its new facility at “Hangar 151,” the TAIU once
again scheduled c/n 263 for repair. In May 1945,
c/n 263 was considered to be airworthy and was
moved by road from NAS Anacostia in Washington, DC to NAS Patuxent River in Maryland
for flight trials. Initially assigned to Lt. Thomas
for flight testing, the first post-restoration flight
would actually be performed by Lt. Cdr. Ernest
on June 1, 1945.
Shortly after its test flight, the aircraft was re-
painted in USAAF olive drab to represent a more
realistic Japanese fighter for recognition photos
and training films, which it was engaged in from
the 23rd of June onwards over Patuxent River.
This “Japanese” scheme soon became a source of
debate, so more accurate banded Hinomaru were
applied to the aircraft, though it never received
standard Japanese leading edge orange/yellow IFF
markings. Despite now looking like a brand-new
aircraft and possibly being the best-conditioned
Ki- 61 in any theater of operations, engine prob-
lems were never really more than a blink away.
On July 2, 1945, little more than a month after its
first flight, c/n 263 was damaged due to an engine
failure on a ferry flight between NAS Patuxent
River and Eglin AFB. Following this forced land-
ing near the town of Yanceyville, North Carolina,
the aircraft was assessed and, given its age and
lessening importance to the war situation, it is be-
lieved to have been scrapped in situ.
Marine machines
At least one additional “Tony” was acquired and
flown as a squadron trophy during the final stages
of the war. The aircraft in question was a former
19th Sentai machine found at Kadena airfield on
Ki-61-Ia (c/n 299) was manufactured at
Kagamigahara during the second week May 1943
and dispatched to New Guinea under he 68th or 78th
Sentais. Damaged in a wheels-up landing the aircraft
was rediscovered at Alexishafen during the early
1970s, ultimately ending up at the Papua New Guinea
Museum in Port Moresby. Used as reference airframe
during the current restorations, is understood that
c/n 299 will be restored to static condition for the PNG
Museum.
Ki-61-1a (c/n 379) was manufactured during the
first week of July 1943 and was also dispatched to
Ki-61-Ib (c/n 640) was built in the first
week of November 1943 and delivered to New
Guinea in December. Assigned to the 68th
Sentai, the aircraft made an exceptionally good
wheels-up landing at Yiliwe near Aitape, where
renowned aircraft recovery specialist Charles
Darby famously stated that c/n 640 was “The
most complete Army aircraft to remain in the
southwest Pacific.” In 2004, it was shipped
from the PNG Museum to Australia as part of
an aircraft exchange and purchased that same
year by Jerry Yegan for inclusion within his
“Fighter Factory” collection.
The issue of producing working engines
for these aircraft is another matter entirely, but PAP
plans to rework “new” engines, in house, from the
various engine blocks that have been gathered. This
will be a major undertaking in its own right, but, based
on their vast experience with inline engines and the
number of Ha- 40 assemblies thus far gathered, it is
expected that PAP will succeed.
Return
of the
Swallow
(Hien)
The old idiom states that “One swallow does not make a summer,” but 2013 may just prove this to be inaccurate, as work on a limited production run involving the restoration of three Kawasaki Ki-61s
gathers pace at Precision Aerospace Productions
(PAP) in Wangaratta, Victoria, New Zealand.
Renowned for their P- 40 restorations, PAP is
currently assembling the first airframe, Jerry Yegan’s
Ki-61-Ib c/n 640, which is now structurally complete.
Fabrication of the fuselage was fairly straightforward,
but the 40-foot, single-piece wing had its own unique
set of problems: the unusual and complicated nature
of Kawasaki’s built-up wing spar design caused many
delays after the components had been manufactured,
because fitting equipment to the built-up multi-web
spars meant drilling through as many as four or five
webs!
