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It is simply a Ki-61-II kai with full view canopy. Not many of them were build as such. Oddly enough it didn’t get a separate designation like Ki-100s with different canopies.
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So it is Ki-61 with Ki-64’s water cooled system?
I really need it, it should be best Ki-61)
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I need it, as well as the Ki-61 III
Unfortunately that is also a made-up designation. Kawasaki tried making more powerful inline engines, but none of those apparently got further than bench testing.
I think it would be best to stick with planes which have solid information about them, instead of doing as many suggestions as possible. It’s also very limited how many WWII planes they are going to implement for Japan in a year, so we should think about which ones we really want out of those.
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That’s very true. Ki-64 and N1K4 are high on my priority list.
As for the Ki-61 III, I thought it was a retronym, but my reading of Japanese Wiki confused me. Perhaps a translation error?
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Ammunition count for the Ki-51’s 12.7 mm Ho-103 machine gun.
In October 1944, the Ki-51s of the 27th Flying Regiment, which participated in the support of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, carried 1200 rounds of ammunition. If we subtract 1020 rounds (15 x 68 round capacity magazine) for the flexible machine guns from this, we get 180 rounds for the fixed machine guns and 90 rounds for each gun. I think this number of rounds is a little low, but looking at the combat records of the 27th Sentai, they only consumed about 60 rounds at most on bombing and patrol missions, so this number of rounds may have been acceptable.
Of course, my calculations could be wrong. One could also consider that they reduced the number of rounds for the flexible machine gun and increased the number of rounds for the fixed machine gun. This source is not conclusive evidence.
| Aircraft type | Type 99 Assault |
|---|---|
| Aircraft registration | 1475 |
| Bomb type | 250 kg |
| Fuze type | Short delay |
| Number of bombs | 1 |
| MG ammo type | AP and Incendiary |
| Number of rounds | 1200 |
27th Flying Regiment 2nd Company Combat Diary September 1, 1944 - October 31, 1944
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One must remember the difficulties of Japanese factories at this point in the war. The Germans also reduced their shell consumption in 1944/45 because they had to save it. Thank you very much for your contribution and help :D
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That’d be nice. It looks much better with the cut-down canopy, too:
Nice and slender.
Ki-61-I Tei Kai would be even more overtiered than the regular Hei and Tei. Would be interesting but ultimately not a great addition, the Ki-61s don’t struggle with firepower.
Ki-61-II Otsu - same as above. Its issue isn’t firepower, its climb rate and weight. Speed too, to a lesser extent. Not saying no, but its not something I particularly want.
Evaporative cooling - just no, way too fragile. One hit from any caliber and you’re immediately cooking your engine.
Now, a Ki-64? That I would very much like to see, among others.
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The fixed machine guns were upgraded from 7.7 mm to 12.7 mm in November 1943, but there are sources that say the flexible machine guns were also upgraded from 7.7 mm to 7.92 or 12.7 mm.
The Ki-45-Kai Hei, which was deployed to the assault squadron as the successor to the Ki-51, was equipped with a 7.92 mm Type 98 machine gun as a flexible machine gun, so it is highly possible that the Ki-51 was also equipped with the same 7.92 mm machine gun.
The 7.92 mm Type 98 machine gun has a magazine capacity of 75 rounds. If the Ki-51 had 12 x flexible machine gun magazines, the number of rounds would be 900 rounds, while the 12.7 mm fixed machine guns could use 300 rounds, or 150 rounds for each gun. This underscores the hypothesis that upgrading from 7.7 mm to 12.7 mm would cut the number of rounds in half.
Sources
Spoiler
“From November 1943, the 7.7 mm fixed machine guns on both wings were upgraded to 12.7 mm Type 1, and the rear machine gun was upgraded to a Type 98 flexible gun.”
「昭和十八年十一月からは、両翼七・七ミリ固定機関銃を一式十二・七ミリに、後方機銃を九八式旋回銃に改められた。」
Magazine Maru, ed. 2011. Type 99 Assault Plane, Rabaul Air Battle Record (九九式襲撃機ラバウル空戦録). p.29
Spoiler
“Flexible guns were also replaced with 7.92 mm Type 98 flexible machine guns from November 1943 due to the demand for more armament. It is said that some squadrons also used a set of 12.7 mm Type 1 flexible machine guns.”
「旋回統も武装強化の要求により昭和18年11月から九八式7.92mm旋回機関銃に換装されたが、一部では一式12.7mm旋回機関砲も使用されたらしい。」
Magazine Maru, ed. 1999. “Type 99 Assault” Mechanism of Military Aircraft. p.77
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@tester188
You did a great job, but there are a few question marks. First of all, the Type 98 KM has completely different magazines than the Type 89 KM, so their number on board could have been different. The Type 89 machine gun uses disc magazines, and the Type 98 machine gun uses drum magazines, which changes the way they are mounted in the machine (type 89 magazines were mounted flat on the sides of the hull).One more question, what is the 12.7 type 1 heavy machine gun? The Japanese used the Ho-103 heavy machine gun, which had no “type” assigned to it, and the only mention of the Type 1 was the 7.92 caliber Te3 machine gun.
Thank you very much for your contribution and dedication to the ki-51
:D
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“Exploding Fuel Tanks: Saga of Technology That Changed the Course of the Pacific Air War”
This book has a drawing from US intelligence about the armor protection. It says pilot head, body and seat bottom armor were all 7mm. Their shapes and sizes are included. Unfortunately there isn’t as accurate data about the engine plates. They are said to have been 6.5mm.
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Is there any informative mentions about Fuel Tank fire extinguisher systems in this book?
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Quite many short mentions all over. I haven’t read much of it yet. One interesting thing was about A6Ms with the system. In some units they stopped using the front fuselage tank, since that one wasn’t protected by CO2 system, while the wing tanks were.
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The problem is that the Japanese were the only ones who massively used fire extinguishing fuel tanks, and any study of the issue of tank explosions without studying these systems is just a book without any adequate information.
I’m just afraid that this is another book in the series “Everything was better with us, everything was worse with them”
But if there are adequate descriptions and studies of these systems, then this is very good
Can you send me the page number in this book where it says this so I can add it as a source?
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Any news? (I’m a big G3M3 fan)
Moderators have been considering the suggestions for three weeks
Ki-201 sent to moderators on March 26
Ki-46 III-Kai sent 27 March
Ki-147 sent 27 March
Ki-44-III sent 29 March
Ki-12 sent 29 March
G3M3 sent 30 March
Ki-98 sent 2 April
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Let’s hope it won’t take too much
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