Nakajima Ki-27 Ko: Celestial Elegance.

If the Japanese fighters had a thing in spades that for sure was style and this Nakajima’s is not an exception. The Ki-27 was the first modern monoplane fighter to enter service in the Imperial Japanese Army AF in the late 1930s. Bloodied in combat by the very belligerent Japanese, this neat plane proved to be an efficient fighter, not very fast but with the well-loved Japanese taste for maneuverability. The Ki-27 remained in front line service long after the start of WW2.

Very pretty photo of one a 84th Dokuritsu Hiko-Chutai’s Ki-27 flying over Canton, 1939. The image gives clear testimony of its pleasantly fluent lines.

Photo: Hiroshi Sekiguchi.