Nakajima Ki-84 a/b Hayate in Japanese Army Air Force Service (Schiffer Military Aviation History

Osprey Aircam Aviation #29

by Richard M. Bueschel

Richard Bueschel revises and updates his classic series of books on Japanese Naval and Army Air Force aircraft of World War II. The JAAF Nakajima Ki-84 HAYATE (Frank) is presented in this volume. All variations and markings are covered in this fifth book in a multi-volume series.

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Richard Martin Bueschel

Richard M. Bueschel (1926-1998) was and probably always will be the most prolific author and historian that our hobby will ever know. Dick most enjoyed “the fun of the search and the knowledge gained”. His view was that “If it’s good for the hobby, it ought to be done.” He penned dozens of books about coin operated machines.

He also edited a multitude of coin-op magazines and periodicals. Dick inspired us by sharing his collection of coin machine paper including photographs, vintage advertising and trade magazines. Dick also helped to lead the way towards the legalization of slot machine collecting throughout most of America.

Dick grew up in the heart of the coin operated machine industry, Chicago, during the 1930’s and 40’s. His primary focus was on gambling machines, but he also wrote about pinball, arcade, penny scales and vending among many other topics.

He served in the United States Air Force during 1945 and 1946. This led to his interest in Japanese war planes and subsequent books about these aircraft. His business career was as a creative person in industrial advertising agencies. Our hobby would not be remotely close to where it is today, not only in historical knowledge, but in the number of collectors, had it not been for the efforts and inspiration of Richard M. Bueschel.

Reviews

[Shyue Chou Chuang · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 1997 Schiffer Military reprint of an Osprey Publishing title from 1970. It consists of an operational history of the various models of the Ki-84 and also a list of specific units which operated this. This is accompanied by numerous photos of the various models. All in all a decent collection and pictorial.

(Note: The earlier Osprey Publishing edition has colour plates and more photos.)

[Dirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The four stars are mainly for the fun I had trying to build as many different versions of the Hayate from the examples in the color art section of this book, plus the amazing number of photographs that were in the original version. Sadly the Schiffer reprint did not get the rights to republish the original -and by now indeed a bit dated- color art of Richard Ward, and did Mr. Bueschel (or the editors at Schiffer) decide to keep out much of the poorer pictures of the original. The result is that the reprint looks much tidier, but misses just the part that brought me pleasure back in the late 1970ies.