TYPE: High-speed research aircraft

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Daimler-Benz DB 601A liquid-cooled piston engine, rated at 1,155 hp with Water/Methanol injection                  

PERFORMANCE: 435 mph at 11,500 ft

COMMENT: The Ki-78, designed at the Aeronautical Research Institute and built at Kawasaki Kokuki Kogyo K.K. to investigate flying behaviour at very high speed, featured a streamlined minimum cross-section fuselage fitted with a licence-built Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine. For short duration power boost methanol/water injection was used, and cooling was improved by a 60 hp turbine driven cooling fan for the radiators. By the outbreak of the war, the whole project was taken over by the Imperial Japanese Army who gave it the military type designation Ki-78. Kawasaki received the order to build two prototypes of the Ki-78, construction of which was started in September 1941. The first prototype was completed more than a year later and was flown for the first time on 26 December 1942. A feasibility study to improve the KI-78 flight performance showed that extensive airframe modifications were needed and consequently the project was officially terminated after the 32nd flight on 11 January 1944; the second Ki-78 was never completed (Ref.: 23).