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Thanks, Mates 
That was a beautiful machine, however not a very good fighter, at least according to some Japanese pilots' opinions.
The Ki-43-1 had structural problems in the wings and could not do harsh high speed maneuvers (they put a spring the control cables to alleviate this). The Ki-43-II solved these problems and had more kills than all other Japanese Army aircrafts combined.
I even heard this included the Navy aircrafts, but I find this hard to believe... There are many Ki-43 aces, and the II and III were kept in production to 1945...
The twin 12.7 mm nose machineguns had explosive rounds that were very effective, making much larger holes, but the Browning system did not like synchronizing with props, so the rate of fire could have been 900 rpm in the wings, but was only 500 rpm in the nose...
The Ki-61 is likely the next highest scoring Army fighter, as the Ki-83 was so hampered by reliability it was called "the pilot killer"... That is, killer of its own pilot... Its legs would break on landing and many other problems...
Gaston