Nakajima Ki-43II Hayabusa (Oscar)

Plane: Nakajima Ki-43II Hayabusa (Oscar)

Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 4,211lb/ 5,710lb / 6,450lb

Wing Area: 230.4sq ft

Wing Loading: 18.3lb/sq ft / 24.8lb/sq ft / 28.0lb/sq ft

Length: 29' 3"

Span: 35' 7"

Wing Aspect: 5.5

Engine: 1150hp Nakajima Ha 115 Radial

Flaps: 3settings

Visibility:

• Front: (Uses Ki84 Art)
• Sides:
• Rear:

Control Feel:

• Slow: Good Pitch, Ok Roll/Rudder
• Near Sustained: Decent Pitch, Poor Roll/Rudder
• Fast: Poor

Stall Speed 1k (No Flaps/Full Flaps) 70/60mph

Guns:

Ordnance:
0: none
1: 2x100lb bombs
2: 2x500lb bombs
3: none

Fuel Time/Percent: 40 seconds/percent

Power/weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 3.6lb/hp / 4.9lb/hp / 5.6lb/hp

Corner Velocity: 205mph

Durability: Fair

WEP time: 5 minutes

Maximum Angle-of-Attack (no flaps/full flaps): 17.5/18 degrees

Wing Incidence Angle (no flaps/full flaps): 4.5/5 degrees

Accleleration:

Climb:
1k-5k: 52s
5k-10k: 71s
10k-15k: 80s

Zoom Climb:
1k 400mph: +5,100ft
1k 300mph: +3,100ft

Dive:

Max Speed

Turn Performance

Corner Speed and Radii (1,000ft):

Speed: 205mph
Radius: 306ft
Sustained Turn Speed: 115mph
Sustained Turn Radius: 338ft
Full Flaps Speed: 110mph
Full Flaps Radius: 315ft

Roll Rate:
150mph: 6.1s
200mph: 5.7s
250mph: 6.5s
300mph: 8.1s
350mph: 17.5s
400mph:

Minimum Full-Flaps Full-Power Split-S altitude:
150mph: 650ft
200mph: 1000ft
250mph: 1500ft
300mph:

Hoof's Tips and Opinions:

The Nakajima Ki43 Oscar was the premier Imperial Japanese Army fighter during the beginning of the conflict with America in WWII. An excellent fighter of the time, it was superior to the Zero in almost every regard except firepower. As such, current American designs such as the P39D, P40, and F4F were all at a disadvantage 1 vs 1.

In some sense, it is too bad that this plane has to compete in an arena full of late war planes, as its true strengths cannot be employed. The Ki43 has one of the lightest armaments of any of Warbird's fighters, and it's slow speed means that the only hope of bringing down a speeding Dora is a lucky pilot kill. Against the planes of it's day, the Zero, Spit5, P39, P40, F4F, it can do quite well, although the tougher American planes might require much of the Ki43's ammunition to take down.

In the Main Arena of Warbirds, the Ki43 is the premier Zeke Killer. If there are Zeros above a Capped field (and preferably no other planes), grab your Ki43. The Ki43 beats the Zero at it's own game: turning. And the advantage isn't a minor one, in sustained turns the Ki43 is up to a full second faster than the best turner of the A6M series, and two seconds faster than the A6M5 (for each 360 degree turn), the most commonly used Zero. Instantaneous turns are good on this plane too, it is the only plane, other than the A6M2 to break 10 seconds in a single 360 (start at 250mph and pull max g's), and it beats the A6M2 by .7 seconds or so as well!

I've found the Ki43 a rather effective plane, especially in furballs and base defence situations. Sure the Ki43 only has 2 .50cal class machine guns, but it is quite capable of giving you the 3-5 second tracking shots you need to cut up a target. She accelerates quite well, and her supurb wing loading means she doesn't lose much E in easy turns at all. This allows you to do miracles on merges and gain an advantage and a half-decent tracking shot really quickly if your target isn't on the ball and isn't going faster than 250mph. If the enemy starts to turn at all, the Ki43 can get right inside his turn, and have an awesome 50-70 degree deflection tracking shot in seconds. 2-3 kill sorties are not too difficult if you keep your SA up and dodge effectively attacking non-Japanese, or Ki84 planes. See the A6M2 writeup for tips on how to avoid taking rounds in this bird. She has the roll rate on par or worse than an A6M2 so defensive moves have to be planned out ahead of time and knee-jerk defensive manoevers are going to be hard to pull off, so exceptional SA is a must in this bird.

As far as performance, only the A6M3 is comparable (except for turn). The Ki43 climbs quite well (better than most WB planes), and is not to shabby in performance in the 10-15k range, allowing one to get above the enemy rather easily. Remember to kill throttle when diving on an enemy, because it is real easy to get going fast, and once above 350mph, her controls virtually cease to function. It is best to keep her speed under 325, which is fine, because one can maintain a tracking shot going 150mph against a breaking target going 250mph or more.

This plane doesn't do too well in scenario settings. While she can effectively kill in 1 vs 1 situations, in a many vs many fight that you will almost always find yourself in, the lack of durability and poor firepower become real hinderances. You set yourself up to kill someone, get a few pings in, and have to disengage because someone else is attacking you. Since you cannot afford to get hit, you cannot afford to stick with one opponent for very long. And sticking with an enemy is what the Ki43 excells at, and requires in order to kill. In a many vs many fight this isn't going to happen, so the best tactic is to play the attrition game, and pick apart enemies as you get the chance, and just try to survive until enough US planes fall apart to gain the Japanese side an advantage. In these situations the Zero is much better suited as it is able to do more damage in a snapshot, thus the enemy planes start to fall apart sooner, which means fewer Japanese casualties. It is ironic that the same qualities that make for a killer 1 vs 1 plane make for such a poor multi-plane fighter. Nakajima learned well from the early years of the War when they sat down to design the Ki43's successor, the Ki84.

The Ki43 is a more difficult plane to shoot down than the Zero, because unlike Mitsubishi, Nakajima put in a bit of pilot armor (not much by US standards), and self sealing fuel tanks. While this meant the Ki43 didn't have the A6M's phenominal range, it meant that the plane is far more likely to fall apart under fire rather than explode or take a pilot kill like with the A6M2 or A6M3. Thus the Ki43 is rather strong for an early Japanese Plane, and this can be used to advantage. Only the A6M5a has similar durability, but it sacrifices much of it's performance to have what the Ki43 comes standard with.

This plane's butterfly flaps help in turning (not as significantly as the Ki84 but they do help). I find that the Ki43 turns quite well against all planes without the flaps, and use the flaps only when engaging another Ki43 or a Zero. Be forewarned that you will have difficulty outturning an A6M2 and to a letter extent an A6M3 without the flaps.

To sum up, the Ki43 is the King of the Turn 'n' Burn planes, with the Zero merely a high Prince. A Ki43 can quite literally do two 360s in the time it takes a FW190D9 to do one. If the saying "Don't turn with a Zero" applies to the plane you are in, the saying "Don't turn with a Ki43" applies doubly so. Too many people think that the Ki43 is merely a spitball shooter, and thus get themselves into real binds with the Ki43.

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