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It looked aggressive, flew well, and in the hands of a competent Japanese pilot it gave USAAF a run for its money. The bane of P-51s and B-29s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_Ki-84

Edit to add: source of that rare in flight picture https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/media/nakajima-ki-84-1a-hayate-gale.2666/

It looked aggressive, flew well, and in the hands of a competent Japanese pilot it gave USAAF a run for its money. The bane of P-51s and B-29s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_Ki-84 Edit to add: source of that rare in flight picture https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/media/nakajima-ki-84-1a-hayate-gale.2666/

(post is archived)

[–] • 2 pts

Most stories about Japanese aviation revolve revolve around their Naval Aviation arm. The zero at the time was magnificent but wildly overrated. Japanese Army aviation produced the beasts of the Japanese air defense. Nates, Oscars, Franks, the Japanese army fielded some of the finest fighters.

[–] • 1 pt

Japan's shortcoming was their belief that all pilots are expendable and therefore don't deserve protection. By the end of the war, they had no experience pilots.

[–] • 2 pts

I totally agree. The US sent their aces home to teach the next class. Japan flew their aces to the death. And they willingly did it. Emperor worship was a powerful thing. This made things extremely difficult in the US Marine island campaign. The jap soldier was an extremely vicious and tenacious soldier. I’ve been to Japan hundreds of times and I find it hard to believe that these sweet, polite, and friendly people can be capable of extreme violence. China better think twice about attacking Taiwan because if the Japanese are (and they will be) involved, they’ll make Nanking look like child’s play.

[–] • 2 pts

humans went from not having aircraft to air-based war in basically 20 years--after all of human history preceding without either

[–] • 2 pts

If this timeline holds true Luke Skywalker will bulls-eye womp rats with your grand children in their T-16 Skyhoppers! Can’t wait!

[–] • 1 pt

Nice. I was going to ask if that was a Ki-84.

[–] • 2 pts

After the war, the US test flew the Ki 84. Repaired, tuned and filled with US av gas, the Hayate flew rings around P 51s, P 47s at higher altitudes, and held their own against F6s and F4u's at lower altitudes. The guys running the tests realized that with decent gas, the Ki 84 would have done very well against US pilots.

[–] • 1 pt

This is very interesting, I would like to research it further. Can you point me in the right direction? Fascinating none the less.

[–] • 0 pt

J-Airaft.com and Aviation Japan would be good starting points. A modeling site dedicated to perticular interests will yield a lot of detailed info. Guys that build models want to add detail, which turns up layers of info. For some general reading, try Large Scale Planes.com

[–] • 0 pt

Japanese Zeros were made of rice paper and bamboo (I'm speaking metaphorically here). That was their weakness. They were easy to damage, easy to set on fire.

[–] • 1 pt

But at the start of the war, no plane could out-dive or out-turn the Zero.

[–] • 1 pt

Exactly, it was scary dangerous! It took pilots like Thatch and O'Hare to come up with successful strategies to deal with the Zeros obvious superiority. Flying Tigers paved the way with General Chennault's strategy for dealing with highly maneuverable Japanese fighters, boom and zoom!

[–] • 0 pt

Jap ace Saburo Sakai wrote an excellent autobio called 'Samurai', where he extensively details the characteristics of Jap and American planes during battle. Highly recommend.