ki-84 hayate

四式戦闘機

The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (疾風, "Gale") was a Japanese fighter aircraft during the Second World War. The Japanese Army designation was "Army Type 4 Fighter" (四式戦闘機). Its Allied reporting name was Frank.

The Ki-84 was designed to address many of the problems faced by the Ki-43 Hayabusa (also designed by Nakajima): insufficient firepower (only two fuselage machine guns), poor defensive armor, and lack of climbing speed. As such, it was powered by the company's designed Ha-45 Homare (譽, meaning "Praise or Honor") air-cooled eighteen-cylinder radial engine (this was different from the Sakae engine which powered the A6M Zero) which gave it 1,800 horsepower. It also had defensive armor which offered the pilots better protection. It was armed with two 12.7 x 81 mm Ho-103 machine guns mounted in the fuselage and two 20 x 94 mm Ho-5 cannons mounted in the wings.

Though a superb aircraft which proved to be a match for Allied fighters such as the F6F Hellcat, the shortage of materials, lowered production quality and fuel octane rating, a maintenance-intensive engine (its size not much larger than the Sakae engine which in turn required higher manufacturing standards) and inadequately trained late war pilots prevented it from achieving its full potential.

It was designed by Koyama Yasushi [小山 悌] and entered combat for first time during the battle of Leyte at the end of 1944.

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