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 opposing ...

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

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 250px, Showa Memorial Park is a 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 population density of 7600 persons per km2. The total area of the ci ...

862 and Kawasaki 472).

Operational history

The Ki-36 first saw action in China where it saw success. Later, in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, it proved excessively vulnerable to opposing fighters. 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 t ...

'' 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