01154a

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
//-->sa-bythe Aeronautical taff ofAERO PUBLISHERSINC.(In cooperation with The Air Museum )Scale DrawingsbyUwe Feist329 Aviation RoadFallbrook. California©AERO PUBLISHERS,INC.1965Library of Congress Catalog Card Number65-24308All rights reserved..This book, or parts thereof, must notbe reproduced without permission of the publisher.Printed and Published In the United States of America by Aero Publishers, Inc.ONTARIOAIR MUSEUM'S JAPANESE Ki-84Code Name:"Frank"Serial No.1446This Nakajima Ki-84"Hayate" fighter was one of two capturedinfly ingcondition in the Springof 1945. The plane had beenina cleverly camouflaged clearingat Clark Field near Manilain the PhilippineIslands.ThisFrank fighte rbore the Nakajima Serial No. 1446 when cap-tured, and had thetailmarkingof a "Bolt of lightning"of the 11th FighterSentai whichhadbeen based at Clark Field.Temporary repairs were made to the battle damageithad receivedin combat and it wasassigned the TAlC Code Number"S-17."The other captured Ki-84was assigned Code No.S-10. All Japanese aircraft capturedinthe PhilippineIslandswere assigned Code No. "S":designations and these codes were painted on the rudder of each aircraft. The aircraftwerestripped of paintandleftnatural aluminum and pre-war U.S. tailstri pe markings were paintedon the rudder of each aircraft.All during the summer of 1945,this captured Frankfight er S-17was test flown agarnst thebest U.S.and Allied Fighters.During these tests it was found that the Frank would outclimball allied aircraftincludingthe P-510 Mustang.Itwas more maneuverable in turns and evenoutperformed the Spitfire whichhad a highreputat ioninthisfield. These tests continueduntil late 1945. It was decided that sinceFrank S-17 was still flying and performing aboveexpectations,to send it tothe UnitedSt at es for further tests against the latest U.S .fighterscomingoff the product ion lines.In this evaluation program,the Frank was comparableto the P-51Mustang and P-47Thun-derbolt. Although the P-51H and P-47N had a sliglltlyhigher top speed,the Frank climbedto altitude faster. The Frank was more maneuverable in turns and will turn inside either theP-51H or P-47N.The control forces were also lighter thanthose of most American aircraft..The range of the Frank was found to be about thesameas that of the P-51H. This is a note-worthy fact,rnthat the P-51Hwas one of our longestranging fighters at the end of W.W. II.In evaluating the Frank with the Zeke52itwas foundthatin·additionto having a higher topspeed, Frank had less vibration at comparable velocities.Itis interestingto not e here that in all the long hours the Frank fighterwas flown, under allconditions,no serious faultswere experienced withthe airplane. American test pilots rateditas the best Japanese aircraft produced duringW.W .II.Upon completion ofthese trials, inJune of 1946, the Frank fighter was flown to Park Ridge,Illino isalongwith an Oscar II for long term storage. It waslaterturned over to the NationalAir Museum of the SmithsonianInstitute along wit happroximately fiftyother Japanese air-craft.During the economy cuts of 1951-52,there was a verylimited budget assigned the N.A.M.and hence a few ofthe Japanese aircraft were declared excess and thus it was that the On-tario AirMuseum, then located in Claremont, California,putin an application for a Japanesefighter. Two types were available,the Ki-84"Frank" and a Kl-45 "Nick" twin engine Armyfighter. In the spring of 1952, the Frank fighterwas prepared for shipment, and it arrivedatClaremont in September 1952.In July, 1954, officials from MGM contacted the Museumto ask assistance for their newpicture"Never So Few" whichhad scenes of a Japanese airfield,and they wanted severalauthentic Japanese aircraftfor theirmovie.The Air Museum gave its assistance and the Ki-84was prepared fortaxiruns.The aircraft was completely stripped and painted,and the 52ndFighter Sentaimarking was applied to the tail. When the picture was completed, the aircraftwas returned to the Museum,where it remainedon displayuntil March 1963.At that time,Walker "Bud"Mahurin, World War II Ace and Board Chairman of the OntarioAir Museum, was contacted by a T.V.studioto filman aviationpicture in Florida using a Jap-anese and a Navy Fighter.Thus, inApril 1963,the Ki-84was dismantled and sent via truckto AiResearch AircraftCo.in Los Angeles for complete repairto bringitup to flight status.This caused quite a sensation at the Los Angeles International Airport because it was the firsttime a World War II Japanese aircraftwas seen being prepared for flight in the United States.Repairs were completed in late May andinearly June the firsttest flight was made by BudMahurin.Tests performep A-O.K.and all systems functioned normally.The Ki-84made its first public appearance in July 1963 at the Air Force Reserve Air Fairheld at Santa Ana, California,and was the hit of the AirShow. It was later flown to theOntario Air Museum where it is now on permanent display.THE SAGA OF NAKAJIMA Kl-84THEFASTEST JAPANESE AIRCRAFTBy Edward T.MaloneyCurator,THEAIR MUSEUMIn the earlypart of 1944, Army AirForce pilots saw and met a new type of Japanese fighterinthe skiesover the South Pacific.The manufacturer was unknown but the allied code name"Frank"was assigned to this new and unknown aircraft. (The allies used code names foridentifyingJapanese aircraft. Boys' names were assigned to fighters and girls' names tobombers.)Whenthe first"Frank" was captured near Manilain1945, our U.S .Tech Air Intelligencedetermined that theaircraft was built by the famous NakajimaAircraft Co.•Ltd. of Tokyo,Japan. TheNakajima Aircraft Co. was one of the oldest, and most important aircraft andengineproducersinJapan.Itwas foundedin 1914and, like most Japanese aircraft manu-facturersofthatperiod,builtplanes under license from European and American designs.As timewent on anindependent lineof developmenttrendemerged and several distinctiveand different typesof aircraft were delivered to both the Japanese Army and Navy.The onlyNakajima operational fighter known to be in service priorto Dec. 7, 1941, was theNakajima97,betterknown as"Nate." A successor to Nate was Oscar, which had gone intoproduction inearly. 1940, and was the most maneuverable Japanese aircraft built due to itslig ht wingloading.Thenext design development was"Tojo,"which was put into serviceinearly 1942.Asthesedesigns emerged,and more powerful engines were added, the Naka·jima engineersdesignedanewand improvedplaneincorporatingall ofthe goodfeatures ofallof these earlierdesigns.Thisaircraft wastheNakajima"Frank," the fastestJapanese air·craft in thePacific War, 427 mph.The Frank wasbuiltfor theJapanese Army, and the prototype first flewinMarch 1943. Afterthe necessaryqualificationtrialswere made,and themajorityof bugs ironed out. the Jap-aneseArmystartedtoreceivethe Frank as afrontline fighter in April, 1944, and desig-nated itKi-84.It was usedin alltheaters of operation,and inpractically all types of combatinwhicha fightercan beused.In addition to high altitude combat and lowlevel interception,itwas used fordive -bombingand strafing.The Frank(Ki-84)hasawing span of 37ft. 1in.,and a length of 32ft., 2 inches. It is radicallydiffe rent fromearliermodels in manyrespects.Standard Japanese procedure on earliermod-elswastocenter their production on well designed airframes of relatively light construction.The Frank,however,isunusually strong. Of particularinterest isthe heavy main spar, fabri-cated fromone-halfinchextruded aluminumanglesintoan 1-beam design.Frank was one ofthe first Japanese fightersto have bulletproof windshield.and self-sealing fuel tanks, as wellas armourplatingprotection for the pilot.The aircrafthad a four blade constant speed propeller and was powered by a Nakajima Ha-45, HOMARE Model 21, twin-row,aircooled radial engine, developing 2000 hp. This radialenginewas comparable to the Pratt & Whitney R-2800engine.It isinterestingtonotehere that the Nakajima concern closely kept their airframe and en-ginedevelopment on an even par. This was nottrue,however, of many of the other Japaneseaircraftmanufacturers, where the airframes were completed months before the bugs wereworked out of their respective engines andturbo-superchargers .The normalweight of the airplane was 7940 lbs.,anditsflying time to an elevation of 10,000ft.was 2.6minutes. It had a maximumrange of 1800 miles with drop tanks.The Frank wasfittedwithtwo fixed12.7 m.m.machineguns mountedinthe cowling on either side of thecockpit, andtwo 20 m.m .cannonsinthe wings.Altogether there were 3.413 NakajimaFranks produced before the end of W.W. II. Japan'sfaith in thisfighter was exemplified by the fact that at the close of the war the Japanese wereconstructingunderground factories capable of producing 200 Franks per month.We wish togivephotographic credits to the following:U.S.Air ForceU.S.Navy DepartmentAiresearch Mfg. Co.TomPiedimonteHedeya AndoFrank Monmillo [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]