Mitsubishi Ki-51

The Mitsubishi Ki-51, the Army Type 99 Assault Plane code-named Sonia by the Allies, was a light bomber and dive bomber of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second World War. It first flew in mid-1939 and was used first against Chinese forces. Too slow to survive against Allied fighters, it still did useful ground-attack work in the China-Burma-India theatre, notably from airfields too rough for many other aircraft, and late in the war many were used in kamikaze attacks. Production was around 2,385, with Mitsubishi and the Tachikawa Army Air Arsenal building the Ki-51 proper until March 1944. A single complete Ki-51 survives in the Dirgantara Mandala Museum in Indonesia.