Hier war's etwas ruhiger (dank 2 Wochen Urlaub und Absenz vom PC), und in der Zwischenzeit ist
dies hier entstanden:
1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai - (Whif/Luft'46/scratch-built/kitbashing) by
dizzyfugu, on Flickr
1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai - (Whif/Luft'46/scratch-built/kitbashing) by
dizzyfugu, on Flickr
1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai - (Whif/Luft'46/scratch-built/kitbashing) by
dizzyfugu, on Flickr
1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai - (Whif/Luft'46/scratch-built/kitbashing) by
dizzyfugu, on Flickr
1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai - (Whif/Luft'46/scratch-built/kitbashing) by
dizzyfugu, on Flickr
"In response to the disappointing Kawasaki Ki-45 "Toryu" (US code name 'Nick') in late 1939 and 1940, the Japanese army ordered the development of another twin-engine fighter. As an alternative, a lighter and more agile design was demanded, better suited for high altitude interception tasks than the twin-engine escort fighters of the era. One proposal was the Manshu Ki-53 "Insei" ('Meteor', code name 'Stacy'), a relatively small and sleek, single-seated design which was built around two water-cooled Kawasaki Ho-40 (licence-built Daimler Benz DB 601, also used for the Kawasaki Ki-61 fighter) engines. The design was heavily influenced by German planes like the Messerschmitt Bf 110 or Focke Wulf Fw 187, in search of a better performance compared to both current single-or double-engine fighters in service.
After a hasty development the Ki-53 was only built in small numbers and exclusively assigned to homeland defense tasks. The plane was just in time operational to be used against the Doolittle raid on 18 April 1942, though it did not see action. The 84th Independent Flight Wing (Dokuritsu Hikō Chutai) introduced the Ki-53 as the first squadron, alongside its Ki-45. It became clear that the Ki-53 could better hold its own against single-engine fighters in aerial combat than the larger, two-seated Ki-45. It was more agile and offered a much better acceleration, but it suffered from several flaws that would never truly mended.
The Ki-53's cannon armament proved to be effective against the B-17 and B-29 Superfortress raids, which started in June 1944. But the plane was complicated and not popular, production numbers remained small. Stability became poor at high altitudes, the water-cooled engines were exotic among Imperial Japanese Army Air Service aircraft and the radiator system was prone to leaking. The lack of a pressurized cabin made high altitude interceptions hazardous - most of the time, only an initial direct attack was possible. Since the basic design offered little room for future developments, a thorough redesign was rejected and only a mere 153 were built, so that the machine did not cause much impact.
Some machines received field modifications, like an additional, semi-recessed 30mm cannon under the fuselage (omitting the hard point), these machines were designated Ki-53-I. Some Ki-53 had one of their fuselage tanks behind the cockpit removed and two additional 20mm cannons, angled 30° upwards with 150 rgp each installed - under the designation KI-53 KAI. Probably 30 machines were converted this way and used as night fighters
Later, the interceptor concept was taken back to single-engine projects like the Ki-87 or Ki-94, but both failed to proceed to hardware stage.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 29 ft 8 in (9.05 m)
Wingspan: 44 ft (13.4 m)
Height: 7 ft 3 in (3.37 m)
Wing area: 213 ft² (19.7 m²)
Weight: 6.886 kg
Maximum speed: 390 mph (625 km/h)
Range: 800 miles (1,200 km)
Service ceiling: 39.400 ft (12.000 m)
Rate of climb: 2,857 ft/min (14.1 m/s)
Engine: 2 Kawasaki Ho-40 with 1.475 hp
Armament: 2× 20 mm Ho-5 cannon (in the lower nose, 175 rpg each, one hard point under the fuselage fore a 500 kg bomb or an auxiliary tank."Es darf gerne geraten werden, was da so alles verbaut wurde. Frankenstein rules!
Thema: What if? 1:72 Manshu Ki-53 "Insei", 1st chutai, 4th sentai (Gelesen 3101 mal)