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Aircraft · Japan · 1942-1945

Kawasaki Ki-61

fighter

The Hien (Flying Swallow) was the only mass-produced Japanese fighter of the war built around a liquid-cooled inverted-V engine, giving it a sleek profile that led Allied pilots to first misidentify it as a captured Messerschmitt Bf 109. Its codename Tony stuck even after the mistake was corrected. Chronic engine unreliability plagued the type, and many late-production airframes were finished with radial engines when the original powerplants ran out.

Wikipedia

crew1
top speed590 km/h
armament2x 20mm cannon, 2x 12.7mm MG
produced3,078

Pacific

Kawasaki Ki-61
· Public domain · source
A captured Japanese Kawasaki Ki-61 fighter tested by the U.S. Navy Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Maryland (USA), in June 1945.
A captured Japanese Kawasaki Ki-61 fighter tested by the U.S. Navy Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Maryland (USA), in June 1945.U.S. Navy · Public domain · source
c/n Kawasaki 6117. On display at the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum, Kakamigahara, Gifu. 12th May 2019
c/n Kawasaki 6117. On display at the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum, Kakamigahara, Gifu. 12th May 2019先従隗始 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

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