Nakajima Ki-27 | The Nimble "Nate" [Aircraft Overview #14]
The Ki-27 was one of Japan's first monoplane fighters. It's success (along with some amusing commercial/political machinations) put Nakajima in a strong place to manufacture several successful aircraft that would see action during World War 2.
The Ki-27 saw action during the Sino-Japanese war, featured prominently at the battle of Khalkin Gol, and was the primary fighter used by the Japanese Army during their expansive campaigns in early 1942. Though obsolete by the outbreak of war with the United States, sheer weight of numbers allowed the Ki-27 to keep the pressure on its enemies whilst more modern fighters were being brought up to higher operational numbers.
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Producing these videos is a hobby of mine. I have a passion for history, and personally own a large collection of books, journals and other texts, and endeavor to do as much research as possible. However if there are any mistakes, please don't hesitate to reach out and correct anything :)
My father was actually flying a Type 97 (Ki-27) in Manchuria. He was fighting against Soviet. He once told me that Type 97 was a very easy plane to fly, and was good at dog-fights. It is known as the sniper of the sky for its very accurate shooting ability. Towards the end of the war, my father was shot down by anti-aircraft gun attack. He lost a couple of his ribs and had a huge scar on his back.
Thats fascinating, did he ever write about his experiences?
Wow
I would love to read his experiences. Were they ever written down?
@@karoltakisobie6638 No, but he should have done that.
@@RexsHangar No, but he should have written a book. He thought it was nothing. He meant everyone else were having different hardships.
The Japanese Army had an obsessive love of maneuverability.
A huge advantage in dogfights of that era. But not the only one.
A design choice that would somewhat bite them in the backside later on 😅
@@allangibson2408 I do like the insane range of 2500km that the zero could achieve.
The Japanese Navy followed the same path. The lack of any high powered Japanese engines meant that the aircraft had to be very light to meet any serious performance requirements.
It was doctrine based, not an "obsessive love of". Insofar as that decision went, for the time, it was correct given the success of it, its Ki-43 IJA successor and IJN's A6M2 type 21 in their heyday. At the time they rounded up ALL opposition, diminishing only when favour went to the American's superior numbers and logistical support in conjunction with a change of engagement tactics to suit characteristics of predominant Allied PTO types at the time e.g. F4-F, P-40, P400 & P-39, if arguably outclassed with the subsequent introduction into theatre of the unfairly much maligned P-38. To compare the maneuverability doctrine of the decade to 1940 with later the far more technologically advanced much higher performance types such as the Marines' F4U & Navy's F6F, operational respectively Feb 1943 & Sept 1943 by which time the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy fighters we were already pressed with significantly greater problems than the American's of logistical support, declining pilot experience/quality and replacement output from training schools, refined grade and availability of aviation fuel, materials. To criticise Japanese for their aircraft built to a pre-existing doctrine because Japan didn't have the production capability for even existing types let alone introduction of new ones suited to a new doctrine is inane. It's amazing under all the circumstances that Japan even managed to design let alone produce such excellent designs as the (and I'll use their common US code names here) Frank, Jack, & George, and Ki-100 Hi-112 radial modified version of the Tony after the Kawasaki Ha-140 factory had destroyed by B-29s despite production numbers of all hopelessly insufficient to have any significant impact on the overwhelming American hordes by the time they became operational.
"... whilst the military manufacturers quietly wept in the corner" - caught me off guard, a lot of coffee on keyboard and screen.
One day long ago, my father helped me climb into the remains of a wrecked Ki-27 near the Thai border. It was a hot day, and I soon hopped out again once my curiosity had been satisfied. Many years later, I was watching 'Empire of the Sun' in a cinema in Bristol, and during the scene where Jim does the same thing, I felt the heat on my head once more and I was eleven years old again. Thank you, Nakajima and Steven Spielberg.
Just for your information, that very first picture of the Ki-27 in this video was of a replica. It was taken at the Tokorozawa Aviation Museum in Saitama Prefecture, next to Tokyo. Unfortunately, it is no longer on display.
1970s anime loved this plane's design language. This plane is a work of art. It is truly beautiful. Japanese planes had such distinct looks.
One slight error in your video. The early version of the Brewster Buffalo, the B-239E used by Finland, was very agile and had a decent power to weight ratio due to its lack of pilot armour, self sealing fuel tanks, tail hook and life raft. This version would have been very capable of dogfighting with the Ki-27. However, the later version of the Buffalo used by British (B-339E), was much (about 1,000 pounds) heavier because of its added armour, self sealing fuel tanks and other equipment. The B-339E also had a less powerful (1,000 hp) engine than the US Navy F2A (1,200 hp). The British were forced to take drastic measures to lighten the B-339E, including reducing both fuel and ammunition by 50% to improve its climb and turn rate! Some British squadrons also installed lighter armament (.303 cal machine guns instead of .50 cal guns) and one unit even removed the armour. Compared to the Ki-27b, the B-339E was 23 mph faster, but distinctly inferior in climb and turn rate. If the Ki-27 began the dogfight with a height advantage, which it often did, or drew the Buffalo into a low speed turn fight, it could definitely handle the B-339E.
thanks for this, Rex. The official narrative is hock full of references to obsolete Buffalos vs state of art Oscars and Zeros. In realty, the bulk of the fighting over Malaya and East Indies was by the IJA who probably did not have more then 100 Oscars available for that campaign. Good Japanese pilots with better doctrine and tactics defeated technology superior allied fighters. It was training and doctrine. The allies did use obsolete types, but not fighter types vs the older Japanese fighters. This can be seen in the air action of 26-27 January 1942 Battle off Endau, Malaya where British Buffalos nd Hurricanes were defeated by Japanese Ki27s supported by a few Oscars.
I'm curious as to how the Ki-27 would stack up against non-VVS late biplanes; Gladiators, the last F3Fs (the -3s), etc. Excellent video.
The Nationalist Chinese operated the Gloster Gladiator in 1938 during the latter part of the Japanese invasion of Canton. They did well against Japanese naval biplanes and modern bombers but poorly against the Mitsubishi A5M Claude naval fighter which was similar in layout, performance and in-service date to the Army's Ki-27. The Chinese ran out of Gladiators before Ki-27s appeared in numbers and they don't appear to have met in combat. You may be interested in this sequence from a early WW2 Japanese movie showing Ki-27s in combat with Japanese biplane fighters imitating Chinese Curtiss Hawks. kzhead.info/sun/h6yCkbCAiWqvf2w/bejne.html
Ki-27s squared off with VVS over Khalhin Gol. VVS had higher losses overall, but note that many of the losses on both sides were bombers and reconnaisance aircraft. Also many were lost to causes other than fighters. Finally, much of IJAAS had greater experience from fighting in China while only lesser parts of VVS gained experience in Spain and Finland.
Royal Thai Air Force operated this along with bunch of oscars during WW2. In 1944, our boys in ki-27s, despite badly outnumbered, fought against p-51b and p-38 and managed to shoot down two each!
Shinomara's 58 victories in just 3 months is extremely impressive and if you think about it had he gone to war in WW2 might have made to 100
Probably about there before he'd be shot down.
USSR lost around 200 airplanes in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. The Japanese claimed 1300 Shinohara overclaimed just as everybody else.
5:42 There were two unrelated kinds of Type 89 machineguns in use by the IJA referred to as the flexible type, and the fixed type. The one showed here is the flexible type, which was used exclusively on bombers like the Ki-21. The fixed type was a Japanese copy of the air cooled Vickers Class E machine gun. That was the only inconsistency I saw. Great video nonetheless. :)
Dear Rex! Your content is gold, I wish more channels uploaded so much historical videos. When you mix aircraft design with history it makes up something truly fascinating!
Ooooh. A new video so soon? :D The Ki-27 is kinda cute looking, like the I-16. Smol and stubby lol
I'm currently running a schedule of a video every 3 days, might change that to 3 vids per weeks depending on workload as time goes by :)
Loving the videos Rex... thank you!
Thank you, Rex. Your work is terrific!
fastest growing channel by any measure! keep up the good work!
Great vid Rex, fascinating info. I like the Nate's design.
Nice video! Good imagery and information, glad to see some japanese aircraft getting some proper videos on the internet. Excellent work.
Congratulations for the excelente content in the video! You can tell that it has a lot of research! Thanks
Well informed and brilliant presentation...absolutely fantastic mate!
Loved the video @Rex's Hangar! Can't wait for the next video man! This video just inspired me to try out the Ki-27 "Nate" in Axis & Allies: Angels 20/Bandits High with the P-40B Warhawk's… providing I can get the Table cleared enough to actually get back to playing the Air Force miniatures Axis & Allies games. We do have the custom cards for both planes though, I just need to check which of them I need to print out as well. Loved the Ki-43 "Oscar" and the Ki-84 "Frank" as well!
Interesting video, thanks
Another fantastic video.
I hope to see more excellent videos of lesser known Japanese aircrafts, e.g. the Aichi B7a Ryusei.
Excellent Video. This is the first video of yours I watched, Subbed.
Great video. I actually learned something.
Excellent stuff, so business as usual
Great work Sir thank you
I love the clean elegant design!
How do you only have 16k subs?? Dude, you are so underrated!
Brilliant video 📹
Great video. Just won yourself a new subscriber
Looks very similar to the Fokker D.XXI, another anachronism at the start of WW2 that did surprisingly well against its opponents. Had the Dutch fielded the D.XXI in the east Indies as intended things could have got really confusing during that fight and the fight for Singapore where the Dutch provided support to the British.
Thank you
Great Presentation of unique little aircraft. Clearly just the design of landing gear, they were very well aware of static drag. at the same time a very sturdy landing gear. Later as trainers, Rookies are brutal on landing gear, twisting airframe. I've done my share of rebuilding WWII aircraft where nose gear hard landing buckled the firewall and related airframe. Now imagine replacing entire firewall from large sheet of stainless steel from scratch. Cheers
Great too hear somebody who knows and talks about a subject he's interested in and gives well imformed insight in less known incredible aircraft of WW ii.
Great video...👍
Very well done
Great video, thanks. What a good looking plane. I wish that there were some flying examples left. It looks like a sport plane. With some nice paint it would be pretty sharp.
Thank you .
Great vid , looking at the Kawasaki Ki28 you can almost see the Ki 61 Hien " Tony's later on features ..hope you do one on it .
thank you!
Appreciate and vibe with your presentation format and style. Just nice 👌 Look forward to your video on "Oscar", "Tojo", and "Frank".
Nice video
Thanks for pronouncing ''Ki-'' correctly [as KEY]. Too many GaiJin call it Kay Eye. Ki is a single letter [kana].
Could you do a video on the Ki-61? I have always been fascinated by it seemingly being completely against Japanese aerial doctrine.
Someone at Kawasaki must have been a secret German!
The Tony was Italian, not German. ;)
@@amerigo88 Tony the Samurai...
Nice vid thanks 👍🇺🇸🤟
Such a cute little aircraft
I find the inter-war period planes really beautiful.
Nice video info aw well, pls. Do some doumentary on peashooter
I'm a fan of this channel! 👍 I so salute the light KZhead commercial wall in access to the channel. 👏❤
This and the navy's A5M are reputed to have been two of the nicest flying fighters of the era. It would be nice to see both types replicated in flyable form to prove the assertion...
Just watch a video earlier about a dogfight between American 6 or 8 I can't remember P-51s and 8 P-38s vs 5 of these fighters being flown by the royal Thai airforce. Lt.Minco was shot down because he dove to fast past a Ki-27 and when he pulled up he pulled up in front of the enemy and well......caught a bunch of rounds to the cockpit.
He crossed the HUD, which is not an aircraft's design flaw I guess?
@@LongTran-em6hc nope just pilot error. Pulling up in front of the enemy is not a healthy career move. Lol
Hey Rex! What editing software do you use?
It’s so cute. Would be a fun leisure aircraft today.
Interesting Aircraft in the back ground at 5.00 looks to be a Spitfire possibly a Mk.IX, Do you now were this shot was taken ?
The A5m was an elegant design as well. If I ever get decent money I'm going to build a new one!
The Ki-33 was basically an IJAAF spec A5M Claude…
Did the Ki-33 evolve into the Mitsubishi A5M - Claude?
What is a glazed canopy anyway? It is a type of glass?
Can you do a docu of the Boeing P-26 ?
make a vid on the ki 43! :D
Why are you showing animations of the A5M (Claude) at 12:25?
Those were wild times in that part of the world. Nobody ever wins a war. All sides loose.
Please include MPH for us American viewers, otherwise outstanding info and I like your wit. You are giving Ed Nash a run for dry humor.
1 at Satria Mandala? I'll have a look to see it (I seem to remember it was something else instead, but who knows! I haven't been there for a while :) )
It was a beautiful little plane, if not a bit outdated.
A lot of people mistakenly believe that the AVG were just fighting Zeros in China; the KI-27 as well as the Ki-43 was a frequent opponent. Even with the mix of four .30 and two .50 guns on the early P-40s, six of those hammering into the unarmored and lightly built planes made quite a mess.
AVG never fought the zeros.
I like the Ki-27 because it looks cute
What was the Japanese conception of early close Air Support in China?
Don't have competitions, assign one company to design and build. Opps. The bad guys got the go ahead. Hilarious. Every once in a while big corporations bite themselves in the arse. Happens all through out history. Love it.
Think you can do a video on why IJN never adopted stow wing design for their carriers like Americans did.
Do you think you could mention Imperial weights and measures as well as metrics? I don't speak fluent metircs.
Learn. It's the world standard.
What I'm not getting is why you're mixing pics of the A6M "Claude" with the Ki-27.....
Satria Mandala Museum, eh? Might as well visit it again after so many years.
The guy who was responsible for Japanese airplanes having nicknames like Zeke, Nate, Kate, and Betty; what was his name? He was a yank, based in Australia I believe. If that helps.
I love me some air-cooled engines. Reliable and bullet proof. I drive one right now, a 1999 Yamaha XV1100SE. Changed a clutch pack at 85,000 km...that's it aside from regular oil changes and highest octane fuel available. Got 114,000 klicks on it and it'll do the same again. Ethanol is for idiots. Air cooled and shaft drive...fekkin' bullet-proof combo, and I've hammered it hard. There's more than one story off a rotary-engine plane landing at the field with a cylinder or two shot out and it ran anyway. Do that to a water-cooled and it grenades itself.
Can I pay you to do a video on the Ki-84?
Love the japanese planes, please cover more of them, like the Claude etc.
That Ki-33 looks a lot like a P-26, how did that happen?
In Satria Mandala, Jakarta, we have Ki-79 advance trainer (in Japanese, "Nishikoren") variant of Ki-27...and it's replica not real aircraft.
It's like they never left World War 1 except they thought the metal monoplane idea was interesting.
Fun fact Nakajima=Subaru
And Aichi was integrated into Nissan. Well and Mitsubishi is still making aircraft. Power families are behind all of them.
The Ki is an abbreviation of kitia=airframe. I’ve always heard it presented as separate letters K then i not pronounced as Ki. Honestly, like so many things concerning Japanese aviation I actually have no clear idea which is correct. Do you have different information. Sorry to be the citation needed guy.
This plane's catch phrase was "Ah Crap" lol
I keep hearing, and reading, "over the skies". That would mean in low orbit. Nothing in the 30s or 40s had that high a service ceiling...😁
I do love the ki-27 but my personal favorite Japanese fighter is the ki-43
You win an Oscar for that comment. 😊
@@hixtonweasle6169 🏆🥺 I accept this award humbly and I would like to thank my parents for pushing me to be the best 😂
@@brendonbewersdorf986 Cheers to you and yours. Well said.🤩
Yes me too, I have always thought that the Ki-43 vs P-40 conflicts in the CBI theater right up there with the Spitfire vs Me-109 in the BOB. One of the great fighter matchups!
@@hixtonweasle6169 hahaha 🤣😂 thanks lol
Even in war thunder the tech tree goes from a ww1 level aircraft to a fighter plane capable of fighting a wildcat
The Japanese navy and army each produced fighter planes of similar capabilities during the same time period ie. the Nakajima Ki-43 and the Mitsubishi A6M. Given the resource constraints Japan faced was there any thought given to produce just one aircraft for both services. Although not ideal solution, it would seem to be a wiser use of resources,
I don't know if the Japanese Army and Navy were capable of that kind of cooperation.
IJA and IJN: HA-HA fat chance!
in war thunder this plane is stupidly manouverable, and in arcade it practically turns in the spot
Kinda looks like the I-16 or, with the landing gear, like a single-wing I-153
Were P-40s in Burma actually armed with .50 Brownings? I know by war's end most U.S. and British fighters had switched up from 'rifle-caliber' but had they done so by the time Burma was invaded?
The P-40B the AVG used early in the war had two nose mounted .50 cals. The wing guns were .30 cals.
@@geoffreyherrick298 Odd, I read somewhere that the AVG's first P-40s were diverted from an RAF order, and were armed with .303 guns.
manufacturers: we don't think it's fair to have us compete! government: ok
I absolutely love your channel but please get a different mic
that plane had balls
Soviet VVS spawned a lot of foreign aces...
Is that a Spitfire at 5:04?? Must be a post-war photo...
it’s not the spitfire
@@nguyenhoangan-matt it is
5:35, 470Km/h at 11,500 ft. It would be nice to use either imperial or metric but not both at the same time. Otherwise an informative and interesting video.
10 kills in 1 day?!? 😮👍
So he claimed...
How many downs makes one an ace?
5