KAWASAKI Ki-45 TORYU NICK Famous Airplanes of World FAOW BLUE 26 FREE USA MAIL!

Description: Offered for sale by Over The Blue Horizon is a very nice, vintage Japanese pictorial on an important Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) interceptor: FAMOUS AIRPLANES OF THE WORLD (FAOW), Blue Cover Volume 26, KAWASAKI Ki-45 TORYU (NICK). These older FAOWs are increasingly difficult-to-find, and this one from the older Blue Cover series, published in 1972, remains in high-demand among advanced modelers. Japanese strategists observed the Americans and the Europeans design and build a number of twin-engine, two-seat, heavy fighters during the mid- and late 1930s. The Ki-45 was born from this concept which, for the most part, proved to be a failure as heavy, two-seat fighters, like the Me-110, proved incapable of taking on more maneuverable single-seat fighters. After overcoming teething development problems, the Ki-45 Kai (modified) entered operational service in 1942 and unlike many Japanese Navy fighter airplanes, offered crew armor and fire-resistant fuel tanks. These airplanes also carried a heavy gun battery that usually consisted of 20 mm and 37 mm cannon. TORYUs operated in the New Guinea area against Allied shipping and attacked Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers of the 5th Air Force. The Japanese also employed some Ki-45s as night fighters --field personnel modified these TORYUs by substituting the upper fuselage fuel tank for two 12.7 mm machine guns mounted to fire obliquely upwards at a target's vulnerable belly. This worked so well that the army told Kawasaki to manufacture a night fighter version of the TORYU -- the Ki-45 Kai (Mod. C) -- with two 20 mm cannon, mounted obliquely, and a 37 mm cannon mounted in the lower fuselage. Beginning in mid-1944, B-29s started attacking the home islands of Japan, and the Ki-45 was one of the heavy day fighters and night fighters assigned against the American bombers. As many as six Sentais (groups) of NICK night fighters defended the home islands by war's end. This FAOW softcover published in 1972 is 7.25 x 10 inches in size, 56 pages long, and condition is GOOD+ with light/moderate shelf wear to the covers. Note that Over the Blue Horizon ships from the USA with FREE United States Postal Service (USPS) FIRST CLASS shipping to USA buyers! eBay charges sales tax for certain states; Over the Blue Horizon charges Hawaii residents state general excise tax. Your purchase will be carefully wrapped to ensure that it arrives in the same condition as described in the eBay listing. If you are not happy with your purchase for whatever reason, we will work something out -- your satisfaction is GUARANTEED. Regardless of where you are in the world, buy with confidence from a well-established eBay merchant with a sterling reputation and an exceptionally high customer satisfaction rate.

Price: 29.99 USD

Location: Kailua, Hawaii

End Time: 2024-12-19T02:29:59.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD