The Tachikawa Ki-36 (named ''Ida'' in Allied reporting code) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane with a single

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

and fixed,

tailwheel Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

-type

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

Design and development

The prototype, fitted with a 450 hp (336 kW) Hitachi Army Type 98 Ha-13 engine, first flew on 20 April 1938. Having outperformed the Mitsubishi Ki-35 in comparative trials, the Ki-36 was designated the Army Type 98 Direct Co-operation Aircraft and ordered into production in November 1938. Production ended in January 1944 after a total of 1,334 Ki-36 had been built (

Tachikawa file:Autumn colors in Showa memorial park.jpg, 250px, Showa Memorial Park is a Cities of Japan, city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 184,383 in 93,428 households, and a populat ...

862 and Kawasaki 472).

Operational history

The Ki-36 first saw action in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

where it saw success. Later, in the

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, it proved excessively vulnerable to opposing

fighters Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to: Combat and warfare * Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict * Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...

. It was thereafter redeployed to the safer theater of China. Towards the end of the war, the Ki-36 was employed as a ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

'' aircraft with a bomb of 500-kg (1,102-lb) fitted externally.

Variants

* Ki-55: Two-seat advanced trainer version. * Ki-72: An evolved version with a 600-hp (447-kW) Hitachi Ha-38 engine and retractable undercarriage. Not built.

Operators

; * Chinese Communist Air Force operated two captured aircraft postwar as trainers until their retirement in early 1950s. ; * Indonesian People's Security Force ; *

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...

; *

Royal Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

Specifications (Ki-36)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* (new edition 1987 by Putnam Aeronautical Books, .) * *

External links

The Ki-55 at the Royal Thai Air Force Museum

The Ki-36 at the China Aviation Museum
{{Thai trainer designations Ki-36 Ki-36, Tachikawa Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1938