Aviation Historian 25
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R.Flude - Berlin or bust /The Axis's wartime air links/ (2)
Ki-77 отличали чистота аэродинамики и крыло очень большого размаха, расчетная дальность полета составляла 18000 км.
The prototype Ki-77-I made its first flight on November 18, 1942, and in January 1943 it undertook a successful test flight between Tachikawa, near Tokyo, and Fukuoka on Kyushu.
Japanese engineers gather around one of the two Ki-77s before another test flight circa 1943.
The Tachikawa Ki.77-I long-range research machine landing following its record flight in Manchuria in July 1944.
Initial design work on the Ki-77 specified a “sealed oxygen cabin”, unpressurised but sealed to prevent loss of oxygen, so as to minimise the use of oxygen masks for the crew on flights of extremely long duration; in the event, the crew did have to use masks fed from cylinders loaded aboard, as seen here.
The two-seat cockpit of the Ki-77, which offered an excellent field of vision. The type’s very-high-aspect-ratio wings were of laminar-flow section with 6° dihedral, and contained fuel tanks taking up some 70 per cent of their internal volume. The aircraft’s flight-handling characteristics were reportedly excellent, but only two were ultimately built.
Tachikawa Ki-77/A-26
Tachikawa Ki-77