Did you know...

[oboe]

Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd, built over 16,000 aircraft of all types for the Japanese Army and Navy during Workd War II?

16,000!   That's fighters, torpedo bombers, scout planes, level bombers and twin-engined attack aircraft.

The most advanced Nakajima fighter, the Ki.84 Hayate, is regarded by many as the best Japanese fighter of World War II.
It was the only 400+ mph Japanese fighter to see combat.   Over 3,500 Hayate's were produced and served in the China, the Phillippines, and the Home Islands beginning in 1944.

[easymo]

Yes.

[Frodo]

Yes but didn't you know...Pyro hates the KI-84!:p

Frodo

[oboe]

That's an interesting observation.  I doubt it has merit, though. I'm sure that Pyro uses intelligence, intuition and experience without passion or prejudice, to choose which aircraft and vehicles to include in the game.   AH is just too big now to let personal bias influence development, if that ever was a factor.    (Man, oh man I hope I'm right about that  )

Significant production numbers and outstanding performance must not be the only benchmarks he uses to determine whether an aircraft is deserving of inclusion.   There does seem to be plenty of flight model data around, the aircraft did perform well in real life and so has an excellent reputation, and it's from a country and air force that doesn't already have an overabundance of aircraft in AH.     It would be useful immediately in the Main Arena and the CT and in scenarios.     Many AH flyers are asking for it by name.   These must be the kind of concerns that he has to weigh before giving the green light to a/c development.

[Hortlund]

I wonder what a Ki-84 is...

Does it have a name? Like Oscar, or Frank, or Zeke, or Tony?

[robsan]

Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate "Frank"
Hayate means Hurricane

[Hortlund]

ahaaa so that is what everyone has been talking so much about.
The Frank. Yes I have heard about this aircraft before.

[oboe]

Well, yes, in point of fact the Japanese called it "Hayate", which translates to "Gale".   The Allied code name for the fighter was "Frank".

Now then, gentlemen, if you'll look to the left, you'll see the Nakajima B6N Tenzan, a high-performance naval bomber which entered service in late 1943 and saw its operational debut in the South Pacific in 1944...

[gatso]

Just posted this in 'aircraft and vehicles'

http://www.airwar.ru/other/draw.html

Gatso

got the link right this time

[oboe]

Ahem, yes, very nice images of the Hayate, all...

Now then, the Ki.44 "Shoki" or "Devil Queller", was Nakajima's answer to a JAAF requirement for a high-speed interceptor.   Sacrificing manueverability for speed and climb rate, the Ki.44 could reach 5,000m in 4.3 minutes.   Armed with 4x12.7mm machine guns...

[gofaster]

What I'd like to see is the NiK2's flight model and damage profile "corrected" and introduce the Ki-84 to expand the Japan planeset library.

[Hortlund]

So what is the name of the Ki-44?

[straffo]

Tojo I think

[oboe]

The name of the Ki.44 is indeed "Shoki", however the Allies referred to it by the codename: "Tojo".

Now moving along gentlemen, if you'll look to the right you'll see one of Nakajima's most popular designs, the Ki.43 "Hayabusa" ("Peregrine Falcon").    This little fighter sacrificed just about everything for lightness and manueverability.   Armed with only 2x12.7 mm machine guns, it could actually outturn the A6M.   This was one of the Nakajima fighters most often encountered by the AVG in China.   Over 5,900 examples were built, and although seriously outclassed by newer Allied designs, the Ki.43 remained in production to the end...

[Mitsu]

Japanese name is "Shoki".
American Codename is "Tojo".

I think that Ki-44 is actually best Imperial Japanese Army Air Force fighter. It is faster than any IJAAF plane except Frank, it has excellent Ailerons and Rudder actions, out-standing climb, accel and dive performance, clear canopy, very strong airframes against G (about 12.6G), beter ammo than Ki-43 Oscar, and it can still out-maneuver almost allied fighters.

But almost IJAAF pilots unfortunately didn't understand its capacity.

Also, it was not available in other online flight sims yet (only target rabaul is gonna release it, but it's not out yet), so I wish Pyro decide to release this plane in V1.11 first...

Thanks.