Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa

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The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (隼, Peregrine falcon), formal Japanese designation Army Type 1 Fighter (一式戦闘機, Ichi-shiki sentōki) is a single-engine land-based tactical fighter designed and produced by the Japanese manufacturer Nakajima Aircraft Company. The Allied reporting name was "Oscar", but it was often called the "Army Zero" by American pilots because it bore a certain resemblance to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Imperial Japanese Navy's counterpart to the Ki-43. It was the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's (IJAAS) first all-metal enclosed cockpit aircraft with retractable landing gear. Development began in December 1937, headed by the aeronautical engineer Hideo Itokawa, as a successor to the preceding Nakajima Ki-27 monoplane fighter. Twelve months later, the first prototype was completed, performing its maiden flight in January 1939. While satisfying the performance requirements of the IJAAS, test pilots expressed dissatisfaction over the limited improvements over the Ki-27. In...

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