WI: Ki-43 with cannons

Just a quick note, the -IIIb never had a 1300HP Ha-33-42 (Kinsei-50 series) engine, it's a mistake perpetuated. It had the same Ha-115-II engine. I think there WAS a project to fit (surplus?) Kinseis, as Ki-43-IV or something like that, but it was never built. Recall the Kinsei has a larger diameter than Sakae (Ha-115), on A6M8 they could not fit nose MGs because of that. If you put Kinsei on the Ki-43 it will have to be considerably redesigned, which is not worth it late in the war.
Are you sure about that? https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Ki-43-III_otsu_Hayabusa
 
IIRC didn't the Japanese get some airborne raidar sets from Germany? Manufacturing them would be a problem though...
Would it? I don't know what they got the Germans but Japan could and did build airborne radar sets in very large number before 1944 and produced several earlier types of them by the thousands and later one by the hundreds. The Pacific war encyclopedia says that they built a number of functional radars capable of airborne use and could build them in very large numbers throughout the war. Most were used for lower altitudes but there were a few that could do higher altitude as well. The Taki-1 system seems to have been able to do this and was readily available but on the heavy side. Not sure how much it weighed but probably at least a few hundred pounds. It was originally designed to be put on bombers. They had the taki-13 but it was supposedly meant for low altitude, though I don't know if this means it was only suited to that. Another good option would have been the type 3 mark 6 model 4 (some sources call it called "type H6" or "type 6"). It had trouble with corona discharge at high altitude unless it had a Yagi antenna. This antenna had to go on the nose, therefore, it was going to be used at alitude, it had to be used on a twin engine plane (or a pusher, theoretically). It was a bit heavy but a twin engine interceptor could easily carry it.

How about putting a type 3 radar on a Ki-46 or a Ki-102?
 

FBKampfer

Banned
I guess you proved me wrong FBK. You definitely know better than me. I'm still not a big fan of the Ki-44 though.

Not the goal. If you have information about the sink rate and altitude loss of the Ki-43, by all means. I'm just guesstimatimg based on what I remember from my aeronautical engineering classes, and the data I have available.

And that's fine. Personally I love the Ki-43, but I recognize it's not a war winner.

IIRC didn't the Japanese get some airborne raidar sets from Germany? Manufacturing them would be a problem though...

See others re production.

But the problem with the airborne radar sets was their range. You needed ground guidance to get onto the bomber stream, and then the airborne sets would be best used for target selection and tracking.
 
Whatever plane you use still has to deal with the problem of the B-29's size and defensive firepower. It can survive a lot more punishment than any fighter ever will and the remote controlled turrets can do quite a number on the attacker before they'll to take it down. I'm not saying that the bomber could fend off every attack, but it could definitely survive quite a few because of this. If, on the other hand, the interceptor were armed with unguided air to air rockets, the bomber's size would become a weakness since it presents such a big, slow turning target for a one-hit-kill weapon. IOTL, the Germans used one of these weapons with their jet but theoretically, I think it could have been used with any platform that could carry it.
 
Last edited:
Just a quick note, the -IIIb never had a 1300HP Ha-33-42 (Kinsei-50 series) engine, it's a mistake perpetuated. It had the same Ha-115-II engine. I think there WAS a project to fit (surplus?) Kinseis, as Ki-43-IV or something like that, but it was never built. Recall the Kinsei has a larger diameter than Sakae (Ha-115), on A6M8 they could not fit nose MGs because of that. If you put Kinsei on the Ki-43 it will have to be considerably redesigned, which is not worth it late in the war.
What's the deal with the A6M8 anyway? If you can have the A6M8, then you can also have the Reppu with the Kinsei which is obviously better. I could understand if they wanted a heavily updated zero because it could be produced sooner and/or quicker than a redesigned plane but they didn't build it until the very end. Nobody seems to know much about the A6M8 and I've always been very curious about it.
 
Last edited:
Top