this is the 'file' for my next post and entry into BogdanX's pacific war challenge.

what follows is fiction. please do not take it seriously.

The Ki-47 fighter-bomber was a late WWII Japanese aircraft designed replace the B5N 'Kate' torpedo bomber and the A6M 'Zero' simultaneously, and was supposed operate from both carriers and land bases. It was capable of doing just about anything to some degree, but was not good at doing anything well, and the aircraft only saw limited production and active service due to a lack of carriers in the Japanese fleet and a lack of conquered islands with which to operate from. The Japanese military also, due to it's limited speed at all altitudes and it's horrendously poor performance at high altitudes, decided not to bring it into the Air Defence role to chase the high-flying and fast B-29s and P-51s that America was fielding against Japan.

Pilots loved the handling of the aircraft, including its climb rate, stability at all speeds, and it's fun stall characteristics that were useful for avoiding enemy fire. However, the aircraft had a number of apparent drawbacks in handling - the thin, non-tapering wing could stall at speeds of 130mph or less, which forced gentle inputs to be necessary on approach to a carrier. It's landing gear also was placed too far forwards to make landing easy, though they couldn't be moved back due to aerodynamic stresses. Its elevator control locked up badly at speeds greater than 300mph, though a variant was developed that mitigated this (A prototype was built, but it never flew). This same variant fixed a problem with the folding wings where the joints would flex at high speeds.

The engine itself was a bizarre one. Specially developed for this small aircraft, it had 18 small cylinders arranged in a double-layered radial configuration, which allowed for high torque, but a relatively low max RPM, which limited top speeds.

The control surfaces were small, but aerodynamically clean, and allowed for great manoeuvrability due to the large surface area of the wings. This small size also helped mitigate control lock at high speeds, though there was an aerodynamic defect in the elevators that caused the aforementioned severe control lock at high speeds. However, the elevators were unique in that the trim controlled small movements in the elevators, which allowed the plane to be very aerodynamically clean.

The cockpit was designed to have the bare minimum. It only had controls necessary for flight, and nothing else. The dials were large and simplistic, though this posed a problem as they all looked very much the same. Also, the speed gauge lacked all marked speeds apart from '0' However, due to the size of the aircraft, it was possible to easily tell when pilots were reaching stall speeds. The artificial horizon was designed to be a multifunctional piece of equipment that served as an artificial horizon, compass and turn indicator. it had no slip indicator, as this was deemed unnecessary.

The landing gear was one of the main drawbacks of the aircraft. Due to the way it had to retract, an aerodynamic landing gear leg was impossible or the entire assembly would wrench itself from the aircraft. This also left the legs rather spindly and the tyres were prone to blowing (due to the lack of rubber available, they had to be thin). All of this combined meant that the aircraft barely made it through deck-landing trials.

Due to the requirements of the aircraft to be incredibly small to be more nimble and dodge enemy fire, the cockpit reached right to the floor of the aircraft. This made the area in front of the cockpit extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, as it would cause the engine to fall off. In addition, this made the ordnance it carried look ridiculous when tagged to the wings and fuselage, and caused the aircraft to struggle to get off the ground and climb when they were attached. There was also a design fault in the 3 20mm cannons in which the spent shell casings would eject themselves onto the landing gear when extended, and also onto the torpedo until it was dropped.

The aircraft could carry a total of 1 modified type 91 torpedo in addition to 4 150kg bombs. The torpedo was modified to allow faster drop speeds to negate the need for a detachable stabiliser fin which often failed. this also allowed a quicker escape for the aircraft. However, the torpedo only saw operational service with the Ki-47.

The Americans saw this aircraft as a joke to them when they first spotted it doing torpedo runs. However, they were quite shocked when that same aircraft dumped it's torpedo, promptly turned around and shot down no less than 3 enemy aircraft before returning to a nearby land base. this earned it the reporting name 'skunk' (hence it became known - Ki-47 skunk) and the nickname 'mini devil'. however, they quickly cottoned onto the fact that it suffered severe elevator lock at high speed and began forcing the aircraft to dive, causing a surprising number to crash into the ground. Despite this, of the 194 produced, only 32 crashed, and those 194 managed to shoot down almost 300 enemy aircraft, giving it a kill to crash ratio of almost 10:1 and an average of about 1.5 enemy aircraft destroyed per plane produced, earning it a place in history as japan's last wonderplane. ironically, it was never used in suicide missions because of 'its small size, making it incapable of carrying explosives', where this would have made it one of the most renowned kamikaze aircraft in history, and could even have had bombs slung under the fuselage to act as a makeshift warhead, but this decision saved it from being relegated to this status and therefore possibly losing the place in history that it deserved..