Nakajima Ki-82

The Nakajima Ki-82 was a Japanese Army heavy bomber design that was never completed. Nakajima had won the 1938 contest to replace the Mitsubishi Ki-21 with the Ki-49 Donryu, but the Ki-49 did not live up to expectations and never fully replaced the older aircraft. At the start of 1941 the Army asked Mitsubishi for a new bomber instead, and its outline, approved on 17 February 1941, became the Mitsubishi Ki-67 Hiryu, the best bomber the Army had in the Second World War. Nakajima was asked for its own design only later in 1941, a smaller and lighter version of the Ki-49 that was worked on at its Mitake Research Division. By the middle of 1942 it was clear the design would not be competitive, and work on the Ki-82 was abandoned.