Kawasaki Ki-100

what is it?

The Kawasaki Ki-100 (キ100) is a single-seat single-engine monoplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) during World War II. The Japanese Army designation was "Type 5 Fighter" (五式戦闘機, Go-shiki sentouki; or abbreviated as Goshikisen). It did not have an Allied code name. In early 1945, 275 Ki-100s were modified from Ki-61s as an emergency measure to accept a 14-cylinder Mitsubishi Ha-112-II radial engine in place of the original Kawasaki Ha-40 inverted V-12 inline engine, resulting in one of the best interceptors used by the Army during the war.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 12 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 580 km/htop speed
• range 1,400 kmwithout refuelling
• size 3,495 kgmax take-off weight
• built 396made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 81 years ago, in 1945.
• 🏎️Top speed is 4.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 1,400 km: 8× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.2× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1945-02-01

introduced

1945

retired

1945

status

retired

number built

396

role

fighter/interceptor

origin

🇯🇵 Japan

makers

Kawasaki Motors

engines

1× Mitsubishi Ha-112-II/Ha-33

length

8.8 m

wingspan

12 m

height

3.8 m

max take-off weight

3,495 kg

top speed

580 km/h

cruise speed

400 km/h

range

1,400 km

ceiling

11,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family