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U.S. Navy. Via Francillon (1979) |
U.S. Army. Via ibiblio.org |
Nakajima Ki-44-IIb Shoki ("Devil-Queller") “Tojo”
| Crew | 1 | ||
|
Dimensions |
31’ by
28’9” by 10’8” 9.45m by 8.785m by 3.25m |
||
| Wing area | 161 square feet 15 square meters |
||
|
Weights |
4643-6598 lbs 2106-2993 kg |
||
|
Maximum speed |
376 mph at 17,060
feet 605 km/h at 5200 meters |
||
| Cruise speed | 249 mph at 13,125 feet 401 km/h at 4000 meters |
||
|
Climb rate |
64 feet per second 19.5 meters per second |
||
|
Service ceiling |
36,745 feet 11,200 meters |
||
| One 1520 hp (1133 hp) Nakajima Ha-109 14-cylinder two-row radial engine driving a constant speed three bladed metal propeller. | |||
|
Armament |
Four 12.7mm Type 1 machine guns, two in fuselage and two in wings | ||
| External stores | Two 28.6 gallon (108 liter) drop tanks | ||
|
Range |
805 miles (1296 km) normal 1056 miles (1700 km) maximum |
||
| 1233 from May 1942 at Nakajima Hikoki K.K.: | |||
| 10 | Ki-44
pre-production (1940 to
1941)
|
||
| 40 | Ki-44-I (1942-1 to 1942-10) | ||
| 8 | Ki-44-II pre-production (1942) | ||
| 1167 | Ki-44-II and -III (1942-11 to 1944-12) | ||
|
Variants |
The Ia used a 1260hp Nakajima Ha-41 engine and was armed with 7.7mm Type 89 in the fuselage. The II added wing racks for two
100kg bombs. The IIc replaced the wing 12.7mm with 40mm Ho-301 low-velocity cannon firing at 400 rpm, which were replaced by 20mm Ho-5 cannon in the III. |
||
"Tojo" was one of the few Japanese
fighters to
emphasize speed and climb rate over maneuverability, making it the
mainstay of Japanese interceptor defenses when the American strategic bombing campaign
got under way. It had
a poor view
on takeoff and poor control, so that it killed a number of
inexperienced
pilots. However, it could
climb and dive as well as most of
its
enemies. The wing loading was unusually high for a Japanese aircraft,
which was partially compensated with butterfly combat flaps. The
armor and self-sealing fuel tanks
proved inadequate against the heavy
machine guns of Allied
fighters.
The design dated to January 1940, when the
Japanese Army asked Nakajima to design an interceptor to complement the
Ki-43 "Oscar". The design team, led by
Koyama Yasushi, designed the new aircraft around the Ha-41 engine, which was
more powerful than the Ha-25
that was becoming standard on fighters. The team were able to meet the
challenge of matching this rather large engine, originally designed for
bombers, to a narrow fuselage, and the aircraft had a large fuselage
side area and horizontal tail surfaces well forward of the rudder to
improve its qualities as a gun platform. The first prototype flew in
August 1940, and after modifications to reduce drag, nine service
prototypes were deployed to 47 Squadron
in China for field testing just
before war broke out in the Pacific. A small production run began in
January 1942, but the inability of these aircraft to intercept the
Army's own high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft
let the Army to insist on further design work, and the definitive
Ki-44-IIb did not begin production before November 1942.
Although "Tojo" was disliked by veteran pilots for
its high landing speed and relatively poor maneuverability, younger
pilots learned to make good use of its climb and dive speed. The -IIc
was probably the most successful interceptor
of B-29s,
though some of its kills were achieved
by deliberate ramming. However,
the aircraft began to be replaced by the Ki-84
"Frank" in late 1944.
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References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2014 by Kent G. Budge. Index
