ki-43 hayabusa

一式戦闘機

The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (隼, "Peregrine Falcon") was a Japanese fighter aircraft during the Second World War. The Japanese Army designation was "Army Type 1 Fighter" (一式戦闘機). Its Allied reporting name was Oscar.

The Ki-43 was similar to the A6m Zero in terms of appearance. As a result, it was called the "Army Zero" by American pilots. Being powered by the same engine as the A6M Zero but even more lightweight, it had high maneuverability but did not have armor or self-sealing fuel tanks. Also, it had weak armament of only two machine guns (7.7 x 58 mm SR Type 89 machine guns or 12.7 x 81 mm Ho-103 machine guns, both of which were inadequate against Allied aircraft. There were two prototypes with two 20 x 94 mm Ho-5 cannons each) due to the lightweight construction preventing the placement of machine guns or cannons in the wings.

It was designed by Itokawa Hideo [糸川 英夫] and entered combat for first time in October 1941.

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