Kawasaki Ki-5

The Kawasaki Ki-5 was an experimental fighter built for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in the early 1930s, and the last Japanese design led by Richard Vogt before he returned to Germany. It was the first all-metal cantilever monoplane fighter built in Japan, built around the Kawasaki Ha9, a Japanese development of the BMW IX engine rated at about 850 horsepower, and it used an inverted gull wing to improve the pilot view downward and allow a short, simple undercarriage. It first flew in February 1934, but test pilots complained of stability and handling problems and the engine never gave enough power to reach the design speed of 380 km/h. The army cancelled the project in September 1934 after four had been built, though the work helped later Kawasaki fighters, the Ki-28, Ki-60 and Ki-61.