Zero

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Tanaka
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Zero

Post by Tanaka »

The A6M, built by Mitsubishi, populary known as the ''Zero'' was the first carrierborne fighter in the world which was capable of outperforming any land based fighter it was likely to encounter. Because of the inept Allied intelligence the Zero was able to achieve air superiority over the East Indies and South East Asia from the day Japan entered the war.

Designed in 1937 under the leadership of Jiro Horikoshi as a replacement for the A5M, the prototype A6M1 was first flown on 1 April 1939 with a 760hp Mitsubishi Zuisei 13 radial engine. The production A6M2 fighters with two wing mounted 20mm guns and two nose mounted 7.7mm guns were fitted with 950hp Nakajima Sakae 12 radial engines. It was this version of the fighter that escorted the force sent to attack Pearl Harbour, and then went on to gain air superiority over Malaya, the Phillipines and Burma.

During the spring of 1942 the A6M3 entered service fitted with a two stage supercharged Sakae 21 engine, later planes had there folding wing tips removed.
The Battle of Midway represented the Zero's combat Zenith; thereafter the agile Japanese fighter found itself outclassed by the american F6F Hellcat and P-38 Lighting fighters.

To counter the new American planes the A6M5 was rushed into service with frontline units, this version, fitted with the Sakae 21 engine and an improved exhaust system had a top speed of 351mph, more A6M5s were produced than any other Japanese Aircraft.

It was 5 A6M5s of the Shikishima Kamikaze unit that sunk the carrier St Lo and damaged 3 others on 25 October 1944.

Other versions were the A6M6 fitted with a water-Methanol boosted Sakae 31 engine and the A6M7 fighter/divebomber.

Total production of all the A6Ms reached 10,937 aircraft. The reporting name 'Zeke' was given to the A6M, and ''Rufe'' to the A6M2-N which was the float version.

A6M2 taking off from the Akagi on route to Pearl Harbour
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Hiroyoshi Nishizawa in his A6M3 over the Solomon Islands, 1943

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Shergar
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Re: Zero

Post by Shergar »

very interesting ryan im gona copy this , your threads always interst me mairtin
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Tanaka
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Re: Zero

Post by Tanaka »

Cheers Mairtin. :D

Any suggestions for future thread write ups?
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