This mission is a typical B-29 interception in spring 1945. You will be flying a Ki-44 from the 47th Sentai and climb as high as you can to intercept. Planes from others bases will also come and help you. But this time you will have to face an even greater threat than B-29 gunners: Mustangs escort. The first VLR mission took place on 7 April 1945 and was quite a nasty surprise for the japanese pilots...
The Ki-44 is an interesting plane. The IJA knew they needed an interceptor capable of shooting down heavy bombers that were begining to be developped. During the war with China, before WW2, a raid by chinese bombers above the mainland (they only dropped leaflets on Nagasaki and Fukuoka) in May 1938 definitely convinced them of the need of a fast, powerful, sturdy and well-armed interceptor. Nakajima, which was the favorite manufacturer of the IJA, was chosen to create this new interceptor, but also to create the Ki-43, as the IJA could not decide between a "light" or a "heavy" fighter... Created with speed and rate of climb as priorities (quite the complete opposite of the japanese standards at the time), the pilots didn't like the Ki-44 at first, they were more used to light, easy to fly and nimble aircrafts. After some disapointing results in real conditions in Burma, and even if it saw action in China, Korea Formosa and the Philippines through the war, the Ki-44 mainly served in a Mainland Defense role.
In this mission, for the Japanese side I am using Wolfi's Ki-44, as there are skins of the 47th Sentai by Morton available for it for your flight (I use the 70th Sentai skins for the other Ki-44 formation). I don't know if it's the case for everyone but when on the ground Wolfi's Ki-44 model/textures are acting weirdly, like ailerons or parts of the wing visible through the fuselage, things like that, but in flight everything is normal so I don't understand what could be the cause. It kind of breaks the immersion but the plane flies well and the different skins available are enough reasons to put a version of this mission with it. I am listing links for everything available on SOH regarding Wolfi's Ki-44.
I am also using Akemi's Ki-45 with a skin from Morton (5thS 3rdC Capt Fujitaro Ito). I took the DP from UncleTgt in his Akemi Ki-45 Nick skins UT pack and just changed the category in the misc data (changed to 1) to have a true fighter.
I am also including a version with the Ki-44s by AcWai/Andrew. For a 47th Sentai skin please use the AW-Ki-44-2 textures. You can put these textures on any of the AW-Ki-44. The planes with the telescopic gunsight are Ki-44 Otsu 2 x 12,7 mm and 2 x 40 mm or 4 x 12,7 mm. As the 40 mm Ho-301 cannon was inadequate for aerial combat most Otsu were fitted with 4 x 12,7 mm. The planes with a reflector gunsight are Ki-44 Hei (4 x 12,7 mm, no optional provision for 2 40 mm Ho-301 cannon from what I know). For the other Ki-44 formation in this mission please use the textures from the AW-Ki-44-3 download, they are for a 70th Sentai plane.
The AW KI-44-II 47 Sentai is a Otsu (telescopic gunsight) with 4 x 12,7 mm. the AW KI-44-II Otsu 47 Sentai is a Otsu (telescopic gunsight) with 2 x 12,7 mm and 2 x 40 mm. The Ho-301 40 mm cannon is hard to use but it could be an interesting challenge.
You could also use the 1% Ki-44, in this mission the 1JA_Ki-44IIb_Tojo (Otsu) as it has the correct 47th Sentai textures but you could swap it to the 1JA_Ki-44IIc_Tojo I think.
For the US side I am using William Dickens/Bismarck13's AI B-29 with prop textures from Kelticheart for the B-29.
For the P-51 I am using the Alphasim P-51D Mustang. For this one there are quite a lot of downloads/options/textures/DPs available so it can be confusing or difficult to choose the right things but I chose to use the ALPHA_P-51D_Mustang_20th_FG by Captain Kurt, as it seems the best mix of eveything available on SOH for the airfile and dp, with a skin from Morton in his rework pack mk_Alpha_P-51Dx8 with the Margaret IV 78th FS15th FG IWO JIMA textures and a skin from Sopwith Chameleon in his sc-alpha-p51-d-megapack#2 for the PTO with the Lil' Butch textures. I am including links of everything (I hope) available on SOH regarding the Alphasim Mustang so you can have the choice between all the options/dps/etc available.
Again for the two versions (Wolfi's Ki-44 and AcWai's Ki-44) I am including a MB by default and an edited version of the mission file. For Wolfi's Ki-44 it's mainly for the sake of having all the skins from Morton in flight, with some changes in the callsigns reflecting those changes. For AcWai's Ki-44 it's only the callsigns.
Thanks again to Cody Coyote for his Mission Building Handbook, still not sure if I am doing everything right but I am getting more and more used to this MB.
Thanks to all the creators of every objects, aircrafts, skins, scenery etc used in this mission, I hope I didn't forget someone and that I was clear enough in this readme. Please see the readme of the different downloads. Feel free to change, modify anything and everything in this mission.
These missions are freeware and should be available only on sim-outhouse.org.
Ludo
The Ki-44 is an interesting plane. The IJA knew they needed an interceptor capable of shooting down heavy bombers that were begining to be developped. During the war with China, before WW2, a raid by chinese bombers above the mainland (they only dropped leaflets on Nagasaki and Fukuoka) in May 1938 definitely convinced them of the need of a fast, powerful, sturdy and well-armed interceptor. Nakajima, which was the favorite manufacturer of the IJA, was chosen to create this new interceptor, but also to create the Ki-43, as the IJA could not decide between a "light" or a "heavy" fighter... Created with speed and rate of climb as priorities (quite the complete opposite of the japanese standards at the time), the pilots didn't like the Ki-44 at first, they were more used to light, easy to fly and nimble aircrafts. After some disapointing results in real conditions in Burma, and even if it saw action in China, Korea Formosa and the Philippines through the war, the Ki-44 mainly served in a Mainland Defense role.
In this mission, for the Japanese side I am using Wolfi's Ki-44, as there are skins of the 47th Sentai by Morton available for it for your flight (I use the 70th Sentai skins for the other Ki-44 formation). I don't know if it's the case for everyone but when on the ground Wolfi's Ki-44 model/textures are acting weirdly, like ailerons or parts of the wing visible through the fuselage, things like that, but in flight everything is normal so I don't understand what could be the cause. It kind of breaks the immersion but the plane flies well and the different skins available are enough reasons to put a version of this mission with it. I am listing links for everything available on SOH regarding Wolfi's Ki-44.
I am also using Akemi's Ki-45 with a skin from Morton (5thS 3rdC Capt Fujitaro Ito). I took the DP from UncleTgt in his Akemi Ki-45 Nick skins UT pack and just changed the category in the misc data (changed to 1) to have a true fighter.
I am also including a version with the Ki-44s by AcWai/Andrew. For a 47th Sentai skin please use the AW-Ki-44-2 textures. You can put these textures on any of the AW-Ki-44. The planes with the telescopic gunsight are Ki-44 Otsu 2 x 12,7 mm and 2 x 40 mm or 4 x 12,7 mm. As the 40 mm Ho-301 cannon was inadequate for aerial combat most Otsu were fitted with 4 x 12,7 mm. The planes with a reflector gunsight are Ki-44 Hei (4 x 12,7 mm, no optional provision for 2 40 mm Ho-301 cannon from what I know). For the other Ki-44 formation in this mission please use the textures from the AW-Ki-44-3 download, they are for a 70th Sentai plane.
The AW KI-44-II 47 Sentai is a Otsu (telescopic gunsight) with 4 x 12,7 mm. the AW KI-44-II Otsu 47 Sentai is a Otsu (telescopic gunsight) with 2 x 12,7 mm and 2 x 40 mm. The Ho-301 40 mm cannon is hard to use but it could be an interesting challenge.
You could also use the 1% Ki-44, in this mission the 1JA_Ki-44IIb_Tojo (Otsu) as it has the correct 47th Sentai textures but you could swap it to the 1JA_Ki-44IIc_Tojo I think.
For the US side I am using William Dickens/Bismarck13's AI B-29 with prop textures from Kelticheart for the B-29.
For the P-51 I am using the Alphasim P-51D Mustang. For this one there are quite a lot of downloads/options/textures/DPs available so it can be confusing or difficult to choose the right things but I chose to use the ALPHA_P-51D_Mustang_20th_FG by Captain Kurt, as it seems the best mix of eveything available on SOH for the airfile and dp, with a skin from Morton in his rework pack mk_Alpha_P-51Dx8 with the Margaret IV 78th FS15th FG IWO JIMA textures and a skin from Sopwith Chameleon in his sc-alpha-p51-d-megapack#2 for the PTO with the Lil' Butch textures. I am including links of everything (I hope) available on SOH regarding the Alphasim Mustang so you can have the choice between all the options/dps/etc available.
Again for the two versions (Wolfi's Ki-44 and AcWai's Ki-44) I am including a MB by default and an edited version of the mission file. For Wolfi's Ki-44 it's mainly for the sake of having all the skins from Morton in flight, with some changes in the callsigns reflecting those changes. For AcWai's Ki-44 it's only the callsigns.
Thanks again to Cody Coyote for his Mission Building Handbook, still not sure if I am doing everything right but I am getting more and more used to this MB.
Thanks to all the creators of every objects, aircrafts, skins, scenery etc used in this mission, I hope I didn't forget someone and that I was clear enough in this readme. Please see the readme of the different downloads. Feel free to change, modify anything and everything in this mission.
These missions are freeware and should be available only on sim-outhouse.org.
Ludo
