[Would you like to see this in-game?]
- Yes
- No
0
voters
[What is the best version to add?]
- Early production
- Late production
- Special Assault Variant
- No
0
voters
Ki-51/ Type 99 Attack Aircraft
The Ki-51 was a Japanese low-altitude attack aircraft used from 1939 to 1945 in Japan and in China until 1953.This aircraft was the first aircraft in the Imperial Japanese Army to have armor. In addition, this aircraft has the last sinking of an American ship during ww2.So much for the introduction to the suggestions.
History of creation and description of the structure
Work on the Ki-51 begins in 1937 with the Army’s need for a short-range reconnaissance aircraft. Mitsubishi and Tachikawa took part in the competition and two proposals were made: the Ki-51 and the Ki-36 (which will appear as a proposal in the future). By the end of 1937, the Japanese command had realized that an attack aircraft was needed for a low-altitude attack on ground targets on the front line. It was then decided that the Ki-51 had to be modified for this function.To meet the requirements, Mitsubishi designed a single-engine, single-seat, monoplane, fixed-legged low-wing monoplane. Since fire was expected when attacking ground targets, the armor was particularly concentrated in the lower part of the hull.Bulletproof 6mm steel plates are attached to the lower part of the engine, the lower part of the cockpit, the lower part of the fuselage, etc., so that they cannot be penetrated by ordinary machine guns.The pilot’s seat was It consists of three parts – the backrest, the seat and the headrest. All three parts are made of 7 mm thick armored steel. protection against small arms fire. The lower armored seat was attached to the floor at three points. The backrest with headrest had the option of tilting backwards/upwards on the hinge.In case the canopy jammed over the pilot, he could get out through the gunner’s cockpit. Another 6,5 mm thick armor plate was also placed under the engine. In addition to The aircraft had a 25 mm thick windshield. Due to the fact that the Type 99 attack aircraft was the first aircraft in the Japanese Air Force, equipped with armor, during its development Japanese metallurgists faced some problems.Stamped armor parts were produced by Daidô Seikô Co., a metallurgical company with expertise in sourcing high-quality armor with minimal weight. However, the first experiments with quenching stamped plates caused very significant pinouts of the parts during cutting cooling, which severely deformed the parts and prevented them from being mounted on the aircraft.After several failed experiments, high-quality armored parts I was only able to get it on 11 attempts. The gunner’s seat was slightly lower than the pilot’s seat. It was characterized by the lack of backrest, which allowed the shooter to quickly change position depending on the task at hand – he managed the camera , firing a machine gun or control of the aircraft using simplified instruments…At the same time, the seat support had an ergonomic shape, so that the gunner could sit on the cockpit floor and lean the rear against it if necessary, which made it easier for him to fire the machine gun into the upper hemisphere. In the floor, the cabin also had three rows of footrests.At the rear, the cabin had redundant controls with a simplified instrument set, as well as a Type 96 Hi Model 2 radio.For the ground attack target, it was equipped with 2 Type 89 machine guns in the wings . The ammunition capacity was 300 rounds per barrel.The machine guns were located in consoles at 625 mm from the chassis. The machine guns mounted in the different wing consoles differed in modifications - Type 89 Ko and Type 89 Otsu depending on the direction of belt feed. Each machine gun was equipped with a cartridge case collector with a capacity of 80 rounds.In the rear gunner’s cabin there was a 7.7 mm Te-4 mobile machine gun. It consisted of 15 spare magazines (1020 rounds) in case of an attack mission and 7 magazines (544 rounds) if the aircraft is used as a photo scout. In the floor of the gunner’s cabin there was a hole for dropping a shot of a cartridge casing overboard. Sometimes a sleeve bag was used.In addition, it had the ability to mount up to 100kg of bombs under each wing, the most popular charges were 4x50kg or 12x15kg. It was powered by the MK2C Zuisei 15 Ha-26-II engine, a modified version of this engine was also used in the Ki-45 and Ki-46 aircraft.Its design uses self-sealing fuel tanks to increase its survivability. It was assumed that it would not take off from ideal airports, so a reinforced fixed landing gear was used, which allowed it to land on field airfields.
The first prototype was completed in June 1939 and made its first flight. It has proven to have excellent flight performance and maneuverability at low altitudes thanks to its lightweight design and good engine. The top speed was also 424 km/h, which was very satisfactory for the army. Unfortunately, problems arose that delayed the acceptance of the aircraft until 1940.During tests at Hamamatsu Air Base during a mock fight, he was forced into a clash with a Ki-27, but when it came to low-altitude battles, he counterattacked. He didn’t let them fall behind easily. This is an episode that shows how excellent the ki-51’s low-altitude performance was.A briefing after a 40-minute “battle” of the fighter machine-gun, it showed that it never managed to “hit” a potential victim.
blueprint^
Sketches^
Further history
The aircraft was used wherever the Japanese army was, from China and Singapore to the Philippines until the final defense of the home islands. At the time of the Battle of Malaya, the english were shocked and thought that the Japanese were producing stukas or planes very similar to them. This aircraft was very effective when there were no enemy planes, but it performed poorly against modern Allied aircraft, although there are exceptions where they emerged victorious.due to heavy losses in November 1943 it was decided to replace the Type 89 rifles with Ho-103 rifles, unfortunately I cannot find data on the amount of ammunition for it.In addition, in order to improve the possibility of a ground attack in the second half of the war, experiments were conducted at the Aeronautical Research Institute in Harbin on hanging a 250-kilogram bomb under the nose of the fuselage. Experiments conducted from the autumn of 1943 to the spring of 1944 showed that Sonia had lifted such a load. There were no problems when dropping such a bomb from a dive at 60 degrees, as well as with the controllability of the aircraft.Thanks to this research, a special attack version was created, used for attacks on ships or kamikaze attacks.On the angle of this aircraft you can record a lot of successful attacks on ground targets and ships. It sank on 6 August 1945, when a Mitsubishi Ki-51 of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 73rd Independent Air Force attacked the USS Bullhead with depth charges. He scored two direct hits, and for the next ten minutes there was a great deal of gushing oil and air bubbles floating in the water. It was the last U.S. ship to be sunk in World War 2.
Kamikaze Attack
Kamikaze attack on the USS Columbia^
kamikaze hit on USS Louisville^
The imprint of a kamikaze Mitsubishi Ki-51 on the side of H.M.S Sussex^
Kamikaze Attack Art^
Film about Ki-51
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=dlFmlDZiocg)
Mitsubishi Ki-51 ‘Sonia’ (youtube.com)
Japanese Mitsubishi Ki-51 ‘Sonia’ and Tachikawa Ki-36 ‘Ida’ in action (youtube.com)
長沙戦 渡河・九九式襲撃機（昭和19年） (youtube.com)
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 9.21 m (30 ft 3 in)
- Wingspan: 12.1 m (39 ft 8 in)
- Height: 2.73 m (8 ft 11 in)
- Wing area: 24 m2 (260 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 1,873 kg (4,129 lb)
- Gross weight: 2,798 kg (6,169 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 2,920 kg (6,437 lb)
- Powerplant: 1 ×Mitsubishi Ha-26-II 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 710 kW (950 hp)
- Propellers: 3-bladed variable-pitch propeller
Performance
- Maximum speed: 424 km/h (263 mph, 229 kn) at 3,000 m (9,800 ft)
- Range: 1,060 km (660 mi, 570 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 8,270 m (27,130 ft)
- Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 9 minutes 55 seconds
- Wing loading: 117 kg/m2 (24 lb/sq ft)
- Power/mass: 0.24 kW/kg (0.15 hp/lb)
Armament
Early variant
- 2x 7.7mm Type89 fixed machine gun firing forward (300 rounds per rifle)
- 1x Te-4 7.7mm mobile machine gun (1200 rounds or 544 rounds)
- 200 kg of bombs mounted under the wings (usually 2x 100kg, 4x 50kg, 12x 15kg)
Late variant
- 2x fixed 12.7 caliber Ho-103 machine guns (probably 150 to 200 rounds)
- 1x Te-4 7.7mm mobile machine gun (1200 rounds or 544 rounds)
- 200 kg of bombs mounted under the wings (usually 2x 100kg, 4x 50kg, 12x 15kg)
Special Assault Variant
- 2x fixed 12.7 caliber Ho-103 machine guns (probably 150 to 200 rounds)
- 1x Te-4 7.7mm mobile machine gun (1200 rounds or 544 rounds)
- 250 kg of bombs (1x250kg under the fuselage, 2x 100kg under the wings, 4x 50kg under the wings, 12x 15kg under the wings)
Armor
Pilot’s seat armor
- Chair headrest: 7mm
- Seat backrest: 7mm
- Seat: 7mm
Hull Armor
Armor protecting the engine, front part of the hull, cockpit and fuel tanks from below:
- Armor Thickness: 6,5mm
Summary
This aircraft will be a good replacement for the D3A1, which has a slightly worse payload but has armor and better offensive armament (late version). At the moment, the Army’s strike aircraft are limited only to the Ki-32. While there were many others, they were either omitted or changed to interceptors without a ground attack option (Ki-102), so it was nice to see more Army strike aircraft options.This aircraft would be very interesting, no matter what version they would add.
Finally, I apologize for the linguistic and logical errors because unfortunately English is not my main language and I had to use google translator.
Special thanks to users
Online Sources
USS Bullhead - Wikipedia
Mitsubishi Ki-51 - Wikipedia
Zuisei – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia
Type 99 Raider – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia
Mitsubishi Ki-51 Guntei / 三菱 キ-51「軍偵」 : Mitsubishi (armedconflicts.com)
Mitsubishi Ki-51 (Sonia) (militaryfactory.com)
Mitsubishi Ki-51 SONIA - attacker, reconnaissance plane (aviastar.org)
Уголок неба ¦ Mitsubishi Ki-51 (airwar.ru)
Ki-51 / Type99 Assault Plane | Ikazuchi (wordpress.com)
Mitsubishi Ki-51 Blueprint - Download free blueprint for 3D modeling (drawingdatabase.com)
地上部隊支援に大活躍の傑作機：九九式襲撃機（三菱キ51） ｜ 歴史人 (rekishijin.com)
九九式襲撃機とは (キュウキュウシキシュウゲキキとは) [単語記事] - ニコニコ大百科 (nicovideo.jp)
【キ51】九九式襲撃機・九九式軍偵察機/三菱 | 大日本帝国軍 主要兵器 (japanese-warship.com)
九九式襲撃機 (きゅうきゅうしきしゅうげきき)とは【ピクシブ百科事典】 (pixiv.net)
Mitsubishi Ki-51 (Sonia) - Magnum-x
