crsutton
Posts: 9590
Joined: 12/6/2002 From: Maryland Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: xj900uk Personally, I believe that in RL, the Ki-201 would have been a complete botch-up and waste of time of dwindling resources, as it was for the IJAAF and IJNAF. Please remember that their previous attempts to produce and develop an in-line engine fighter, the Ki-61 'Tony', even when they had full blueprints and also two Daimler Benz engines to work from (exported via submarine from Germany) and they could still not produce a reliable properly built equivalent, or service it. A pity as the Tony, if it had ever been fully realised with a properly working and reliable inline DB engine, would have been very successful - as it was, it was the first (and, I think, only) early-generation Japanese fighter to carry any form of armour plate or protection, as the more powerful and streamlined DB-licenced engine allowed it to do, despite it being the last of the 'first generation' of WWII Japanese fighters. That was the mess the Japanese made when they had two working models fo engines and proper blue prints. Amazing how they managed to get as far with the Ki-201 as they did, when they had nothing more than a few photographs of the Me262 including its engines and not much else to go on, as the submarine from Germany that was supposed to be carrying proper plans got lost and never arrived. Re the test-flight, it is listed down in one of my reference books upstairs. However there is not much to go on. Also it refers to the Najajima J9Y Kikka and the Ki-201, my mistake. Both were virtually identical to the Me262 alhtouhg the Kikka was slightly smaller. The entry is as follows : '1 flyable prototype. First flight of roughly 17 minutes carried out 7th August 1945 at the Kisarazu Naval Base, undercarriage not retracted. Second test-flight of 11th August aborted due to rocket-booster failure during take-off run. Prototype destroyed by engineers approx. date 15th August 1945. Second prototype under construction at the time of Japan's surrender, seized and examined by US air-technicians but not completed. Believed broken up by early 1946 in US.' When I was a kid Planes of Fame in Chino had a complete Kikka. It now belongs to the Smithsonian. I believe it had been test flown after the war. The Me-262 had a wingspan of 41 1/2 ft and the Kikka had a wingspan of 32 ft 10 in. So the Kikka was significantly smaller. Bill I think my problem here is that I was thinking the K201 and Kikka were the same plane. Oops! The K-201 did not fly and was a prototype derivative of the Kikka which did fly for about 20 minutes. Bill, the Kikka that I saw at the Air and Space storage facility at Silver Hill Maryland was probably the one you mentioned and not a K-201. But the one they have has no engines or the engines are in separate storage. You can no longer tour the Silver Hill facility like you used to. Before the new museum was built in Dulles, you could sign up for a guided group tour of the warehouses and restoration workshops at Silver Hill. It was one of my favorite places to go. They just have tons on non restored aircraft and parts packed together. So many that the odds of any getting restored are fairly slim. They really only work on a few projects any year and most projects take multiple years to complete. The best thing was you got to go see the workshops and could talk to the craftsmen as they worked on the aircraft. The Kikka fuselage in the restoration hangar at Udvar-Hazy/Dulles is just the fuselage. To my recollection, it does not even have a canopy. It's just a fuselage, perhaps with rear stabilizers or perhaps not. No wings and no engines. From the Air and Space website, it sounds like Silver Hill has been or is already closed, with all of the things moved to Udvar-Hazy. I thought I had a picture of the Kikka, but I've switched phones twice since then apparently. I think that it is still used for storage but the workshops have all been moved to Dulles. I don't think you can go see the old planes anymore and that is the sad things. I have a photo of the Kikka somewhere but we are talking pre digital and will have to search.
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I am the Holy Roman Emperor and am above grammar. Sigismund of Luxemburg
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