Oscar KI43

[HighTone]

Just so we are clear (so we're on the same page), the Ki-43-I and Ki-43-II would be great additions and most needed additions to this game. I have always said as much.

Woot woot, that's the spirit 

Still can't wait for my first sortie in the Ki-43(?), when ever it is, man that's gonna be a blast.

[Slade]

Ok it won''t turn up in the MA

Oh yes it will! 

Not all of us tend to fly Tie Fighter 16s and LA7s.  To many here (self included) it is more fun to shoot down uber planes and pilots in underated planes.

+1 on the Oscar KI43

[DrBone1]

+1   

[PFactorDave]

I would fly it in the MA...  Probably not very well, but I would fly it.  Also, I imagine that it would be popular in the DA.  Similar to the C202, fun to duel in because it is manueverable but snap shots rarely end the fight with just a couple of pings.

[Pigslilspaz]

Just remember you are flying a firework, and you're gonna light up good. On the other hand, once you are on someone, they can't get you off.

[Karnak]

Just remember you are flying a firework, and you're gonna light up good. On the other hand, once you are on someone, they can't get you off.

No more so than in the A6M series.  Frankly, the rudimentary self sealing tanks on the Ki-43-II probably mean it would be less prone to fires than the A6Ms.

Also, you'd be very, very nimble and thus, if you keep up your SA, should be able to avoid most attacks.

You're pretty much toast if blindsided though.  Ki-43 was probably the lightest built WWII fighter by a wide margin.

[Wmaker]

You may be mixing up the versions WMaker.

No, I'm not mixing up versions.

Your arrogance knows no bounds.

[Wmaker]

Overall prodution was just under 6000 for all 3 types, of which Ki-43-III production (while hard to pin down exact numbers) was the minority.

...Just like the Dora, 109K, F4U-1C and F4U-4 for example. Ki-43 was the mainstay of the IJAAF and definately deserves to have three variants added. Main types of the US, GE and UK already have many more variants for their main types.

Per J Baugher:

Hiroshi Ichimura's Aircraft of the Aces book for example details how 64th Sentai returned to Burma in 2nd of August '44 after it had switched to Ki-43-IIIs, a full year before the VJ-day.

You're at least a year too early for that to be remotely possible,

It looks like you need to read some elemental facts on how the front line moved in the Pacific War.

I think you'll be hard-pressed to find much record of Ki-43-III service, if you look into it.

That's just the thing. Unlike you, I have actually looked into it.

[HighTone]

And there should be plenty of great looking skins for the Oscar. Somewhere in HTC land the Oscar has to be prowlin 

[Krusty]

Hiroshi Ichimura's Aircraft of the Aces book for example details how 64th Sentai returned to Burma in 2nd of August '44 after it had switched to Ki-43-IIIs, a full year before the VJ-day.

Funny, since the plane didn't begin production until December 1944.

I don't know the book you mentioned, but I suspect they got their facts wrong on that one.

EDIT: Although there is some idle speculation that 64th Sentai got a small number of pre-production Ki-43-IIIs at some point to test/trial, I will give you that much. Perhaps that is where the book you listed makes a mistake.

Edit2: Actually, that doesn't explain your book's mistake, since they started getting pre-production prototypes in September.

[icepac]

KI43 shot down more allied aircraft than any other japanese type.

The secondary KI43 factory kept producing the KI43 long after the primary factory switched to KI84 and was the factory responsible for the KI43III

[Krusty]

Joe Bauher lists only 10 preproduction prototypes were made in May of 1944. These were tested for quite a long time, and for whatever reasons (delays, new tooling, whatever) production lines didn't pump out models until December.

Now, I've seen combat reports of 64th Sentai with Ki-43-IIIs engaging spitfires and such in Jan 1945 and Feb 1945, but I haven't seen anything earlier than this. The majority of the few-hundred Ki-43-IIIs built saw limited homeland defense in 1945. Burma is one exception, although the Ki-43-IIIs there were definitely not as much of a game-changer as WMaker would suggest.

[icepac]

Well....we have spit 16 and f4uc in game.......

[Karnak]

Well....we have spit 16 and f4uc in game.......

We do not, in fact, have the Spitfire Mk XVI.  We have the Spitfire LF.Mk IXe labeled as a Spitfire Mk XVI.  More than 3000 Spitfire LF.Mk IXs were built, and more than 1000 of the very similar Spitfire Mk XVIs.  Putting that in the same category as the F4U-1C is ridiculous.  Aircraft in the F4U-1C's category are the C.205, P-47M, Me163 and Ta152.

[HighTone]

 Aircraft in the F4U-1C's category are the C.205, P-47M, Me163 and Ta152.

N1K2-J?