Rejected By Japan For The Dumbest Reason: Kawasaki Ki-96

hey everyone how's it going today we're going to be talking a little bit about rejection I'll be your therapist for today so that I can say that rejection is just a natural part of life from relationships to job hunting to everything in between it seems like everybody has a story from when they were job hunting going from place to place interview to interview where they seemingly want you to have years of experience for a minimum wage job and then you never end up hearing back from them like that time that I was interviewed to work at a warehouse I forget what store the warehouse was for and the interview all but hired me and told me that I would hear back in just a few days time and then I never heard from them ever again sadly it's not as if that kind of story is unique people being rejected for positions and being left completely out in the cold the job market just plain sucks now though I want you to think about all the time s you've been rejected in your life and given a reason for that rejection what was the stupidest reason that you were rejected that you still look back on both confused and annoyed my personal example of this is from a couple years ago I wanted to try out some freelance writing you know just to try it looking at various websites and Publications that would publish user and reader essays and whatnot I tried proposing a few ideas to slate as I like their more casual presentation and writing I don't remember exactly what I proposed but I was rejected on the basis that they did not publish articles with that kind of subject matter so it was probably history related then not too long afterward I saw them publish multiple articles from various writers on very similar subjects so now I have a vendetta against slate these mundane stories of mine aside they do actually kind of relate to our subject for today a mid World War II era Japanese fighter design that was rejected and rejected for a very stupid reason see if you can guess why it was rejected this is the Kawasaki k96 however we can't talk about the k96 without talking about its predecessor we got to have a little context here and for that context we have to jump back to 1937 in Japan's effort to construct the dragon slayer around that time other major militaries had been constructing and experimenting with heavy fighter designs heavy Fighters as a concept are largely a relic of the 1930s and 40s having been largely abandoned past World War II but in the buildup to World War II heavy Fighters were incredibly enticing offering far greater power carrying capacity and overall Armament than your traditional single engine Fighters owing to these features many a country tried making heavy Fighters for long range escort Interceptor and just general fighter roles however their larger size often made them ineffective as Fighters against smaller single engine aircraft but at the same time they're bulk did make them excellent candidates for other roles like ground attacking light bombing and torpedo bombing and Japan realizing that everybody else was making these planes didn't want to be left behind therefore the Imperial Japanese military would issue in March 1937 some specifications for a new twin engine heavy fighter initially though these specifications were effectively just that a twin engine heavy fighter as the general concept of a heavy fighter was still new to the Japanese military they weren't entirely sure what the specification should be should it prioritize speed should it prioritize bomb load should it prioritize total Armament they didn't really know so they let the manufacturers just sort of play around with the idea to these very broad specs three companies would return designs Nakajima the ke37 Kawasaki the ke38 and Mitsubishi the key 39 while I couldn't really find anything on what the ke37 design looked like it appears as though that design was quickly abandoned Mitsubishi 2 would quickly abandon the k39 to focus on other projects but the general design of the k39 was likely something like this as Mitsubishi would use the k39 as some influence and reference on a later project known as the k46 a reconnaissance aircraft this would leave just Kawasaki's ke38 design as the last one standing and that design looked at least similar to this Kawasaki would produce a mockup to be inspected but the project was temporarily put on pause as the Japanese military decided on what exactly the specifications of this plane should be once they had the actual specifications ready in late 1937 Kawasaki was given both these specifications and orders to begin construction of a fullscale prototype now dub the key 45 for this design the Japanese military wanted a twin engine two seat fighter with a top speed of 300 1 35 mph a flight endurance of just under 5 hours two forward firing guns and one rear firing gun and two Nakajima H 20 radial engines with around 820 horsepower a piece by January 1939 Kawasaki had a completed prototype outfitted with 3 7.7 mm machine guns one of them rear firing and an optional 20 mm cannon on the underside of the fuselage when the first prototype took to the air in January 1939 the results were very disappointing owing to the engine theels causing too much drag and the ha20 engines not actually outputting 820 horsepower the top speed was well below 335 on subsequent prototypes they would attempt to reduce Nel drag and bring in some greater airf flow to the engine to try and increase power but these fixes would result in a top speed of just 298 M hour not terrible but certainly not up to the military issued specifications either this would result in the project being halted until more powerful engines were selected so from late 1939 to April 1940 the project would sit dormant until the Japanese military came in and ordered that a new prototype be fitted with two nakajimaa 25 radials each with around 1,000 horsepower the fitting of these new engines would boost the top speed to upwards of 323 M an hour combine these new engines and new top speed with some design changes that included an improved Armament of two forward firing 12.7 mm machine guns to go along with the rear fire in 7.7 mil gun along with some slight improvements in the aerodynamics of the body the k45 would be approved for production under the full name Army type 2 two- seat fighter Model A toru simply referred to as the k45 kai a production would begin in September 1941 and by August 1942 the key 45 would see its first deliveries to combat units by October that same year they would see their first combat missions in the Skies over China and Southeast Asia while the k45 would likely not perform all that well against smaller single engine Fighters due to it being a heavy fighter in its initial combat run it was actually very effective as a bomber Interceptor with a solid Armament or solid for a Japanese fighter design anyway of two two 12.7 mm guns and a 20 mm Cannon the k45 would quickly develop a reputation as a fantastic weapon against enemy B24 liberators and while not as proficient as its anti- bomber role the k45 proved itself to be a solid ground attacker and anti-shipping aircraft in part due to the solid Armament in part to it being more armored than your typical Japanese fighter and thus more durable in essence Japan had a very solid multi-roll aircraft at their disposal in order to improve its ability as a ground attacker in anti-shipping aircraft though a new variant known as the key 45 Kai B would fit a new Armament of just two forward firing guns but they were 12mm cannon in the nose and 137 mm Cannon under the fuselage the 37 mil would actually be hand fed presumably by the co-pilot which would reduce the overall offensive potential then as Allied Forces began increasingly utilizing night bombing as a natural defense the k45 would see another variant in the k45 kai C this one would run into a bit more trouble though as the necessary radar that would have to be installed in the nose was not yet ready so it would end up being a night fighter without any form of radar a little bit of a rarity if that radar had been installed the forward firing Armament would likely just have been 137 mm now semi-automatic Cannon as the nose would be occupied by the radar without the radar though the nose could be used to house two 20 mm cannons both of them installed in a slight upward angle as they would be attacking bombers that were above them Additionally the C model would have slightly improved Mitsubishi ha 102 radial engines with 1,50 horsepower a piece this ended up improving the top speed to about 340 mph now this is where we get to the k96 in August 1942 just as the key 45 was entering service Kawasaki began working on a potential down the line successor to the key 45 in the key 452 apparently this was done without the direction or guidance of the Japanese military Kawasaki was just making a prediction that the k45 would end up being replaced shortly so it was planned for the 452 to use two Mitsubishi ha 112 engines likely a later more powerful subvariant of them with around 1,500 horsepower to its name this would end up being the same engine that was used on the Kawasaki ke100 a late war fighter that just about matched America's P51 in one-on-one combat it's also a plane that I made a video on a few weeks ago make sure you watch it on Loop forever having two of these high power engines would certainly give the 452 much improved top speed and greater potential to carry stronger Weaponry additionally they would enlarge the frame ever so slightly the Baseline k45 would be 11 M long 15.2 M wide and 3.7 M tall the 452 would have the same height but it would be an extra half a meter longer at 11.45 and half a met wider at 15.57% tail design these slight body alterations were likely done to improve handling and control perhaps having something to do with the greater engine power as well and with this greater engine power the standard Armament for the Interceptor SL ground attacker could be two 20 mm cannons and 1 37 mm Cannon a major improvement over the Baseline k45 Kai a and its 2 12.7 mm machine guns and 120 mil Cannon the potential for this plane was certainly there but at least initially the Japanese military just didn't care at first the Japanese military considered the design to be of low priority owing to the fact that the key 45 had just started seeing combat they simply didn't see the need for a new design at this moment and specifically not a new two seat heavy fighter and as the k45 perform rather well in its Interceptor and ground attack roles then certainly they wouldn't see much need for the 452 yet still the Japanese military would throw Kawasaki a bone and authorize the production of three prototypes likely still as low priority as the k45 Baseline variants were still under production and upgrades however in December 194 42 the Japanese military would make a small design change request that would Breathe some life into the key 452 and that was for a heavy fighter that housed just a single pilot not two this meant that the key 452 could proceed under the new designation key 96 as a single seat heavy Fighter the removal of the co-pilot meant that the rear-facing 792 mm machine gun was removed giving the plane no rear defense still with the potentially much improved performance that likely didn't matter all that much as the Japanese military had some actual distinct specifications for the k96 now design of this plane would accelerate through the first half of 1943 and by September the first prototype was completed despite now being independent of the key 45 the first pro prototype actually looked just about identical to it this was because the k96 actually started out as a 2 seat key 452 a good portion of the fuselage had already been completed including the cockpit and canopy instead of changing that for the Prototype they elected to just keep the extended canopy for now and have the back half of it sit empty just longing for the days it had a co-pilot in there this little design Relic would only be present in the first prototype though and the two subsequent prototypes that were made just about in parallel would have a smaller canopy to reflect the single seat status so as they were all finished in September 1943 all of them would partake in the initial flight testing that month and the results were fantastic with a relatively light gross weight of 13,22 8 lb the k96 would manage a top speed of 373 mph at roughly around 20,000 ft along with displaying excellent handling and control with this kind of performance and the overall layout and design of this plane it looked as though Japan had a clear potential successor to the k45 and perhaps sort of their own version of Britain's to havin mosquito which is why it both pains and kind of delights me to say that the Japanese military completely ignored the good performance of the k96 and it would never advance past the Prototype phase now let's put on our brainstorming hats why exactly did the Japanese military reject the k96 for a more sensible reason perhaps there could have been some shortage in the high 112 engine that it was supposed to use if they didn't have solid access to those engines then it wouldn't really be viable as a plane right yet or maybe there were some production issues at the Kawasaki factories as they were still working on the k45 and its variance maybe the military would have prioritized the production of an already in production plane after all Japan would prioritize the production of the zero over other more advanced aircraft so them prioritizing the key 45 certainly wouldn't be shocking however none of these more sensible reasons would be why the Japanese military ignored the key 96 no the real reason was that before the k96 took to the air in September 1943 the Japanese military decided to go back on their design specs for the key 96 and just decided out of nowhere that they did not want a single seat heavy fighter anymore now I don't know why but this kind of irrationally annoys me why did they even give Kawasaki those specs only to just turn around and say no for seemingly no reason even though the plane performed very well and potentially could have given Japan their very own mosquito so yes the k96 basically ended before it could begin but from its ashes would two more potential aircraft as the Japanese military went back to only wanting a two seat heavy fighter Kawasaki would take the k96 almost in its entirety and transform it back into a two-seater keeping the same dimensions and the same ha 112 engines with 1500 horsepower each this new design was intended to serve as a multi-roll attacker but lean towards being a ground attack ER as the ground attacking role would now be the major Focus the new design would have an improved Armament with the 37 mm Cannon being replaced with a 57 mm Cannon along with there being the return of a rear-facing machine gun this time a 12.7 mil additionally there was to be more armor on the underside this change would increase the gross weight by about 3,000 lb up to 1694 and it would also reduce the top speed down to 360 mph even with this reduction though it was a two-seater now which Japan was desperate for I guess and the performance was much better than the k45 so after successful flight testing in March 1944 the ky102 was officially ordered into production in October 1944 Additionally the Japanese military would order two other variants of the ky102 in the key 102a and key 102c the standard version of this plane was the B oddly enough the key 102a was to be a high altitude fighter variant desperately needed as Allied bombing attacks on Japan were ramping up these models would replace the 57 mm cannon with a 37 mil so basically they just made the key 102a back into the key 96 again so what's the point of anything anymore then the C variant was intended to be a KN fighter intercepting attacking Knight bombers the Armament would be 23 mm cannons and 2 20 mm Cannons of these three ky102 models the Baseline B model would be the most common and it would see very limited use over the Skies of okan Nawa but the other two would not see use before the war ended and as a derivative of the key 102 though the key 108 would be born albe it with just a handful of models the key 108 was to be an improved night fighter SL Interceptor with a pressurized cockpit and slightly altered dimensions and control surfaces however these also amounted to very little before the war ended in the end only the k45 with the project starting back in 1937 made any kind of noticeable Mark in World War II as a pretty solid bomber destroyer and night fighter while it's not as if Japan lived or died on having an improved heavy fighter SL Interceptor SL ground attacker one does have to wonder if it would have made any noticeable change in Allied bombing Effectiveness should a plane like the k96 have made it past the Prototype phase could it potentially have been Japan's mosquito or perhaps Japan's P38 it's certainly not out of the question unfortunately for them though the Japanese military decided to completely ignore the excellent performance of the k96 for just about No Good Reason sometimes the performance of a plane truly does not matter it may live or die on the whims of the leadership of the country that it serves all right and with that we're going to go ahead and end for today so thank you all for watching Remember to like comment and subscribe you know when I was reading about the key 96 the little Saga reminds me of a scene from SpongeBob where there's this dad with his crying kid and the kids complaining that he doesn't like pistachio ice cream and the dad trying not to scream at him just goes then why did you ask for it it's kind of like the exact same thing Japan's that kid and they really don't like pistachio ice cream I don't want a single seat heavy fighter then why did you ask for it but anyway I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you learned something so see you

Channel: IHYLS

Views: 102,382

Keywords: Kawasaki, kawasaki ki 96, kawasaki ki 45, fighter aircraft, heavy fighter, interceptor, japanese aircraft, ww2, world war 2, military history, aviation history, military aircraft, japanese air force, airplane, pacific war, bomber destroyer

Id: 9RkWZgAGorA

Length: 23min 48sec (1428 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2024