Kawasaki Ki-60

The Ki-60 fighter was supposed to be fast and armed with cannons and large-calibre machine guns, it was also supposed to climb agilely, but it paid for all this with insufficient range and agility. The development team was led by Takeo Doi and his assistant Shin Owada, but all received less than favorable references from test pilots flying the first Ki-60 prototype since March 1941.

1. Ki-60, 2nd prototype, Japan 1941

2. Ki-60, 244th Sentai, Japan 1941 /alternate marking/

3. Ki-60, 244th Sentai, Japan 1941 /alternate marking/

4. Ki-60, captured by the Americans, 1945 /alternate marking/

The pilots were especially bothered by the unusually high landing speed, resulting from the high surface load exceeding 170 kg/m2 and nobody was impressed by the maximum speed of 550 km/h, which did not match the designers' calculations. Improved performance was expected for the second and third prototypes with an enlarged wing area, a modified engine cowling and structural modifications aimed at overall lightness. While the first and second prototypes were armed with two 12.7 mm Ho-103 machine guns mounted above the engine and two 20 mm Mauser MG 151 guns in the wing, the third prototype carried two Ho-103 machine guns instead of two wing guns.