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Aircraft History
Built by Kawasaki during May 1943 with "Kou" armament of 2 x 12.7mm Ho-103 machine guns in the fuselage forward decking and two 7.7 mm Type 89 machine guns in the wings. Uncoded serial number 192.
Wartime History
Assigned to the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) to the 68th Sentai or 78th Sentai. This aircraft made a wheels up landing at Alexishafen
Airfield. Afterwards, abandoned on the northern side of the runway.
Wreckage
Until the early 1970s, this aircraft remained in situ at Alexishafen
Airfield with the tail section removed.
Ray Fairfield recalls:
"You can just see the rectangular hole on the starboard side of the fuselage, just below the windscreen framing. This wreck was located on the north side of the runway, positioned towards the western end of the strip, if I'm right."
Recovery
Sometime after 1972, this wreck was dismantled by Charles Darby but never removed. In August 1999, the cockpit
section and wings remained. Recovered by Robert
Jarrett / Classic
Jet Fighter Museum and exported to Australia.
Display
The fuselage section is displayed at Classic
Jet Fighter Museum. During 2006 it was moved to Precision Aerospace then later returned to Classic
Jet Fighter Museum.
Papua New Guinea Ki-61 Tonys Move To Precision Aerospace by Robert Greinert:
"Tony 292 is unique as a relic and following a request
from Murray Griffiths, CEO of the Precision Aerospace, it was agreed to loan the
unit for display in the rapidly
developing Museum. It is proposed to display the
relic in a jungle setting next to some of its former opponents
ala P40's, P39's
and Wirraway."
The wing section of this aircraft is owned by Kermit Weeks / Fantasy of Flight and are in off site storage.
References
Pacific
Aircraft Wrecks page 13 (middle), page 42 (upper)
J-Aircraft "Ki-61 unrestored wing section - And a visit to Weeks Air Museum, 1987"
Thanks to Robert Jarrett for additional information and Jim Long for manufacture data.
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Last Updated
May 22, 2017
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