Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu

Artists impression of the Nakajima Ki-201 in combat colors. Art by Shoji Hasegawa. From the Strange Mechanism page.

The Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu

The Nakajima Kikka could be what one might call the ancestor to the Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu ( Fire Dragon ). The Kikka was based on the German Me262 fighter but outside of a general appearance, shared little in common with it. The Karyu, on the other hand, was very much the Japanese version of the Me262 and was to be the definitive jet fighter for the Japanese Army as well as the Navy.

By late 1944, the Japanese were searching for an influx of technological advancement for their air industry to boost the capability of both current, fielded aircraft as well as new designs to combat the rising hordes of Allied fighters. While some of the Japanese aviation designers were developing innovative aircraft, time was not on their side. Late war combat aircraft were at least equal to some of the fighters and fighter-bombers the U.S. and British put into the air but what was needed was something more than parity. And because time was running out, what was needed was a swift advancement from design board to flying prototype and from prototype to production models ready for battle. To meet this need, Japan turned to Germany for aid. While Japan had always looked to Germany for aeronautical information and assistance, it was not until Japan was losing the tide of battle against the United States and British Commonwealth did it seek even more avenues of technical exchange with Germany to which Germany was quick to share for any number of reasons, both diplomatically as well as strategically.

In the months of 1944, Japan was to rely heavily on the Nippon-German Technical Exchange Agreement, obtaining manufacturing rights, intelligence, blueprints, and in some cases, actual airframes for several of Germany's new air weapons. These included the Me163 "Komet" ( developed as the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui ), the BMW 003 axial-flow jet engine ( which was reworked to Japanese standards as the Ne-20 ), information on the Me262 ( which resulted in the Nakajima Kikka ), data on the Fiesler Fi103R series ( which culminated in the development of the Kawanishi Baika ), and even data on the Bachem Ba349 "Natter" point-defense interceptor. While the Nakajima Kikka bore some resemblance to the German Me262, it was only superficial, even though the Ne-20 engines which powered the Kikka were the Japanese equivalent of the German BMW 003 engine which initially powered the Me262 prototype. Also, the Kikka was envisioned from the outset not as a fighter, but as a special attack bomber and was only armed with a bomb payload. While there was to be a cannon armed version of the Kikka, this was not its main mission. The Kikka was, speed-wise, at least capable of nearing the top speeds of Allied fighters so given its mission, it would probably have been an adequate platform but probably did not make it any marked advantage over more conventional Japanese aircraft in service. Part of this lower performance was due to the Ne-20 engines, which did not provide the additional thrust to propel the Kikka to higher speeds. But while the Kikka served as the first Japanese jet aircraft to be built and flown, Nakajima was at work defining and refining the design into something much more similar to the German jet it was modeled after.

Late in 1944, Japan acquired more concrete data on the Me262 and while the Kikka was under construction ( based mostly on sketchy reports and photographic intelligence ), Nakajima began to put down on the design board the Ki-201. In many ways, the Kikka was a test bed. Whether or not the Ki-201, had it entered production, would have replaced the Kikka, is not known. On the surface, one could speculate that it probably would have for it offered much superior performance over the Kikka and could fulfill the same role as attack bomber. The Kikka served as a means to test jet engines, which, up until that time, had not been produced, let alone placed on an airframe. That it resembled the Me262 was a measure of expediency, much like the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui resembled the German Me163 since the latter's aerodynamics were already proven and attempting to come up with something new was nothing short of folly given the military situation at the time. The fact that the Ki-201 looked so much like the Me262 can no doubt be attributed to this very need to utilize an already tested and proven airshape.

Profile illustration of the Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu. From J.A.P.W.

Nakajima seems to have begun the design of the Ki-201 without official sanction. Perhaps they sought to introduce the aircraft as an advancement of the Kikka to which Nakajima was building under official specifications. Be that as it may, because there was no official acceptance of the Karyu, work on it, headed by Iwao Shibuya, progressed very slowly. Apparently, the Ki-201 was to be an aircraft used by both the Imperial Navy as well as the Imperial Army. However, though Nakajima was targeting the deployment of the Karyu to the Army, the Army had already chosen its priority aircraft to take it into 1946 and this was the Rikugun Ki-202 Shusui-Kai ( Sword Stroke-Improved ) rocket fighter developed in secret by the Army as their answer to the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui which the Navy had initiated and forced upon the Army who had wanted their own design using the Ro.2 rocket engine. Thus, with Nakajima left without a service to equip with the Ki-201 ( as the Navy appears not to have shown an interest in it ), development languished. As work got underway on the first prototype of the Karyu at Nakajima's Mitaka plant, the maiden flight was slated for December of 1945 which was a few months after the Kikka first flew. Delivery of production Ki-201 aircraft was to begin with 18 being completed by March of 1946. The Ne engines were also under a swift development at this time, increasing thrust output to the point where the expected thrust ratings of the Ne-230 and Ne-330 engines were almost on par with their German cousins. It was proposed to mount either a pair of Ne-130 or Ne-230 axial-flow turbojets on the Karyu and Nakajima had two versions of the Ki-201 to equip both the Navy and the Army. The only difference between the two was the choice of weapons. Another feature of the Ki-201 was to be the installation of TaKi-15 airborne intercept radar, which points to the reasoning that additional mission profiles were in store for the Ki-201.

The Karyu was never to see flight for, upon Japan's surrender, the prototype was only halfway completed. The projected performance of the Ki-201 would certainly have given the Japanese air arm just the plane it needed to outperform the main crop of enemy fighters and given the Allied air crews a nasty shock, just as the deployment of the German Me262 to the European theater proved a herald for the new dawn of combat aviation and rendered the days of the propeller driven planes numbered. How well the Ki-201 would have performed in the hands of Japanese airmen will never be known. The introduction of the Me262 into battle presented a new frontier for aviation and the new problems which had to be overcome on the fly and the totally revamped training needed to convert pilots from prop aircraft to the tricks of the trade with a jet aircraft. The Me262, while graceful and granting of exceptional speed and handling, was by no means a novices plane and by the close of the war, the qualified air crews just were not available to man them effectively. This same problem plagued the Japanese air forces as well. By the time the Ki-201 would have entered service, the quality of the pilots would be in question. Long sapped of experienced airmen, any advantages of the Ki-201 would be lost to a novice's mistakes in the face of Allied fighter pilots who had much more flying time under their belts. Also, it can not be doubted that intelligence from the European air combat on the German Me262 would be rapidly sent to the Pacific theater to help U.S. and British combat the Ki-201 since, given that if the Ki-201 did enter production, it would have been in the year 1946, some two years after the first Me262 engaged Allied air forces and since the performance of the Ki-201 and the resemblance of it to the Me262, meant that information to battle the Me262 could have been almost equally applied to battling the Ki-201.

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