The Mitsubishi Ki-46-III Dinah was a WW2 era Imperial Japanese Army long range command and reconnaissance aircraft used operationally from mid 1941 until 1945, a total of 1742 aircraft being produced. The Ki-46-III Dinah was designed with good endurance and a high maximum speed and altitude capability, this was achieved largely by weight reduction at the expense of defensive and offensive capability, the Dinah was intended to survive interaction with enemy fighters by rapid evasion rather than confrontation.
In the last months of WW2 their was an urgent need to intercept the fast and high flying American B-29 Flying Fortress bombers over Japan, lead to the instillation in the Ki-46-III Dinah of twin 20 mm nose mounted cannon and a single upward firing 37 mm cannon installed in the fuselage to convert the aircraft into a high altitude interceptor. The need to keep the aircraft's weight low to retain performance allowed no increase of it's defensive capability, it was therefore far more susceptible to incoming fire power than the American bombers it was now required to hunt, rather than evade, with a predictable outcome. A total of 1,742 Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah' s were produced, 613 of these were the faster Ki-46-III which was fitted with the more powerful fuel-injected Mitsubishi Ha-112 engines.
It is of note that some captured Ki-46 aircraft were operated post WW2 by the French Armée de l'Air and the Chinese Communist Air Force for a short time.
This picture of a Mitsubishi Ki-46-III Dinah is Copyright © June 2014 Siteseen Ltd. We only authorise non-commercial picture use and particularly encourage their use for educational purposes. This Mitsubishi Ki-46-III Dinah picture is not in the Public Domain.
3) Use of this Mitsubishi Ki-46-III Dinah picture, or any of our pictures on websites re-distributing copyright free material is strictly prohibited.