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Tachikawa Ki 55

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Top speed
  
349 km/h

Length
  
8 m

Wingspan
  
12 m

First flight
  
September 1939

Tachikawa Ki-55 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Manufacturer
  
Tachikawa Aircraft Company

The Tachikawa Ki-55 was a Japanese advanced trainer.

Contents

Design and development

The excellent characteristics of the Tachikawa Ki-36 made it potentially ideal as a trainer. This led to the development of the Ki-36 with a single machine gun. After successful testing of a prototype in September 1939, the type was put into production as the Army Type 99 Advanced Trainer.

In all 1,389 Ki-55 were constructed before production ended in December 1943 with Tachikawa having built 1078 and Kawasaki 311.

Both the Ki-55 and the Ki-36 were given the Allied nickname 'Ida.'

Variants

  • Ki-36 : Army cooperation aircraft.
  • Ki-72 : An evolved version with a 600-hp (447-kW) Hitachi Ha-38 engine and retractable undercarriage. Not built.

    • Operators

     Japan
  • Imperial Japanese Army Air Force
    •  Manchukuo
  • Manchukuo Air Force
    • Reorganized National Government of China
  • National Government of China Air Force received several from the Japanese.
    •  Republic of China
  • Republic of China Air Force operated captured aircraft.
    •  People's Republic of China
  • People's Liberation Army Air Force operated more than 30 captured aircraft at the end of 1945. These Ki-55s were used until the last 14 retired in 1953.
    •  Republic of Korea
  • Republic of Korea Air Force operated ex-Japanese aircraft.
    •  Thailand
  • Royal Thai Air Force

    • Francillon also mentions delivery to the Japanese satellite air force of Cochinchina, the southernmost third part of present Vietnam

    Specifications (Ki-55)

    Data from Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War

    General characteristics

  • Crew: two
  • Length: 8.00 m (25 ft 3 in)
  • Wingspan: 11.80 m (38 ft 8.5 in)
  • Height: 3.64 m (11 ft 11.25 in)
  • Wing area: 20 m2 (215.29 ft2)
  • Empty weight: 1,292 kg (2,847 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 1,721 kg (3,794 lb)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 1,721 kg (3,793 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Hitachi Army Type 98 Ha-13a nine cylinder air-cooled radial engine, 380 kW (510 hp) at take-off

    • Performance

  • Maximum speed: 349 km/h (217 mph)
  • Cruise speed: 235 km/h (146 mph)
  • Range: 1,060 km (659 mi)
  • Service ceiling: 8,150 m (26,740 ft)
  • Wing loading: 86.1 kg/m2 (17.6 lb/ft2)
  • Power/mass: kW/kg (hp/lb)

    • Armament

    one fixed, forward-firing 7.7mm (0.303in) Type 89 machine gun

    References

    Tachikawa Ki-55 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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