Alternate History Combat Aircraft
- Thread starter S. Marlowski
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I finally got around to making a livery of one of my favorite planes, the Ki-84 Hayate.
The Hayate was an outstanding plane, the best mass produced japanese fighter and with proper fuel and quality control propably better than both the common variants of the P-47 and P-51. Could have been realy helpfull for the germans, but im not sure how suitable its for defense of the reich type missions as its altitude performance was rather meh as was typical for japanese planes.
The livery is realy quite nice, though I think the speckled mid war Japanese army camouflage schemes cant be beaten
Of course its no match for a proper first generation jet fighter but it did saw large scale service before those became truly available and was absolutely one of the finest piston fighters ever created, im not insinuating more than that. I also just prefer piston engines
When Macchi earned the contract for the plane that would become the MC 200, already Castoldi, the designer, was disappointed by the choice of a radial engine for the plane. Having designed the famous MC 72 that would held the record as the fastest piston plane for 5 years and still hold the record for fastest seaplane to this day, he had overseer the inclusion of dual modified Fiat AS6 line engines (in fact, two AS5 fusion together) as a way to gain the speed of 756 Km/h.
Seeking to reproduce this arrangement for a possible Italian fighter, he and Macchi's upper management contacted Mussolini in person, who had patronized the MC 72, to propose a new, fast, interceptor. Although Mussolini was interested, the Regia Aeronautica, the Italian Air Force, had simply no use for that plane. After lengthy negotiations, it was decided that the Regia Marina could use seaplanes to cover its naval base from possible hostile aircraft, as it could be kept on shore, ready to take air and be under the Navy control. Macchi started to work on what was designed as MC 772, by using the MC 72 as a base.
Unfortunately for them, the Fiat AS8, the successor of the Fiat AS5, was far from ready and Macchi had to use the AS6 as work base. But the modifications that allowed the MC 72 to reach its incredible speed were also preventing any mass production. Hand-made, it used exotic fuel mix of fuel and Benzol and a complex crankshaft system that forbade any mass production and had a massive load of issues. Instead of waiting for the still hypothetical AS8, Macchi embarked in the difficult and lengthy process of simplifying the AS6 for mass-production without limiting its capacity. Only thanks to Mussolini's support and help from Fiat that Macchi was capable of undertaking this feat. But finally, in 1940, the AS7 (the modified AS6), was ready for testing.
It took usual, aircraft grade, fuel, had a modified and improved axial compressor and a simplified dual crankshaft that powered the contra-rotative propellers. From a purely engineering standpoint, it was an unmitigated success.
But from a industrial perspective, it was a shoddy design.
It took until 1941 for the Macchi Castoldi 772 to be ready for its first test. Indeed, after the English raid on Taranto, the Fascist state had increased efforts on the MC 772 in a bid of propaganda to make the population believe they had an answer to prevent such disaster to happen again. With Mussolini in person overseeing the presentation, Macchi and Castoldi knew they could not afford to fail. Fortunately for them, the plane was incredible and had a speed of 650 km/h, armed and fueled. In addition of being very maneuverable for a seaplane, the test-pilots loved it an gave very good review. In the midst of the moment, the exuberant Mussolini made the grandiose declaration that he would command a thousand planes to "protect Italia from the outside threat".
But like many declaration of "Il Duce", it was mostly hot air. Despite the herculean efforts of rationalization and simplification, the MCIV 772 (Macchi Castoldi Idro-Volante/Hydro-Plane), as it was officially known administratively, was problematic to produce. To cope with the limitation of the Italian line-engine, Macchi had effectively taped two engine together and that obviously meant producing two engines for a single plane. Worst, Fiat had to create a new assembly line for the Macchi-modified AS5 engine and produce twice the usual amounts to power a single plane. The Italian militaro-industrial complex was simply unable to cope with such heavy demand. But with Mussolini's weight behind it and an unusual close collaboration between Macchi and Fiat, 200 MCIV 772 and necessary spare parts complement would nonetheless be produced.
Not only that, but Macchi also proposed a training version with a single engine and single propeller, this considerably simplified production time and 50 MCA 773 (Macchi Castoldi Allenamento/Trainning) be produced too.
The MCIV 772 would actually do wonder work for Italy from late 1941 and onward, many reconnaissance Blenheim would be shot down by the twin 12,7mm gun of the plane if they dared approaching a Regia Marina naval base and even escort Hurricanes (mostly from Malta) would be shocked by the agile seaplane and fell pray to it. To the shock of the British, a squadron was even present at Rhodes and regularly patrolled the sea around the islands, claiming many unsuspecting planes. With the additional fuel reserve in the floater, the plane had a very respectable fighting range and its high speed was coupled to a unsuspectingly agile frame, which led many ally pilot underestimating it.
Despite the acquisition by Italy of the Deimler-Benz DB-605 engine by Alfa Romeo, the complex German engine was of short numbers and needed for the upgrade of Macchi 200 into Macchi 202 and 205. So the Fiat AS7 was kept into production as its production lines were already set and was not in competition with the Macchi 202 and 205. As the MCIV 772 was a seaplane, its hulls were also on a different production line then the MC 200, so it was allowed to continue.
With the battle of Sicily, the MCIV 772 would shine at the battle of Siracusa, despite the night assault that surprised the Italian, many English gliders were shot-down by the MCIV 772 taking off from the naval base. But their numbers were too few and eventually, the ally air force destroyed the small Italian force. Despite having a 3 to 1 ratio, the MCIV was simply not available in enough numbers. With the Ally control of the sea and their bombardment of Italian cities, having a good seaplane was no longer a priority and Macchi modified the MCIV 772 into the MCI (Macchi Castoldi Intercettatore/ Interceptor) 774. With 50 built before the destruction of the Fiat factory by bombers, partly by modifying pre-existing MCIV 772, it would become a frightful sight and a bad surprise for the ally pilots above Italy. But as with the MCIV in Sicily, the MCI 774 was too few in numbers to have a serious impact on the war. With the Italian armistice of 1943, a single squadron of MCI 774 would be captured by the Ally before the German set-up the Italian Socialist Republic to keep fighting. This squadron would fight under the Italian Republic flag until the end of the war.
After the end of World War 2, the cobbled-up MCIV 772 and its other derivative were quickly abandoned, with the few remaining being either sold to museums or destroyed. Signifying the end of a racing plane turned fighter, it would not however die in the Italian imagination, with many being proud of the Italian engineering "prowess". Despite its flaws, as it had many, as being only available in small numbers, demanding an enormous maintenance effort and being incredibly "production-heavy", it would be hailed as one of the greatest Italian aircraft. Indeed, as one of the rare "pure" Italian plane capable of holding up in front of the Allies air force, it would be more fondly remembered and beloved then the regime it defended.
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Is that a construction meant to deliver the Ohka with a reduced chance of interception or do you plan to throw away the Japarado Mistel-Style?
The Arado is the best Axis delivery system for the Ohka. Consider this an IJAA 1946 weapon project.
That certainly is the more sensible idea! Under normal circumstances the "Blitz" is basically not onterecptable by the fighters in service at the end of the war, but I would imagine adding the Ohka would wreak havoc on the aerodynamics of the thing and in '46 you might also have Jet interceptors on the allied side (at least if you attack land targets), so this might still be riskier than it looks at first glance, your still propably right that Arado is the best shot for this.
The Germans might've been able to come up with something better but for Japan, yeah I think the Arado would be there best bet.
Yokosuka A-100
Japanese license built version of Germanys Arado Ar-234.
The Yokosuka A-100 had some major modifications of the original design such as being a two seater aircraft and having an enclosed nose with two 20mm cannons, folding wings and an arrestor hook for carrier duty but the Yokosuka Ar-100 was never used on carriers during the war.
The above example has an Ohka Mk-II with a pulse jet similar to the one used on the V-I rocket mounted on top of the airframe and was used against the Allied invasion in the spring of 1946.
Japanese license built version of Germanys Arado Ar-234.
The Yokosuka A-100 had some major modifications of the original design such as being a two seater aircraft and having an enclosed nose with two 20mm cannons, folding wings and an arrestor hook for carrier duty but the Yokosuka Ar-100 was never used on carriers during the war.
The above example has an Ohka Mk-II with a pulse jet similar to the one used on the V-I rocket mounted on top of the airframe and was used against the Allied invasion in the spring of 1946.
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