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Kawasaki Ki-100-Ia “Tony”
| Crew | 1 |
| Dimensions | 29’4” x 28’11”
x
12’2” 12m by 8.82m by 3.75m |
| Wing area | 215
square feet 20 square meters |
| Weights | 5567-7705 lbs 2525-3495 kg |
| Maximum speed | 360 mph (579 km/h) at 19,685 feet (6000 meters) 332 mph (535 km/h) at 32,810 feet (10000 meters) |
| Cruise speed | 249
mph at 13,125 feet 400 km/h at 4000 meters |
| Climb rate | 46 feet per second 14.0 meters per second |
| Service ceiling | 36,090 feet 11,000 meters |
| Power plant | 1 1500 hp (1184 kW) Mitsubishi Ha-112-II 14-cylinder two-row radial engine driving a constant speed three bladed propeller. |
| Armament | 2 20mm Ho-5
cannon in wings 2 12.7mm Type 1 machine guns above engine |
| External stores |
Two 250kg (551 lb) bombs or two 44 gallon (167 liter) drop tanks |
| Range | 870 miles (1400 km) normal 1367 miles (2200 km) maximum |
| Production |
A total of 396 Ki-100 by Kawasaki Kokuki Kogyo K.K.: 3 Ki-100 prototypes (1945-2)272 Ki-100-Ia (1945-2 to 1945-6) 106 Ki-100-Ib (1945-5 to 1945-8) 3 Ki-100-II prototypes (1945-5 to 1945-6) 12 Ki-100-Ib (1945-5 to 1945-7) |
| Versions | The -Ib had an improved canopy for all-around vision. |
The Ki-100 was based on the Ki-61
"Tony", but with a powerful radial engine in place of the
unreliable
liquid-cooled engine of the earlier Tony. The
result was an
excellent
fighter that could hold its own against the Hellcats,
Mustangs,
and Superfortresses.
The Japanese Army had hoped that the Ki-61-II KAI
would be available to meet the challenge of the Superfortress, but the Ha-140 engine suffered
from serious teething troubles, and in November 1944 Kawasaki was
instructed to use a different engine. The design team quickly concluded
that this would have to be the Ha-112 radial engine. The difficulty of
mounting a
large radial engine on a slim fuselage originally designed for a
liquid-cooled engine was overcome by the Japanese Army after studying
an imported German FW-190 fighter
and drawing on the Navy's experience with the D4Y
"Judy", some of whose prototypes used a liquid-cooled engine. The
first prototype flew on 1 February 1945, and the aircraft went into
production (initially using surplus Ki-61 airframes) in March 1945.
The aircraft came as a nasty surprise to Allied pilots. One squadron claimed 14 Hellcats destroyed in a single engagement without loss. Fortunately for the Allies, by 1945 the Japanese were unable to produce the Ki-100 in any great quantity and were short on good pilots.
References
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