Kawasaki Ki-61 Tony, Japan's Answer to the P-38.

The Ki-61 Hien, code named Tony was the IJAAF's only real answer to the P-38 Lightning during the battles over New Guinea in 1943. Let's take a look at the design history, performance as compared with US aircraft in theater, and the combat record of the Ki-61.

This video will be a little less accurate than my normal work because I have to speculate to fill in the blanks a bit more than I would like. Information on Japanese airplanes is a bit scarce, and often all we have are intelligence reports from the period, which were often inaccurate. For example, U.S. intelligence thought this was an Italian plane, which it wasn't.

Thankfully, we do have a lot of really solid performance information, speed, climb, turn and so on. We also have great information on the aircraft system, armor, weapons and more, , so the key data is accurate

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