Volume 147 in the Warpaint series. One of the great unsung hunters of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force was Nakajima's Ki-43 Hayabusa (Hawk). Codenamed Oscar by the Allies, the aircraft was often mistaken for the Navy's A6M2 Zero by those who encountered it in combat, leading to it being commonly referred to as Army 0 by its opponents. The Ki-43 was highly regarded in Japan and was much more widely recognized there than the Zero. It was the only Japanese fighter aircraft from the Pacific War to see active service with other air forces. It was supplied by the Japanese to both Thailand and Manchukuo, as well as being used by France in Indochina and the air forces of Indonesia, the Republic of China and North Korea, which fielded scrapped but airworthy airframes, some of which survived into the early 1950s. Author Daniel Kowalczuk has written a narrative that puts the aircraft in context, detailing its development and active service history and explaining why it was so prized by the Japanese so much so that it is the aircraft of choice for anime producers rather than its better-known contemporary.
Group
Books (first-hand)
Author
Kowalczuk, Daniel
Title
Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa/Oscar
Details
English text, paperback, numerous photos, colour profiles, drawings, large format. 48 pages.
