Japanese Profiles.

[Devil 505]

# 68 (top of above post) is on my to-do list.

Great stuff as usual, Lyric. Thanks.

[lyric1]

Great stuff as usual, Lyric. Thanks.

Thank you.

I have been trying to find photos of 29th Sentai Ki-84's & I have only found one that is a known 29th aircraft that crash landed.



No elaborate tail markings on this one. It is possibly this airplane in the profiles but I cant tell for sure.





From what I had read this unit was decimated & this explained why next to no photos were about when this unit was fighting in the Philippines.
I did find a photo of a KI-44 though & the text mentions that at some point it was beleived the tail markings of the 29th were fictitious.





Interestingly the arrow on the KI-44 is over the horizontal surfaces instead of under on the KI-84 profiles & the arrow ends a long way short of the meatball like on the Ki-84 profiles.



Maybe a design change for the different model air frame or possibly different styles depending on who was painting them This seems unlikely to me though as the Japanese if nothing else were very particular about how they hand painted most of the aircraft.

While I was looking though my books this photo caught my eye in the top left corner. Not a great photo in terms of resolution & the aircraft in question is partially obscured.



 


Yet there is that same white curved shape on the tail of the center aircraft as in the profile above. Fairly certain it is what I have been looking for. The only thing I cant tell for certain is how exactly is it painted because it is not at all like any of the 29th Setai profiles I have seen before.



I think the photo is like the KI-44 profile over the tail. If so possibly all the profiles I have seen of these KI-84's a wrong.
Thoughts.

[lyric1]

Momotarō (Peach Boy).

197th Shinbu-tai.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotar%C5%8D

http://www.geocities.ws/msheftall/ki84.html

[lyric1]

58th Shinbu-tai.

Better photo.

[lyric1]

Found a better photo looks like they had a fire while measuring this plane.

[lyric1]

The Japanese sites where I found some of the photos say theses were aircraft assigned to the navy for evaluation purposes.
Jim Lansdale at Jaircraft translated the tail.

"I think this this is [コ- ハへ-1 ] [KO-HA YA- 1].  KO is the prefix for test aircraft, followed by the kana for the first two syllables in HAYATE."

At wars end the Japanese through everything into the fight it is possible even though evaluation aircraft they still may have seen combat.

From a Japanese magazine.



Also found another photo of the same aircraft.

[lyric1]

 520th Temporary Interception Regiment.

Another aircraft from this unit. There is no complete photo of this aircraft & it had a few changes over time.
This link below tells its story & it so happens I have both books that mentions the images.

http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2013/12/yet-more-hayate-thoughts-non-standard.html

Too big an image for my scanner.




I think the second aircraft over is the plane in question with no kill markings yet based off of the two profiles.



The pilot Lt. Kurai and his arm patch with kill markings.



Partial view of the three striped profile.



Then there is the money shot.

[Devil 505]

Great stuff, Lyric. I've had my eye on that scheme, now it shall be done.

[lyric1]

11th Sentai 3rd Chutai.

[lyric1]

I do now these are Naval KI-84's don't know much more than that for now.

Larger view you can see the spinner in this shot looks to be similar in colour to the text & stripe on the tail?

[lyric1]

22nd Sentai 1st Chutai.
#932

Another aircraft from the 22nd Sentai.

[lyric1]

Looks like #37 was most likely part of the 200th Sentai. These aircraft were all part of the Akeno flying school before they became a combat squadron.

http://arawasi-wildeagles.blogspot.com/2014/04/nakajima-ki-84-hayate-akeno-200-sentai.html

You can see some of them in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6L__BG1LwU

A profile I found to match in the above video link.

[lyric1]

#508 a bare metal aircraft I have been trying to figure out the only information I have found is in Japanese.  I think it may have been an early test aircraft I am not sure though.

[lyric1]

I have been trying to find photos of 29th Sentai Ki-84's & I have only found one that is a known 29th aircraft that crash landed.



No elaborate tail markings on this one. It is possibly this airplane in the profiles but I cant tell for sure.

Only the second confirmed 29th Sentai KI-84 picture I have found. No bare metal aircraft & still no elaborate tail markings to bee seen.

I believe the tail markings are the pilots initials.

[Volron]

#508 a bare metal aircraft I have been trying to figure out the only information I have found is in Japanese.  I think it may have been an early test aircraft I am not sure though.

Have you tried asking Blade and/or Busa for help on this one?