Mitsubishi Ki-15, part two

(This is a straight continuation from the previous post)
There were plans to improve the Ki-15 and, therefore, in September 1939, the Mitsubishi Ki-15-II was sent into production. It was an improved variant powered by a Mitsubishi Ha-26-1 which yielded 900hp of power. Thanks to the smaller diameter of the new engine, drag was reduced and forward field of view was increased, which was one of the problems of the first version.
Its performance atracted the attention of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which ordered 20 examples of the Ki-15-II, under the official designation of "Navy Type 98 Reconnaissance Plane Model 1", or, as Mitsubishi named it, Mitsubishi C5M1, even before the navy named it.
The Imperial Japanese Navy adquired, subsequently, thirty examples of C5M2, which was a more improved version powered by a 949hp Nakajima Sakae 12 engine. In the Imperial Japanese Navy, they were used for reconnaissance duties. A experimental version powered by a 1050hp Mitsubishi 102 radial engine was also tested by Mitsubishi, and received the designation of Mitsubishi Ki-15-III but it never went into production.
In total, around 500 exemplars of every variant were manufactured and most of them were still in first line duties when the Pacific War began. One year later, in 1943 they have already been relegated to second line duties, but late in the war, some of them were used in Kamikaze attacks.
The Mitsubishi Ki-15-I did also set a new record back in 1937 when the second prototype was bought by the Japanese newspaper Asahi thanks to its reputation of being a very fast aircraft. It was given the designation of Karigane (Wild Goose) and received the nickname of Kamikaze with the registration of J-BAAI. It became the first Japanese aircraft to fly to Europe in a Tokyo-to-London flight for the coronation of King George VI between 6th April and 9th April 1937 in a flight time of 51 hours, 17 minutes and 23 seconds, setting a new record for the time. Following that success, a small number were sold to civilian customers with the newspaper Asahi, buying another one, nicknamed Asakaze, with the registration J-BAAL. Other number of aircraft were used as mail planes by various civilian operators.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Ki-15
2. https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=890

Mitsubishi Ki-15

The Mitsubishi Ki-15 was a Japanese reconnaisssance aircraft which was also used as a light attack bomber during the Second World War.
It was designed by Mitsubishi to meet a requirement from the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force of 1935 for a two-seat high-speed reconnaisssance aircraft. The design submitted by Mitsubishi was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a fixed, spatted undercarriage which was similar to other all-metal designs of the early-to-mid 1930s like the Heinkel He.70 or the Northrop Alpha.
Initially it was powered by a single Nakajima Ha-8 radial engine which yielded 750hp of power at 4000m (13120ft) high. The first prototype made it to the air in May 1936 and testing proved succesful with the aircraft meeting all performance requirements and achieving a speed of 481km/h (299mph) showing, at the same time, good flying characteristics.
Service testing was completed without any difficulty and the type was ordered into production under the official denomination of Army Type 97 Command Reconnaisssance Plane Model 1. One year after the prototype flew for the first time, in May 1937, the first batch of 437 aircrafts was handed to the Imperial Japanese Army.
The first model, Ki-15-I, was rushed into operational service at the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese war in 1937. It proved very useful in Chinese soil, where it performed missions deep into Chinese strategic rear areas, reaching even the city of Lanzhou, located at the province of Gansu. It enjoyed a clear advantage thanks to its high speed, until the Chinese Air Force adquired the Polikarpov I-16. The Ki-15 was used in a wide variety of roles like level bombing, close support and photo reconnaissance before it was eventually replaced by the Mitsubishi Ki-30.
It's known that after the World War 2, the Chinese Communist Air Force, operated an unknown number of captured aircraft which were based in Manchuria. They were captured at the city of Harbin in June 1946 and by 1948 they were completely repaired and being used as trainers. They served in that role until 1951 when they were withdrawn.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Ki-15
2. https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=890