On 24 October the RAF Museum’s Mitsubishi Ki-46-III reconnaissance aeroplane, Kawasaki Ki-100 fighter and Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka ‘kamikaze’ aircraft went on display at Hendon, following a move from the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford. The ‘Dinah’ and Ki-100 are the only complete, piston-engine World War Two Japanese aircraft in the UK.
The Ki-46-III, c/n 5439, was operated by 81 Sentai, 3 Chutai, of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. It was handed over to the Allies at Kuruan, Malaya in September 1945, and in January-February 1946 was readied for a flight to Seletar, Singapore. There it was dismantled for shipment to the UK, arriving at Portsmouth on 24 August.
On the same ship was the Ki-100, c/n 16336, assembled at the Kakamigahara factory in southern Gifu Prefecture at the end of June 1945. Shortly before the Japanese surrender in August, it was flown by Japanese ferry pilot Sgt Y. Kishi the 2,500 miles from Japan to Tan Son Nhut airfield in Saigon, in what was then French Indochina. During November 1945 it was overhauled and Kishi made some test flights before the Ki-100 was briefly put to use flying displays for the press and visiting VIPs. Since the 1960s it has been displayed at several locations, latterly at Cosford, where it went on show in January 2012.
