- Kawasaki Ki-56
"Thalia"
Topics:
Posted
By: Dan Salamone <heroncreek@qwest.net>
Date:
Tuesday, 30 January 2001, at 10:31 p.m.
Classic Airframes has announced that they will release
some 1/48 Lockheed Hudsons starting the summer of 2001. I was wondering if
there is anything available on the Ki-56 (which was based on the Hudson) that
may tell which engines were used, which Sentai, how many were built, etc.
Page
171 of Model Art 533 on IJA Bombers has one photo, and one side profile of a
Ki-56 and that is all I can find in my library.
Re:
Ki-56 information available?
Posted
By: Claus Krüger <cdk59@msn.com>
Date:
Saturday, 3 February 2001, at 10:16 a.m.
In
Response To: Ki-56 information available? (Dan Salamone)
the
Ki-56 was based on the long fuslage Lochheed Model 18.
The
Typ LO was based on the short fuslage Model 14.
Re:
Ki-56 information available?
Posted
By: Mike Goodwin <Mike.Goodwin@iname.com>
Date:
Thursday, 15 February 2001, at 11:15 a.m.
In
Response To: Re: Ki-56 information available? (Claus Krüger)
I think it is not likely that the Ki-56 was based on the
Lockheed 18. I never heard of an 18 reaching Japan before the end of the war,
and they only bought a license for the 14.
Francillon
says explicitly that Kawasaki developed the Ki-56 from the 14, independently of
Lockheed. The Ki-56 was shorter than the 18, and lacked the rear ventral step.
Apparently Kawasaki also reworked the flaps and redesigned the wing. Despite
the increase in capacity, the Ki-56 was lighter than the LO, because of the new
wing structure.
Francillon
says (in my edition) that his single illustration of the Ki-56 is the only one
known, but I have seen others in Japanese references.
The
Ki-56 was powered by two Nakajima Ha-25, which was the IJAAF equivalent of the
NK1C Sakae 12. This was a change from the LO, which had Mitsubishi Ha-26, which
was the IJAAF equivalent of the MK2 Zuisei 14.