Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki (Dragon-Queller)   Allied Code Name: TOJO

The Ki-44 was designed as a pure interceptor fighter with an emphasis on speed
and climb rate instead of acrobatic agility.  Compared to other Japanese
fighters in the mid-war period, it had high roll rate and a fairly high dive
speed.  Although production began in January 1942, the Ki-44 was not accepted
by the JAAF until September 1942.  Pre-production models, however, served
with a special experimental squadron in the Malaya campaign in December 1941   
and January 1942, and also in China from May 1942.  A total of 1225 Ki-44s
were produced, and these served with the 9th, 22nd, 29th, 47th, 70th, 85th,
87th, and 246th Sentais.  These units were deployed in the Dutch East Indies,
China, the Phillipines, and in Japan.

Ki-44 II
~~~~~~~~
Wingspan: 31'
Length: 28'9"
Powerplant: One 1450 hp Nakajima Ha-109 14 cylinder air-cooled radial
Armanent:  Ki-44 IIb - 4 12.7mm Type 1 machine-guns
           Ki-44 IIc - 4 20mm Ho-3 cannon
           2 60 kg bomb
Maximum speed: 376 mph at 17,060'
Climb: 16,406' in 4 min, 17 sec.  
(Note that ALL planes climb too fast in AOTP - approximately 2-3 times
 faster than real life.  The Ki-44 flight model follows this 


INSTALLATION

Unzip either the KI44IIb.zip and copy the corresponding files into your AOTP 
directory:

Ki43.fmd
Ki43.dmg
Ki43.gl                Historically, one should only install these in 1944
Ki43.glt               campaigns involving the Phillipines area of operations,
Ki43.gau               and those following after.
Ki43.tbl               
Ki43.ttm               It would be great to also replace the Ki-45 in the
Fki43.edg              August 1944 Home Defense Campaign, but a bug I have
Bki43.edg              not been able to find causes the rear view to corrupt.
Rki43.edg              If I can find the problem, I will up load a corrected
Lki43.edg              version.
Ki43.dat

OPTIONAL
Unzip and copy the following into your AOTP directory to display the proper 
aircraft type, VIEW information, and armament info in the prefight options
screen.  BE CAREFUL - these will copy over Grant Senn's (Tagert) files which 
are in his ORDN1.ZIP used to provide the proper shell info for HIS aircraft 
mods. If you don't use the following OPTIONAL files, the game shell will read 
as if you're going to fly the Ki-43 with its armanent. But when you fly the 
mission, you'll be in a Ki-44 with its weapons.

  OPTIONAL.ZIP

ARMANENT UPGRADE
To upgrade to the Ki-44 IIc with 4 20mm cannons unzip and copy the files
into your AOTP directory:

  IIC.ZIP

OPTIONAL
If you want the prefight options screen to show the the proper weapons display
for the the Ki-44 IIc, unzip the following into your AOTP directory along
with the IIC.ZIP files listed above.  WARNING!  The same warning about
the effects of these on Tagert's files holds true.

  OPT2C.ZIP

TO ELIMINATE THE KI-44 AND BRING BACK THE KI-43, SIMPLY DELETE THOSE FILES
YOU HAVE COPIED INTO YOUR AOTP DIRECTORY.

NOTES:
Now I realise that the Ki-84 is not that close to the Ki-44 in shape - the
Ki-44s wings are short and cranked and its fuselage is shorter, but until 
Dynamix does RAF in the Pacific (probably never) or someone figures out how 
to change the aircraft polygons, we're stuck.  The new paint job does change
the appearance alot.  I also used the Ki-43 interior views instead of the 
Ki-84's because the rear view of the Ki-43 has the correct canopy.  The Ki-84
side views more accurately depicts the Ki-44s forward-set wing, but I felt
that the unobstructed rear view was more important.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Grant Senn and Tim Kilgore.

Nicholas Bell
72162,1667

8 JUL 93
