1. #1
    Wildnoob's Avatar Senior Member
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    Being well flown do you think this Kawasaki fighter can be an effective machine against capable Allied pilots in their late war crates?

    ps: I hope Gaston don't come here.
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  2. #2
    JtD's Avatar Senior Member
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    Yes, if the capable Allied pilot is not aware of your presence.

    Also yes if the late war crate is an F6F or a bomber of some sort.

    But other than that, the Ki-100 is pretty much two years behind. Could have been good if it had gotten to the front in early 1943...not so much in 1945.

    To sum it up: No.
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  3. #3
    It's too slow to be a serious threat in an energy fight. The ki-100 is actually slower than the ki61 levelflight and in a dive, it does climb and handle a bit better.

    Some sources say it could compete because it could hold it's speed in a dive, but in Il-2 it doesn't dive very good...
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  4. #4
    VW-IceFire's Avatar Senior Member
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    JtD is correct. From a raw performance standpoint the Ki-100 is not competitive with the latest Allied fighters. Contemporaries are the F6F-5, F4U-1D and F4U-4, P-51D and the P-47N. Of these it may be able to fight the Hellcat on somewhat even terms but aside from that it has less raw performance than any of them.

    It is a good aircraft. The reason that the writings regard it so highly in my mind is due to other factors than raw performance. It reasonably easy to fly without any serious vices that I'm aware of, the engine worked most of the time, the armament was somewhat effective and it was sturdy enough to be able to dive with most American fighters.

    No matter what it is an aircraft I really enjoy flying. It keeps speed from the dive fairly well and you can surprise opponents and hit them pretty hard with the 20mm. It also rolls quickly and has good control at almost any speed. It is quite fun to fly in my opinion... makes it worth the challenge of fighting against better American fighters. They can boom and zoom all day but if they make a mistake and you play your cards right... you can be all over them.
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  5. #5
    Indeed. Many online will not even pay attention to the Ki-100, and instead will worry about the J2M5 and Ki-84.

    The careless become quick prey.

    I find it interesting that the cannon are in the nose while the guns are in the wings. I wonder what the reasoning behind that was as it's different than anything except maybe the MC.202 (with .50s in the nose and .303s in the wing).
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  6. #6
    VW-IceFire's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally posted by Luno13:
    Indeed. Many online will not even pay attention to the Ki-100, and instead will worry about the J2M5 and Ki-84.

    The careless become quick prey.

    I find it interesting that the cannon are in the nose while the guns are in the wings. I wonder what the reasoning behind that was as it's different than anything except maybe the MC.202 (with .50s in the nose and .303s in the wing).
    Starting from the Ki-61-Tei (a model sorely missing from IL-2) the Ho-5 20mm cannons were installed in the nose. I'm not exactly sure what the installation requirements were but they managed to fit there with the slightly elongated Ki-61-Tei and they still fit even with the re-engined Ki-100.

    I would have suspected that the weight and flex of the wings caused problems for wing installations but that is where they were forced to put the MG151/20s on the Ki-61-Hei. Of course these are two very different cannons...

    Good question for sure!
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  7. #7
    Makes sense. I think the Ki-43 also had cannons installed at some point. A Ki-44 Shoki would also be nice to round out the fighters.
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  8. #8
    horseback's Avatar Senior Member
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    If you have the space, packing in the cannon and its ammo closer to your CoG could make you more nimble and might impose fewer penalties in recoil, changes in CoG due to ammo expenditure, and there would be more structural strength already in place, unlike in a wing where the extra weight and recoil effects of a new and heavier gun would have to be more carefully accounted for.

    The Ki-100 had more room in the nose area after all the extraneous equipment in the Ki-61's in line engine was eliminated. As I recall, putting heavier guns and ammo in the nose actually helped balance out the loss of the cooling and other systems that went away with the introduction of the radial power plant.

    Most of the Japanese late-war fighters were at least partially rated on the basis of how easy they were to fly; in an air force where the majority of pilots were barely trained, just having confidence that you could take off and land your mount could make a critical difference in your confidence and ability to at least attempt your mission...

    cheers

    horseback
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  9. #9
    JtD's Avatar Senior Member
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    As IceFire already pointed out, the 20mm cannon were already standard on most of the Ki-61's and had nothing to do with the change of the engine.

    They put it in the same place they were on a La, it's not that unheard of.
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  10. #10
    DKoor's Avatar Banned
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    The only prob with them is they have a hard time catching B-29s.
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