Tachikawa Ki-55
The Tachikawa Ki-55 was a [Imperial Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese Army|Japanese] advanced trainer.
Design and development
The excellent characteristics of the Tachikawa Ki-36 made it potentially ideal as a trainer. This led to the development of the Ki-55 with a single machine gun 12,7mm. After successful testing of a prototype in September 1939, the type was put into production as the Tachikawa Army Type 99 Advanced Trainer.In all, 1,389 Ki-55 were constructed before production ended in December 1943 - with Tachikawa having built 1078 and Kawasaki 311.
Both the Ki-55 and the Ki-36 were given the Allied nickname Ida.
Variants
;Ki-36 : Army co-operation aircraft.;Ki-72 : An evolved version with a Hitachi Ha38 engine and retractable undercarriage. Not built.
Operators
- Imperial Japanese Army Air Force
- Kumagaya Army Flying School
- Mito Army Flying School
- Tachiarai Army Flying School
- Utsonomiya Army Flying School
- Manchukuo Air Force
- National Government of China Air Force received several from the Japanese.
- Republic of China Air Force operated captured aircraft.
- People's Liberation Army Air Force operated more than 30 captured aircraft at the end of 1945. These Ki-55s were used until the last 14 retired in 1953.
- Indonesian Air Force
- Royal Thai Air Force