The Most Delicate Killer - Nakajima Ki-43

It was December of 1942, and the all-new Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 took the world by storm as it quickly gained complete aerial superiority over the Pacific islands. When witnessing the aircraft’s extraordinary speed and maneuverability, the Allied powers realized how much they had undervalued Japanese engineering. By then, the Allied air forces in the region were limited, and many of the aircraft that they were using in the Pacific Theater were old and unfit to face such a threat. The aircraft was named Hayabusa or Peregrine Falcon, as its capabilities resembled the agile and speedy predator bird. However, Allied forces came to know the plane as Oscar, and they also learned to fear it, especially during the early stages of the war. The fighter’s raw speed, in addition to its ability to perform the sharpest turns of any fighter in the world, made the aircraft a formidable foe and a quintessential representation of Japan’s ingenuity and determination. As World War 2 fina