Kawasaki Ki-174: what was it?

[Pelzig]

Alles:

Some sources list the Ki-174 as being a Kawasaki design for a single-seat suicide variant of the Kawasaki Ki-48-II. Other sources have the Ki-174 as being a Tachikawa light bomber project.

Could it be that both Ki-174 aircraft are, in fact, one and the same?

Here is my logic. The Ki-48-II was a Kawasaki product. This light bomber was chosen to be converted into a dedicated suicide aircraft (the Ki-48-II Kai). The Ki-48-II Kai suffered from performance due to the weight of the explosive payload, so much so that the crew was reduced to two and all defensive armament removed in order to preserve performance. Tachikawa was the company that was designated to make the conversions of the Ki-48-II into the suicide version, not Kawasaki. So, that being said, you have the possibility that Tachikawa undertook their own initiative to improve the Ki-48-II Kai to the point it received the Ki-174 designation. Or, since Kawasaki was the one upon which the entire Ki-174 design was based on, that their name was given to it, just like the Ki-48-II Kai (which was not called the Tachikawa Ki-48-II Kai despite them being the one making the conversions).

Seems to me that coming up with a new, conventional light bomber at such a late stage in WW2 made little sense and so Tachikawa having such a light bomber project seems fruitless. It makes more sense when you turn it into a suicide light bomber.

It may just be that some authors assumed because Tachikawa was tasked with making the suicide bombers, naturally, the Ki-174 should have their name. Other authors, since the Ki-174 was derived from the Ki-48, that the Kawasaki name should remain.

Thoughts?

 

[blackkite]

Hi ED!
Ki-174 was a special attack aircraft which applied some modification to Kawasaki Ki-48Ⅱ. Modification were performed by Tachikawa aircraft.
It was a single seat aircraft. Some aircrafts were used for special attack mission.

Engine : two HA115, 1100HP/3850m, 980hp/6000m, 1130hp/take off. Span : 17.47m, length : 12.875m(exclude explosion rod), Height : 3.8m(3 point), Wing area : 40m2, bomb : 800kg.
Source : All the Experimental Aircraft in Japanese Army, KANTOSHA


https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=Ki-48&hl=ja&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_KWQT6iPM-rImAWPhvD3AQ&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=675&sei=A6aQT9WdM4TjmAWh-Zz5AQ

 

[airman]

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_kawasaki_ki-174.html

infact : seems be a suicide variant of Ki-48 !

 

[Pelzig]

Well, we can certainly see that some have the consensus that it was the Kawasaki Ki-174. But how do we reconcile the claim of there being a Tachikawa Ki-174? I sit in the camp that the two are the same plane and there may have been some mistranslation or assumption made post-war on the maker.


Cheers,


Ed

 

[Stargazer]

Well, we can certainly see that some have the consensus that it was the Kawasaki Ki-174. But how do we reconcile the claim of there being a Tachikawa Ki-174? I sit in the camp that the two are the same plane and there may have been some mistranslation or assumption made post-war on the maker.

Blackkite made it clear that Tachikawa performed the modification on the Kawasaki design. This doesn't shock me at all and in fact this has always been common practice. In the war years, I can think of how Lockheed-Vega modified Boeing B-17 aircraft to turn them into the XB-38 and XB-40 while G.E.'s Fisher Body modified a B-29 into the XB-39. Sometimes it was the rule of the lowest bidder, sometimes it was because the company had already subcontracted the fabrication of the type (like Vega on the Fortress). So to me it's no big deal, really. And don't forget how Nakajima got the deal on some of the A6M "Zero" variants...