The second most prolific Japanese fighter?

[peter19530]

My familiarity with Japanese WWII subjects is sorely lacking. The Mitsubishi 'Zero' is ubiquitous in many different sub models. What was the second most widely used Japanese fighter, other than the zero?

[Wez]

Probably the Ki-43 Haybusa?

[MDriskill]

Per a quick Google, just under 11,000 Zeros (Navy Mitsubishi A6M Reisen) were built, and about 6,000 Oscars (Army Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa), which makes it the no. 2 Japanese fighter.

 

Nakajima manufactured the Zero under license, and ironically built more of them than Mitsubishi did. The A6M2-N floatplane variant was developed and produced exclusively by Nakajima as well.

 

If you are new to Japanese WW2 aviation, find your self a copy of Rene Francillon's "Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War." Dated in some ways (first written in the 1970's), but by a huge margin the best compilation of info on the subject in English.

Edited April 3, 2017 by MDriskill

[Foxbat]

These are the IJAAF single seat fighters with production numbers: 

 

Ki-43 "Oscar"   5919

Ki-84 "Frank"   3514

Ki-27 "Nate"    3368

Ki-61 "Tony"    3078

Ki-44 "Tojo"     1225

Ki-100 "Tony"  378

 

For comparison, these are the IJNAF single seaters:

 

A6M “Zero” 10,939

N1K “George” 1532 (as pointed out below, this is the land based interceptor version of the "Rex" floatplane.  

A5M “Claude” 1094

J2M “Jack” 671

A7M “Sam” 10

 

So the Air force had the numbers in absolute terms, but the Zero was by far the most produced single type.

 

Andy 

Number cruncher

Edited April 3, 2017 by Foxbat

[MDriskill]

Mr. Foxbat sir, the number you have listed for the "Rex" is I believe more applicable to the land-based variants derived from it, the N1K1-J and N1K2-J "George." 

 

The Rex was a remarkable design, a high-performance floatplane intended to support island-hopping offensive operations. But only about 100 ended up being built, as this role had evaporated before the machine was available.

[Foxbat]

2 hours ago, MDriskill said:

Mr. Foxbat sir, the number you have listed for the "Rex" is I believe more applicable to the land-based variants derived from it, the N1K1-J and N1K2-J "George." 

 

 

You're right. The perils of transcribing from Google in a hurry. I'll annotate my edit to it or our comments won't make sense.

 

Andy

Ham fisted AND sausage fingered

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

I'm surprised there was that many Ki-84's made and it's a good thing for the allies that it wasn't made in even greater numbers with better trained pilots, as it really was a match for most things in the sky and superior to a lot of them.

 

thanks

Mike

[dragonlanceHR]

On ‎04‎.‎04‎.‎2017 at 0:51 AM, Mikemx said:

I'm surprised there was that many Ki-84's made and it's a good thing for the allies that it wasn't made in even greater numbers with better trained pilots, as it really was a match for most things in the sky and superior to a lot of them.

 

thanks

Mike

 

And better quality fuel.

IIRC in Francilonn's book there is a note that the post-war tested Hayate with US fuel outran the mighty Corsair.

 

vedran