Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar)

Sometimes called the “Army Zero” by American Pilots, the Hayabusa had generally similar lines to its more well known Imperial Japanese Navy cousin. Pilots learning to identify enemy aircraft properly were taught to focus on the finer lines around the Ki-43’s tail and the lack of canopy framing to distinguish the type from the Zero. 

The Ki-43 became legendary for its performance in the areas where the Allies encountered the Imperial Japanese Army, such as the China-Burma-India theater. Like the Zero, the initial Hayabusa variants traded the added weight (and safety) of armor plating and self-sealing fuel tanks in favor of greater maneuverability and speed. This gave the type a reputation for burning easily or simply breaking up following strikes by high caliber rounds. Despite its greater agility, however, the aircraft was under-armed, with just two fuselage-mounted machine guns. This meant that its pilots struggled to bring down the more heavily-built American fighters at times. 

The Museum’s example is a project inherited from another Aviation Museum, and is based upon four wartime wrecks which the late Doug Champlin recovered from the Kuril Islands north of Japan.