Design of the Ki-115 was highly conventional, featuring a low-wing monoplane arrangement with a conventional tail section, engine and cockpit placement. The engine was held well forward along the streamlined cylindrical fuselage and powered a three-blade propeller system. The cockpit was fitted amidships with adequate views to the front, sides and above despite noticeable framing. The rear view was blocked substantially by way of a raised spine. Overall, however, views outside of the cockpit were noted as generally quite poor, no thanks to the long fuselage snout and cockpit placement behind the wings. Inside the cockpit, the pilot had access to a basic instrument panel as well as typical fighter controls such as a flight stick and rudder pedals. Provisions were made for a radio system though it is unknown if this feature was ever fully incorporated. But as the Ki-115 was not designed for dogfighting, much of these limitations were none too great the detriment. The fuselage tapered off into the raised empennage to which sat a traditional vertical tail fin and squared-off horizontal planes. The Ki-115 featured a conventional undercarriage made up of two single-wheeled main landing gear legs - utilizing welded steel tubing - and a tail skid. Shock absorbers were only later added to assist in ground maneuvering. Of note is that the main legs were jettisoned after take-off for a decrease in operational weight, easier production methodology and a slight increase to performance by the saved weight. As the aircraft was not expected to return home, this was a negligible sacrifice to the pilot and aircraft.
The Ki-115 was fitted with a single Nakajima Ha-35 Type 23 series radial piston engine of 1,150 horsepower. This provided for a top speed of about 342 miles per hour with a range of 746 miles. Two rocket accelerators could be added for a temporary boost in performance, particularly during the all-critical "end run" of a kamikaze flight. Overall, the Ki-115 exhibited very little in the way of respectable performance and required the capabilities of trained fighter pilots over that of any raw recruit. Testing alone led to fatal crashes during the Ki-115's short development period.
The aircraft featured no standard machine gun or cannon armament in an effort to save on weight and the simple fact that the Ki-115 was not intended as a true fighter bent on combating Allied warplanes directly. Instead, like other kamikaze aircraft, the pilot delivered a potent payload made up of a single bomb clamped to the fuselage centerline under the aircraft. This came in the form of a single 551lb, 1,102lb or 1,764lb bomb - designed to wreak the most havoc as possible during the kamikaze strike.
In the end, as feared as a kamikaze was to Allied seaman, the attacks did little in the way of disrupting shipping lanes and planned offensives. As such, projects like the Ki-115 tended to be short-lived in nature - though the official end of the war came all too soon for the Empire of Japan, finding themselves a conquered nation at the end of August 1945 following the Atomic bomb droppings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in the Pacific was now over - as was all of World War 2 - for the history books. Operational Downfall was never put into action and spared the lives of thousands of Allied marines, airmen and sailors.
The Ki-115 was never used operationally in any kamikaze actions. As with those "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe", it is only left to the imagination of the reader what a swarm of Ki-115 suicide fighters might have done against Allied shipping in the region. Only a single production example survived the war, this specimen now at the Garber Facility attached to the National Air and Space Museum.
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