Note: The following article is presented here courtesy of the Aviation On-Line Museum, the
copyright holder. It was originally published in japanese and translated into English, so expect
some strange phrasing.
The Nakijima Ki-43 "Hayabusa" (Peregrine), code-named "Oscar" by the Allies, was built to replace
the Ki-27, which was out-classed by the Soviet and American fighters in service with the Chinese Air
Force. The japanese Army wanted a plane that would regain the "lost face" they had suffered in China
and wanted it fast, so they turned to Nakijima with their demands.
Its development was ordered by the Army shortly after the Nomonhan Incident, in late 1939. Nakajima
Aircraft, of Ota, Gunma Ken, builders of the Ki-27, were to develop a two-gunned retractable geared
light fighter of equal maneuverability to the Ki-27. (At the same time a development order along
concept lines of a higher wingloading, faster and harder hitting attack fighter was issue to the same
firm.
This was to become the later Ki-44 Type 2 Army Fighter, the Shioki or Tojo.) Designer Hideo Itokawa,
(who passed away in Feb 1999) undertook the difficult task of equaling the Ki-27's tight-turning and
dogfighting qualities in a heavier 1,000 horsepower class fighter. He came up with a similar low winged
all metal monoplane of very light construction with the Nakajima 12% in-house airfoil similar to the
Nate's and, similarly armed (at first) with two 7.7 mm machine guns atop the cowl that the Army had so
adamantly called for. (Nakajima staff and others were convinced that the trend in the world was toward
four and six , even eight gun fighters, with 12.5mm machine gun and 20mm aerial cannon armament, but the
Japanese Army Generals scoffed at the air superiority fighter concept and had a ground-based, political
and ideological concept of warfare perhaps shaped by their Chinese adversaries. Anyway, they needed a
new plane and wanted a lightweight, tight-turning dogfighter for an army support/counter insurgency role.
(Oscars did find their way into French hands against the Viet Minh after the war and other COIN roles
elsewhere then!) This despite frightful losses at Nomonhan where the 1st, 64th and 11th sentai held onto
aerial superiority by their fingernails in the Ki-27, winning literally a "Pyrrhic Victory" (as in funeral
pyre, not Pyrrus of Epirus) against the heavily armed and armored Soviets and were slaughtered by
Chennault's tactics in the early P-40s over the North China plains and Mongolian grasslands. The new airplane
went through a year-long development program entered production in early 1941 as the Ki-43 with a twin row
radial engine rated at 950 hp turning a Sumitomo-Hamilton two bladed licensed propeller.
Designer Itokawa turned to a sophisticated flight control technology in the form of "butterfly shaped
(actually paddle shaped) air combat maneuvering flaps" that were deployed from Bowden levers atop the control
stick (like the brake on a Nanchang) creating lift to overcome high load factors and augmenting the ailerons.
At that time the more air-minded Japanese Navy had a world class fighter with its Type 0 (1940) Zero
shipboard fighter, proven against the latest Soviet designs in the Hainan and South China region before
the Navy pullout from China in late 1941. (They did come back, and soon, to Hainan and Shanghai, and Zeros
had a verly long range for regular sweeps deep into China proper, and a detachment was based in the Kunming
area before long.) In 1940 though the Army in North China was barely holding on with its Ki-27 against the
P-40 and the I-16 with their hard-hitting tactics and speed, and desperately needed the new plane.
The Oscar was to change that, but not to the extent hoped. Superior marksmanship/airmanship was to make up
for the lack of heavy guns. This clever hope failed to materialize. The plane's light wing loading and
fundamentals limited its top speed, diving ability and punch. Light armament dogged the design to the end,
and doomed its pilots as well, and not for a lack of trying...the design could simply not carry more guns,
not on pylons, not anywhere, although it was tried desperately down the years (finally with an unsuccessful
nose-stretch for twin cannon.) as time ran out for Japan. But the beautiful if fragile Oscar created its
share of havoc and horror for Allied airman upon the outbreak of hostilities and down to the end of the war.
Beside its simple pure beauty as an aeroplane it had a number of strengths. For one it was stable, predictable
and easy to fly, land, approach in and handle on the ground, and it spun safely in any configuration. It was
used as a trainer extensively. For another it had a fantastic rate of climb and the tightest turning radius of
the entire pack. Although it lacked the Zero's top speed and wing-cannon punch, it turned inside of it and
climbed faster, with the same power in the respective airframes. Weak firepower and inadequate Army pilot
training and tactics/philosophy were to blame for the Oscar's lack of success relative to the Zero.
Still, Oscars shot down a frightful number of Allied planes and airmen right down to the end, (suffering
high attrition themselves for the above reason and backwards fighter tactics) and were a mainstay (along with
the Ki-84 Frank) of the Army's large "Special Attack" (Kamikaze) program. They were found in nearly every
region of the Pacific and in very large numbers in China.
But perhaps the greatest advantage the Oscar had over its contemporaries (and shared with the P-51, Zeke and
Frank) was its RANGE. It was an extremely long-legged airplane and its pilot was under little stress about
time as a result. With its large wing tanks and external stores it was an extremely long ranged fighter
airplane, not unlike the P-51. It had a huge radius of action and the pilot never felt under constant pressure
to figure out just where he was and to plot a hurried course home, with its attendant distraction. For example,
an Oscar or Zero out of Taiwan could reach the Philippines, fly and fight for 30 minutes and return to base
with reserve fuel. This was an important lesson of the Battle of Britain; all those Bf 109s that never made it
home for want of fuel, and Itokawa (and Mitsubishi's Horikoshi) made use of it. The location of the tanks in
the wings and under the cockpit, without the dangerous forward tank, made the plane more survivable in combat
or operational accidents; they didn't catch fire as easily as the Zero. On the negative side was a certain
structural weakness in high G pullouts and a reluctance to recover from terminal velocity dives, in which they
couldn't really get going all that fast anyway. They could not easily pursue a diving P-40, for example.
And soon the allied aircraft got faster as we know...
The qualities that made it a delightful plane to fly and climb in and a dog in a dive make it a fine flying
model subject...it is among the planes that tend to go UP, not DOWN, given a knowledgeable flier of course.
In aerial combat the Oscar was often mistaken for the Zero, and poor allied intelligence failed to spot
the type in time to create training materials. The Ronald Reagan training film on Zero vs. P-40 identification
at a base in the CBI theater warned pilots to look for "the cigar shape fuselage" with the fin on top" as
opposed to the stab atop the fuselage and deeper rudder of the P-40....and the Oscar! There were few if
any Zeros to be seen in South China at precisely that time. This despite the Oscar's having become a main
propaganda piece for Japanese internal consumption. The overnight training of thousands of Japanese
linguists at bases in the USA and the creation of a monumental signal intelligence program ended such
darkness about Japan quickly, but the Oscar had snuck through unnoticed when the Allies were caught
unprepared, victims of their peaceful intentions. Perhaps Allied pilots in China assumed it was a type
of Zero or just called everything a Zero; the capabilities were similar except for the firepower. Both
aircraft became obsolescent quickly at any rate.
The fuel tanks weren't self sealing, but than neither were most of the others ( Buffalo, early P-40 and
P-51, etc.) in 1941. The first unit to change over from the Nate to the Oscar was the famed "Hayabusa"
(Peregrine) 64th fighter wing famed for the red falcon under their Ki-27 cockpits, which had policed the
North China skies since 1938 and made quite a name in the Japanese press for their exploits against the
Chinese AF as well as Soviet and American Volunteers. Hence the new plane was named "Hayabusa" by the Army's
publicity men and the press and they tried to regain their lost prestige (vis a vis the Navy's Zero) with
the new ship. It was hardly a secret! Needing glory and recognition before the public, the Army played up
the Oscar with a feature motion picture and a pop song from it: "The Kato Hayabusa Fighter Wing" about the
64th. It's on the Japanese language Karaoke menus, usually with a cool video, ask if you frequent one of
those haunts. The transition was conducted under the leadership of the famed China ace, Major Tateo Kato,
who led the 64th, a mixed force of Oscars and Nates then, in their victorious sweep into southeast Asia.
against mostly British Commonwealth forces in ( Buffalos, Mohawks and Blenheims. Still the Japanese fliers
were shocked by the tenacious resistance and resourcefulness of the Allied fliers who made the best of their
outclassed machines and quickly found the weak spots of their enemy. a few Commonwealth aces were made in
the Buffalo/Mohawk(P-36) vs. Oscar war, including the famed George Fisken (sp) of New Zealand, Buffalo ace.
In a short while the 64th was recalled to Japan for training and ongoing re-equipment with a new version
of the Hayabusa the Series/Mark2 of the Type 1 fighter. with a slightly shorter wing and other
refinements, and to make the movie. In April 1942, Major Kato in his original Mark 1 machine with the
bordered cobalt diagonal wing stripes and arrow on the fin led his flight of 12 Oscars in an attack on
a Blenheim of RAF 64 Squadron off the Burma coast. The gunner on the Blenheim picked them off one by
one like ducks in a shooting gallery as they followed each other to their deaths in a doomed diving
attack of the bomber with its blazing turret and determined gunner. The crippled plane was down on the
waves dodging the attacks with fuel streaming from its riddled wings when Major Kato, the last attacker,
was hit and dove into the sea.
Only about 750 of the original Series/Mark 1 long winged aircraft were built. The Series 2 was most common,
built by Tachikawa and Nakajima, with oval air intake atop the cowl and slightly shorter wing, cleaner canopy,
and the final Series/Mark 3 (never 'Type'3, that's a Tony) with water meth filler in the canopy and rectangular
intake. The Alpine Fighter Collection in the New Zealand Fighter Pilot's Museum had the world's only Oscar in
flying condition. It was one of the last Series 1s built, number 750 or so. The aircraft left the Alpine Fighter
Collection in late 1999. The aircraft was sold to an undisclosed buyer, and exported from New Zealand.
After WWII, Oscars (MkIII machines wore French colors in the Saigon area as counter-insurgency aircraft
used for a short while against the Viet Minh until replacement by Spitfires. The French had difficulty
landing them due to lack of proper familiarization and several were wrecked. This was said to have amused
the Japanese immensely as they considered it a piece o cake to handle in the air or on the ground.
In China, Central Government Forces (KMT) had several Oscars but used them little due to the availability
of fresh P-51 and other superior aircraft from the USA and Britain. But the Communist forces, known before
1949 as the Chinese Democratic Alliance Forces, had liberated a wing of late model Hayabusas at Shenyang,
Liaoning Province in their occupation of the Northeast in 1945-47. Their air force experience began at that
time under the guidance of a captured Major Kobayashi who set up a training school for pilots and
technicians that became the Red forces' first aeronautical institute. They also received some of the assets
of Manpi, Manchukoku Air Industries, and Japanese-built Jungmann trainers, which Soviet forces left for
them. When the Chinese Civil War ignited in 1947 Kobayashi's personnel and the new Red Chinese Air Unit,
mostly Oscars and Franks, saw some action and were almost used in the big push to cross the Yangzi River
that finally defeated the Nanjing Central Government of Generalissimo Jiang Zhongzheng on the mainland.
On October 1st, 1949, Major Kobayashi himself, in an Oscar with the PLA star and bar 8-1 insignia, himself
flew the aerobatic display over Tiananmen Square as Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the Peoples Republic
of China. An ironic footnote to the 8 year war waged by the Japanese to rid China of both Bolshevism and
Jiang's independent (of Japan that is), neoclassical Chinese nationalism. In another case of demobilized
Japanese aiding leftist guerillas, Oscars were also used in the Malaysian insurgency under supervision of
Japanese soldiers and airmen who basically continued their war by siding with rebels against the return
of British rule. And the Royal Thai Air Force May have used them well into the 1950s.
