This web page is intended to be an online record of the de-construction of the Townsend Thunderbird and it's re-emergence as an 100% replica Nakajima Ki-27, Nate.

The Nakajima Ki-27 (Allied code name "Nate") was the first accepable monoplane built for the Japanese Army. It was one of the most agile fighter monoplanes ever built. The Nate was clean and very light. It had fixed landing gear with aerodynamic farings. The Ki-27 Type 97 was the standard fighter of the Japanese Army Air Force from 1937 to 1942. It saw combat in China and Manchuria before the outbreak of World War II. It was flown throughout the South Pacific until late 1942, when more advanced aircraft replaced it. In the final stages of the war, a few Nates were used as Kamikaze aircraft. The Ki-27b model was rated at 286 mph with a range of 390 miles. Armament was two 7.7 mm machine guns and it could carry 220 pounds of bombs.

Note how similar these aircraft are.

In September of 2002, I purchased a home built aircraft called "The Townsend Thunderbird". It was a strange looking aircraft, assembled in 1955, using parts from at least four different aircraft. The fuselage structure (20' in length) appears to be a cut down Fairchild PT-26. The canopy is probably from the same aircraft. The cowling is from a Stearman. The landing gear came from a Cessna 190 or 195. The wings, vertical stab, and horizontal stab are from a Vultee BT-13 or BT-15. The wings are just the outer panels (wing span is 25') and the stabs have been cut down in size. The engine is a Wright R-975 (which suggests BT-15). The aircraft started out fabric covered and was later metalized. It is a strange bird, and has quite a history. It's a shame to change all that, but the aircraft was not safe to fly. (Actually it was really great in the air. Take off and landing is what scared the you know what out of me) It was too short coupled and over-powered. I think it had an aft CG, or not enough horizontal stab. The tail would not come off the runway until about 65 mph with full forward stick.

When I flight tested the Thunderbird, I found that the clean power off stall speed was at approximately 80 mph. With the first flap setting selected, the power off stall speed was between 85 and 90 mph with a very abrupt snap into a spin. Attempting to recover from the spin below 100 mph resulted in a secondary stall, again with a tight spin. I attribute this strange performance to the very small flap size. The flaps started at the fuselage and ran outboard only 16". I think the size of the flaps created a thicker wing section at the wing root, and so caused the wing tips to stall long before the wing roots.

I decided to dissemble the Thunderbird after the landing gear collapsed and made for a very exciting landing. After taking the forward fuselage aluminum away from the frame, I found some old cracks and some very scary welding. My first impulse was to scrap the entire aircraft. I then started thinking about redesigning it and building a replica of a WWII era fixed gear fighter. I scoured all of my books until I found an aircraft that the Thunderbird most closely resembled. That aircraft is the Nakajima Ki-27.

I purchased the Thunderbird so I could learn the flight characteristic of a tail dragger with a big radial engine. I have been building an 82% replica of an F4U-1A, Corsair, for about ten years. I wanted to be familiar with that type of aircraft when the time comes to flight test the Corsair. I didn't expect to have two aircraft projects. I considered an 82% Nate replica as the Thunderbird happens to be almost exactly 82% scale of the Nakajima. After the test flying of the Nate, I decided to build a Full scale Ki-27. I found two partners, or I should say , they found me. The project is now well under way. We are building it to be a two-seater so that it can be used to learn how to fly my Corsair in the safest way possible.

Visit my 82% Corsair replica web page at: http://www.Corsair82.com

E-mail me at Tony(at)ki27.com -Replace the (at) with @.

Thndrbrd Deconstructing the Thunderbird
Part 1
Thndrbrd Work Continues
Deconstructing the Thunderbird (Part 2)
Thndrbrd Work Continues 2
The rebuild continues...