 610 km/h (380 mph) and general performance (except rate of climb) improved as well. However, it was never able to perform as planned due to the continued degradation of quality of the engine's assembly line, with far fewer engines produced than were required, while many of the engines that were built were rejected due to poor build quality. At this point of the war, the IJAAF was in desperate need of effective interceptors to stop the enemy bomber raids over the Japanese mainland, so in October 1944 it was ordered that a 1,120 kW (1,500 hp) Mitsubishi Ha-112-II (Kinsei ["Venus"] 60 series), a 14-cylinder, two-row radial engine should be installed in those airframes.he army general staff was amazed by the flight characteristics of the plane, which surpassed the Hien's in all but maximum speed (degraded by a maximum of 29 km/h [18 mph] by the larger area of the radial engine's front cowling), and the model was ordered to be put in production as the Goshikisen (Go = five; shiki = type; sentoki = fighter) or Army Fighter Type 5. The company's name was Ki-100-1-Ko. All of the airframes were remanufactured from Ki-61-II Kai and Ki-61-III airframes; the integral engine mount/cowling side panel was cut off the fuselage and a tubular steel engine mount was bolted to the firewall/bulkhead. Many of the redundant fittings from the liquid-cooled engine, such as the ventral radiator shutter actuator, were still kept. The first 271 aircraft, or Ki-100-1-Ko, with the raised "razorback" rear fuselage were rolled out of the factory between March and June 1945. A further 118 Ki-100 I-Otsu were built with a cut-down rear fuselage and new rear-view canopy from May through to the end of July 1945. This version also featured a modified oil cooler under the engine in a more streamlined fairing.

Ki-100

A Ki-100 in the RAF Museum at Hendon, London

Role

Fighter

Manufacturer

Kawasaki Heavy Industries

First flight

1 February 1945

Introduction

1945

Retired

1945

Primary user

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force

Produced

1945