The (Kind of) Accidental Superplane: Kawasaki Ki-100

hey everyone how's it going today we're going to be talking about Japan the country where all that anime stuff comes from or as my mom calls anime Chinese cartoons sort of geographically correct I guess now if I wanted to I could go on about my favorite anime and manga a topic that completely goes against the military history theme of this channel but would still fit into the I hope you learn something channel name but instead of probably boring all of you with that instead we'll talk about a very different era of Japan all the way back in 1945 with the Imperial Japanese on their last legs with Mainland Japan being assaulted from the skies and just months away from one of the most devastating weapons of war ever used leveling Japanese cities at this stage of the war Japan was growing increasingly desperate looking for any way whatsoever to slow Allied advances in the Pacific and quell the constant bombing of their cities and factories initially this would mean tactical shifts both in the air and on the ground in the air as American aircraft had vastly improved since the start of hostilities in late 1941 and the constant shelling had negatively impacted Japan's ability to make new better a aircraft Japan began turning to kamakazi attacks as a way to stop Allied vessels and advances on the ground very early War tactics of engaging in Bonsai charges had given way to holding ground as long as possible digging in their heels and not seeding an inch until they physically no longer could even if it meant their demise back on the Japanese Homeland ordinary civilians were being trained in hand-to-hand combat with simple weapons like sharpen bamboo Spears men women and children were being prepared to defend the Homeland no matter the cost and perhaps luckily it kind of didn't come to that but also kind of did in that Japan like their allies Germany resorted to using child soldiers in the final stages of the war forcibly enlisting and accepting volunteers generally in the age range of 14 to 17 but allegedly at least in the case of Germany going as low as just 8 years old in these more desperate stages societal Norms were thrown out the window and women for example who were typically relegated to nursing or Communications or secretary roles were two test with taking up arms for a country in its dying throws it seemed seems as though anything goes and that rhymes I'm a poet and I don't even know it but in the aviation Sphere for Japan apart from their kamakazi Adventures a major goal of theirs would be some kind of Interceptor or fighter that could quell that constant bombing the problem at the moment was that the most common fighter aircraft they had was the zero the infamous zero that dominated early in the war at this point though it was quite outdated and more crucially it had rather poor high altitude performance while quite fast and effective at low altitudes at higher altitudes where the bombers destroying Japan lived the zeros would be eaten alive by basically whatever was escorting those bombers still despite their ineffectiveness at this stage of the war their production continued because of their relatively simple production process in their effort though to stem the Allied tide Japan both out of desperation and by a factor not really in their control would almost accidentally end up making a fighter Interceptor that was all factors considered one of the best single engine fighter aircraft made during the war a plane that in combat could give the best American fighters a run for their money and lives for that matter this is the last new fighter aircraft to enter service for Japan this is the Kawasaki Ki 100 the story of this just about accidental design begins with another Kawasaki design the Ki 61 a plane that looks kind of similar to the Ki 100 wink wink the Ki 61 just from initial visual Impressions doesn't look like your typical Japanese fighter in that had a pointed nose rather than a flat nose for the vast majority of Japanese Fighters they would use aircooled radial engines which then entailed air intakes on the nose behind the propeller giving the nose a rather flat look the more pointed nose of the k61 and a lot of other fighters from other countries resulted from using liquid cold inline engines for these the larger air V aren't needed and so a more pointed and more aerodynamically efficient nose can be used Japan would largely stick to using radial engines though probably because radials are generally more rugged and durable plus they don't need extra cooling systems the trade-off of course was that there was an overall decrease in aerodynamic efficiency with the Ki 61 though Japan would attempt to move away from their bread and butter and obtain a license to produce the German diimler Benz DB 601 engine which had around 1100 horsepower and they would try to make something more in line with the rest of the world in fact because it deviated from the standard Japanese design when it was cited in combat by Allied Forces they actually believed it was either a German or Italian fighter just with Japanese markings from the the side profile of the design it certainly does mimic the German bf19 which considering that plane also use the DB 601 this does make sense first flying in December 1941 the Ki 61 would measure in at 8.94 M long 12 M wide and 3.7 M tall weighing 5,798 lb empty early test flight would demonstrate rather solid performance hitting a top speed of 367 mph at around 20,000 ft in comparison flights against other Japanese Fighters the Ki 43 and Ki 44 along with a German bf19 and a captured American P40 the k61 would demonstrate the best overall performance beating all of them in speed and only losing to the Ki 43 in maneuverability armed with two 20 mm cannons and two 12.7 mm machine guns the Ki 61 would be pretty heavily armed as Japanese Fighters are concerned with an overall heavier Armament than the K i43 and v0 however production of the Ki 61 would be rather slow due to some slight design changes and the need for Japanese factories to fully adapt to producing inline engines instead of radial engines when they began seeing combat in early 1943 they would have an overall complicated career generally speaking in combat against Allied Fighters at this point like the P40 and P38 the k61 held up quite well at this time planes like the p47 Thunderbolt were just arriving to the Pacific and the P-51 Mustang wasn't there yet so hypothetically the Ki 61 would be able to dominate the skies I have to say hypothetically though because the engines that they were using gave them a lot of problems at least three major factors hampered these engines and by effect the Ki 61 for one they were not well suited to Dam environments that were seen in the Pacific so on takeoff the overall higher humidity led to poor performance on the ground once they were actually in the air this was less of an issue but it was still a problem nonetheless for two because Japan was not well versed in the production of the DB 601 and because Japan's raw materials were lacking a bit their models of this engine were plagued with issues General failures and poor performance especially poor performance at high altitudes this directly led into the third issue because of their lack of experience and general quality issues the engines were incredibly difficult to fix and had to be removed outright from the plane and shipped away to more welle equipped factories that could actually take care of them this meant that when there was an engine failure which happened a lot the Ki 61 would be grounded for a significant length of time unless they had a replacement engine on hand they would attempt to fix these problems and at the same time improve the High Altitude performance of the Ki 61 with an improved version of the engine that had around 1,500 horsepower this new model plane going by the name of k612 while the top speed would be improved to 379 mph at 20,000 ft these engines would be even more finicky than their predecessors suffering from above other things a weak crankshaft and decreased power from poor manufacturing because the engines were so shoddy the Japanese military decided to try and go back to their roots and try the Ki 612 with a radial engine instead replacing the DB 601 would be the Mishu bitzi ha12 14 cylinder radial engine also with 1,500 horsepower this engine in one form or designation or another had been in production since 1932 and had been used on Japanese aircraft from the beginning of the war this not only meant that Japan would have plenty of them already made and ready to go in fact total production of this engine numbered over 12 12,000 but they would also be very well versed in it in how to fix and maintain it the greater question would be in how it affected performance and actually first the greater question would be how it would fit on the frame because the Ki 61 was designed around the Slimmer DB 601 which measured just 29.1 in wide fitting the 48 in wide ha12 would be a little bit of a task not necessarily a difficult task mind you but a task that needed a bit more thought luckily for Japan though their allies in Germany had a somewhat similar issue with the fak volf fw1 190a where a slim fuselage was paired with a wide engine this ended up giving the fw190 a bit of a teardrop shaped fuselage so for Japan they would effectively copy what Germany did this led to the altered Ki 612s now called the Ki 100 to having a similarly teardrop shaped fuselage with this initial engine issue sorted out the greater question now lie in how the radial engine would impact performance sure it had similar power and it was actually lighter weighing around 1,200 lb compared to at least, 1300 pounds for the DB 601 not including the necessary coolant system but it would also reduce the overall aor dnamic efficiency with the nose having to be altered to intake significantly more air with the similar power and lower weight help counterbalance that increase in drag that was the new question as it turns out the Ki 100 serves as an excellent example for how important drag is in aircraft performance even with the Ki 100 weighing about 200 lb less than the Ki 61 sitting at 5,567 lb empty and it would also be 5 in shorter to boot The increased drag from the radial engine would reduce the top speed by at least 7 m an hour dropping from 367 on the original Ki 61 to 360 m an hour at 20,000 ft on the Ki 100 while the speed dropped a bit because of the decrease in overall weight the maneuverability and handling saw a marked improvement in a rather significant sense the Ki 100 performance continued the trend of Japanese Fighters seeming to prioritize maneuverability over top speed and overall Firepower in mid January 1945 before the Ki 100 first took to the air and displayed its exceptional performance an attack from Allied Forces effectively forced Japan to go head long into the Ki 100 project an Allied bombing raid would destroy the factory that was producing the improved DB 601 engines leaving a whopping 275 Ki 61 frames without an engine so after the Ki 100 flew on February 1st these 275 frames or technically 271 after four of them were used for prototypes would all be sent in for conversions to the Ki 100 from March to June 1945 those frames would be converted and sent into Japanese Skies to defend against attacking b29 bombers f6f hellcats p47 Thunderbolts and P51 Mustangs aside from the b29 the Ki 100 would be going up against a veritable who's who of Allied Fighters some of the best and most well recognized of the entire War the Ki 100 would either be eaten alive or have a chance to really prove itself the results largely would be in the latter category going up against basically any Allied Fighter oneon-one the Ki 100 was actually a pretty intimidating plane at lower altitudes the speed of the Ki 100 was generally on par with just about any of the previously mentioned Fighters while planes like the P-51 and p47 had higher top speeds at high altitudes at sea level their top speeds were generally somewhere between 300 and 350 mph roughly around where the Ki 100 was being evenly matched here the Ki 100 had overall better maneuverability Andor agility in a dog fight the only thing that really kept the Ki 100 behind was a lesser Armament with the p47 and P-51 having at least 650 caliber machine guns and generally speaking the Ki 100 had poorer armor all of these factors considered when the Ki 100 started appearing in combat units of their own albeit in very small numbers it showed some remarkable combat ability against all sorts of Allied Fighters and okay performance against bombers in two instances in July 1945 the Ki 100 would go up against American p-51s and f6f hellcats with basically equal results against the P-51 on July 16th 1945 Japanese forces would claim the Downing of six p51s for the loss of five of their own for America's part they claim the loss of just one P-51 though claimed losses and actual losses do differ wildly usually so I think it's safe to take a middle ground and say that like three or four p-51s were lost for a handful of Ki 100s an effective push then on July 25th a group of 18 ki1 100s would take on 10 f6f hellcats and it seems like no matter what at least two Ki 100s were lost as both sides would claim that two of them were shot down for down hellcats Japan would claim 12 which doesn't make much sense and America claimed just two so at best for Allied Forces it was again a push at worst America probably lost a handful plus one or two for an overall win for the Ki 100 the safest thing we can say about the dog fighting ability of the Ki 100 was that it was about equal to what America and Allied Forces had which considering the state of the war is actually kind of impressive Allied Forces had significant numerical material and tactical advantages at this point so the fact that the Ki 100 could hold its own against opposing Fighters says quite a lot about it going up against b29 bombers as an Interceptor though was a little bit of a different story while the Ki 100 was built at least partially to go after attacking bombers its high altitude performance left a bit to be desired the ha12 engines degraded at higher altitudes not significantly so but degraded nonetheless while the top speed at 20,000 ft was around 360 M an hour at 32,000 ft this decreased down to 332 the fighters that would be escorting the b-29s would have the opposite happen with them having higher top speeds at high altitudes this overall meant that in a highlevel Interceptor role the Ki 100 was just less effective even in its relatively small role though it did have some successes reportedly taking down at least N9 b29 on June 5th 1945 alone but regardless if it was to have greater success in this role it needed some kind of improvement for a sort of short-term Improvement that in reality didn't seem to change all that much past the initial 275 converted models made an additional 106 to 118 were made with slight changes to the tail section and canopy giving it a slightly more slim down look and probably better pilot Vision to his rear then for a much larger Improvement for high altitude intercepting they would install a supercharger on three Ki 100s this new variant being called the ki1 1002 this supercharger weighing around 400 lb would have detrimental effects at low altitudes but positive effects at high altitudes below around 26,000 ft the ki1 102s would have a lower top speed of 354 mph and the additional weight would reduce maneuverability as well above 26,000 ft though the plane would experience what a lot of other aircraft would in higher top speeds now hitting 367 mph at 32,000 ft which was better than the Baseline model at all altitudes while this wouldn't put the Ki 100 in the performance range of Allied Fighters at those altitudes it certainly would help and luckily for Allied Forces though Japan never really had the opportunity to produce the Ki 1002 on mass as the plan start of manufacturing of that model was September 1945 1 month after the war ended this would leave the Ki 100 across all three variants and prototypes with just under 400 total aircraft most of them being converted Ki 61 ones after the war ended two of the frames were taken by the United States for testing and evaluation one of them was presumably scrapped and the other would bounce around in storage until being restored and put on display in the RAF Museum in henden in the United Kingdom where it resides to this very day so while the Ki 100 didn't have much of a chance to really make a mark in World War II and there isn't that much combat evidence to back the plane up there is still an argument that the Ki 100 was the best fighter aircraft Japan had in the entire war effort up for contention across the entirety of Japan's participation in the war would be the zero the N1 K1 sheden and the k84 there are certainly Arguments for all four of these aircraft to be fair and probably others as well the zero is one of the most iconic planes of the entire War absolutely dominating early on which gave it a very impressive reputation it was also easy to manufacture and relatively easy to fly however as the war went on it became less and less effective as Allied aircraft improved and tactics improved so its overall performance in the war was mixed then the sheden a L war fighter in the hands of a skilled pilot was an absolutely incredible weapon it had something kind of unique among these planes in the form of a Mercury switch that would automatically trigger flaps that drastically improve maneuverability however the aeden was also considered to be more difficult to control and it would only be given to the very best pilots and as Japan continued losing ground and experience Pilots fewer and fewer people would truly be capable of using it to its full potential then for the Ki 84 it had the highest top speed of the four at 427 mph at 23, FT and pretty solid maneuverability to boot however this maneuverability was not superior to the Ki 100 and it can be said that the Ki 100 had a great combination of speed maneuverability and necessary pilot experience far less skilled Pilots could end up using the Ki 100 with very little issue thus in my opinion giving it a bit of an edge over the sheden in that there were just more people that could properly use it while for experienced Pilots the sheden or maybe the Ki 84 may have been the best for the bulk of the Japanese Air Forces at that stage of the war with tons of green Pilots being thrown to the Wolves the Ki 100 was probably the best plane that they could be given but because of production issues this would never come to fruition as Allied bombing runs would destroy some of the factories that were making the Ki 100 in the end though I think that the Ki 100 might be the closest thing that Japan had to a success essor to the zero and what the zero meant to the Japanese military I mean Japan was also making a direct Improvement to the zero but that never made it into combat so I guess in that regard I think we can call the Ki 100 the 02 and look at that I brought it back to anime we've gone full circle 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 to be entirely honest I didn't actually intend for things to come full circle back to anime I thought of calling the Ki 100 the 02 completely unrelated to the anime character but then after I wrote it it clicked and I was like oh that's convenient this will make me look slightly more competent just slightly though from like a zero to a 0.01 still an improvement though and I'll take it but anyway I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you learned something so see you

Channel: IHYLS

Views: 166,743

Keywords: Kawasaki, kawasaki ki 100, type 5 fighter, japanese aircraft, japanese zero, ww2, world war 2, pacific war, f6f hellcat, p 51 mustang, aviation history, military history, military aircraft, airplane, japanese air force, fighter aircraft

Id: UxUe5O-100Q

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2024