Kawasaki Ki-45

what is it?

The Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryū (屠龍, Dragonslayer) is a two-seat, twin-engined, heavy fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. The army gave it the designation "Type 2 Two-Seat Fighter" (二式複座戦闘機, Ni-shiki fukuza sentōki); the Allied reporting name was "Nick". Originally serving as a long-range escort-fighter, the design — as with most heavy fighters of the period — fell prey to smaller, lighter, more agile, single-engined fighters. As such, the Ki-45 instead served as a day and night interceptor and strike fighter.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · 15 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 540 km/htop speed
• range 2,000 kmwithout refuelling
• size 8,820 kgmax take-off weight
• built 1,701made 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 85 years ago, in 1941.
• 🏎️Top speed is 4.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 15 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 2,000 km: 11× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.1× 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

1941-05

introduced

1941

retired

1945

status

retired

number built

1,701

role

fighter with 2 piston-propeller engines

origin

🇯🇵 Japan

makers

Kawasaki Aerospace Systems Company

engines

2× Mitsubishi Ha-102 / Mitsubishi Zuisei

crew

2

length

11 m

wingspan

15 m

height

3.7 m

max take-off weight

8,820 kg

top speed

540 km/h

range

2,000 km

ceiling

10,000 m

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