"War II Japanese fighter aircraft]] [[Category:Articles containing video clips]] [[Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft]] [[Category:Low-wing aircraft]] [[Category:Aircraft first flown in 1939]] [[Category:Retractable conventional landing gear]] Mitsubishi A6M Zero The Mitsubishi A6M ""Zero"" is a long-range fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the , or the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen. The A6M was usually referred to by its pilots as the ""reisen"" (零戦, zero fighter), ""0"" being the last digit of the imperial year 2600 (1940) when it entered service"
"Later, two variants of the fighter received their own code names. The Nakajima A6M2-N floatplane version of the Zero was called ""Rufe"", and the A6M3-32 variant was initially called ""Hap"". General ""Hap"" Arnold, commander of the USAAF, objected to that name, however, so it was changed to ""Hamp"". Captured examples were examined in New Guinea and the Allies realized that it was a variant of the Zero, so it was finally renamed ""Zeke 32"". The first Zeros (pre-series of 15 A6M2) went into operation with the 12th Rengo Kōkūtai in July 1940. On 13 September 1940, the Zeros scored their"
"the primary Japanese Navy fighter throughout the war. During the war, the Japanese manufactured roughly 10,500 Zeros. In 1940 Claire Lee Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, wrote a report on the Zero's performance. However, United States Department of War analysts rejected it as ""arrant nonsense"" and concluded the performance attributed to the Zero was an aerodynamic impossibility. According to American flying ace William N. Leonard, ""In these early encounters and on our own we were learning the folly of dogfighting with the Zero"". Nine Zeros were shot down during the attack on Pearl Harbor. From these wrecks, the Allies"
"and more ductile than other alloys (e.g. 24S alloy) used at the time, but was prone to corrosive attack, which made it brittle. This detrimental effect was countered with an anti-corrosion coating applied after fabrication. No armour protection was provided for the pilot, engine or other critical points of the aircraft, and self-sealing fuel tanks, which were becoming common at the time, were not used. This made the Zero lighter, more maneuverable, and the longest-ranged single-engine fighter of World War II, which made it capable of searching out an enemy hundreds of kilometres away, bringing them to battle, then returning"
"mass production in 1936. In 1937, Horikoshi and his team at Mitsubishi were asked to design Prototype 12 (corresponding to the 12th year of the Shōwa era). Prototype 12 was completed in July 1940, and it was accepted by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Since 1940 was the Japanese year 2600, the new fighter was named as ""Model 00"" or ""Zero"" or A6M Zero, in Japan also known as the ""Rei-sen"" (literally meaning ""zero fight"", shortened for ""Model zero fighter airplane""). Subsequently, he was involved in many other fighters manufactured by Mitsubishi, including the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden (Thunderbolt) and the Mitsubishi"
"The Zero was superior to any Allied fighter it encountered for the first two years of the war. To achieve this, however, Japanese engineers had traded off durability. The Zero was very lightly built; it had no armor and no self-sealing fuel tanks. According to American author Jim Rearden, ""The Zero was probably the easiest fighter of any in World War II to bring down when hit ... The Japanese ... were not prepared to or weren't capable of building more advanced fighters in the numbers needed to cope with increasing numbers and quality of American fighters"". The Zero was"
"first saw combat over Chungking in August. There they proved to be completely untouchable by the Polikarpov I-16s and I-153s that had been such a problem for the A5Ms when in service. In one encounter, 13 Zeros shot down 27 I-15s and I-16s in under three minutes without loss. After hearing of these reports, the navy immediately ordered the A6M2 into production as the Type 0 Carrier Fighter, Model 11. Reports of the Zero's performance filtered back to the US slowly. There they were dismissed by most military officials, who thought it was impossible for the Japanese to build such"
"1943 the remains of five wrecked aircraft were used to build a single flyable 'Zeke 32', a variation of the Japanese Zero. Captain William Farrior was the first to fly the rebuilt Zeke 32 at Eagle Farm, for 30 minutes, on 20 July 1943. To help produce identification photographs the Zero was painted in Japanese colours and flown around Brisbane with an escort. By 10 August 1943, ATAIU had flown the Zero six times. Mock dogfights between the Zero and a Mk V Spitfire were carried out at Eagle Farm on 14, 17 and 18 August 1943. The Zero proved"
"as numbers for the J2M reflect. A surviving J2M is on display at the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, California. Mitsubishi J2M The Mitsubishi J2M ""Raiden"" (雷電, ""Thunderbolt"") is a single-engined land-based fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in World War II. The Allied reporting name was ""Jack"". The J2M was designed by Jiro Horikoshi, creator of the A6M Zero, to meet the 14-Shi (14th year of the Showa reign, or 1939) official specification. It was to be a strictly local-defense interceptor, intended to counter the threat of high-altitude bomber raids, and thus relied on"
"Allies as well. The Zero was considered the most capable carrier-based fighter in the world when it was introduced early in World War II, combining excellent maneuverability and very long range. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) also frequently used it as a land-based fighter. In early combat operations, the Zero gained a legendary reputation as a dogfighter, achieving an outstanding kill ratio of 12 to 1, but by mid-1942 a combination of new tactics and the introduction of better equipment enabled Allied pilots to engage the Zero on generally equal terms. By 1943, due to inherent design weaknesses,"
"Miyazaki Airplane Miyazaki Airplane was an aircraft parts manufacturing company based in Japan during World War II. The company owned a factory located in Kanuma, Tochigi, Japan, that manufactured parts, including rudders, for the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. During the war, the firm relocated to Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan. Shortly thereafter on July 12, 1945, there was an air raid on the city of Utsunomiya which left 43.7% of the city destroyed. The company was run by Katsuji Miyazaki (Abt. 1915 – 18 March 1993), the father of the Studio Ghibli animation studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. During World War II production runs"
"in Indochina against Viet Minh rebels. Ki-43s abandoned in the Netherlands East Indies were taken over by the newly declared Indonesian government and put into service during the fight against Dutch forces. Not included: Not included: Nakajima Ki-43 The Nakajima Ki-43 ""Hayabusa"" (隼, ""Peregrine Falcon"", ""Army Type 1 Fighter"" (一式戦闘機)) was a single-engine land-based tactical fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. The Allied reporting name was ""Oscar"", but it was often called the ""Army Zero"" by American pilots because it bore a certain resemblance to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Imperial Japanese Navy's"
"their own separate studies. A Mitsubishi A6M ""Zero"" of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service made a forced landing in June 1942 on Akutan Island, off Alaska. The aircraft (known later as the ""Akutan Zero"") was recovered by the USN and shipped to NAS North Island, California, where it was repaired and made a number of test flights to determine its performance and capabilities. In late 1942, the Australian Army captured lightly damaged or incomplete examples of the Nakajima Ki-43 ""Hayabusa"" (""Oscar"") – the main fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force during the war – in Papua"
"""Zero"" (Reisen) fighter, in defense of Chengdu on 14 March 1941. During World War II, the airport was known as Shwangliu (Shuangliu) Airfield and was later used by the United States Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force as part of the China Defensive Campaign (1942–1945). It was used as a fighter base by the 33d Fighter Group, which flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers from the airport in 1944 to support Chinese ground forces, and also by reconnaissance units that operated camera-equipped P-38 Lightnings that located Japanese forces and provided intelligence to the fighter-bombers. The Americans closed their facilities at Shwangliu Airfield"
"Nakajima Ki-43 The Nakajima Ki-43 ""Hayabusa"" (隼, ""Peregrine Falcon"", ""Army Type 1 Fighter"" (一式戦闘機)) was a single-engine land-based tactical fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. The Allied reporting name was ""Oscar"", but it was often called the ""Army Zero"" by American pilots because it bore a certain resemblance to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Imperial Japanese Navy's counterpart to the Ki-43. Both aircraft had generally similar layout and lines, and also used essentially the same Nakajima Sakae radial engine, with similar round cowlings and bubble-type canopies (the ""Oscar""'s being distinctly smaller and having"
"names of friends and relatives. Foreign designers and engineers had been widely employed in Japan's aviation industry prior to 1935, after which a curtain of secrecy had been pulled over Japan's aviation development. These new aircraft were being employed in the air war over China, with the first recorded crash of a Zero being made at Kunming, China in February 1941. It was not until a year later that enough information was gathered to be able to assign it the code name Zeke. During the first six months of the war, technical intelligence information was almost non-existent due to Air"
"it to out-turn any Allied fighter of the time. Early models were fitted with servo tabs on the ailerons after pilots complained that control forces became too heavy at speeds above . They were discontinued on later models after it was found that the lightened control forces were causing pilots to overstress the wings during vigorous maneuvers. It has been claimed that the Zero's design showed a clear influence from British and American fighter aircraft and components exported to Japan in the 1930s, and in particular on the American side, the Vought V-143 fighter. Chance Vought had sold the prototype"
"Fiat G.55 The Fiat G.55 ""Centauro"" (Italian: ""Centaur"") was a single-engine single-seat World War II fighter aircraft used by the ""Regia Aeronautica"" and the A.N.R. (""Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana"") in 1943–1945. It was designed and built in Turin by Fiat. The Fiat G.55 was arguably the best type produced in Italy during World War II, (a subjective claim also frequently made for the Macchi C.205 ""Veltro"" as well as for the Reggiane Re.2005 ""Sagittario"") but it did not enter production until 1943, when, after comparative tests against the Messerschmitt Bf 109G and the Focke-Wulf 190, the Luftwaffe itself regarded the Fiat"
"the fabled airplane. To them the Zero did not long remain a mystery plane. Word quickly circulated among the combat pilots as to its particular attributes. Indeed on 6 October while testing the Zero, Akutan Zero test pilot Frederick M. Trapnell made a highly revealing statement: 'The general impression of the airplane is exactly as originally created by intelligence—including the performance'. However, nine wrecked Mitsubishi A6M Zeros were recovered from Pearl Harbor shortly after the attack in December 1941, and United States Office of Naval Intelligence, along with BuAer had them studied, and then shipped to the Experimental Engineering Department"
"the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero. Several nations, including Finland, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the Buffalo. The Finns were the most successful with their Buffalos, flying them in combat against early Soviet fighters with excellent results. During the Continuation War of 1941–1944, the B-239s (a de-navalized F2A-1) operated by the Finnish Air Force proved capable of engaging and destroying most types of Soviet fighter aircraft operating against Finland at that time and achieving in the first phase of that conflict 32 Soviet aircraft shot down for every B-239 lost, and producing 36 Buffalo ""aces"". In December 1941, Buffalos operated"
"still be deadly. Due to shortages of high-powered aviation engines and problems with planned successor models, the Zero remained in production until 1945, with over 11,000 of all variants produced. The American military discovered many of the A6M's unique attributes when they recovered a largely intact specimen of an A6M2, the Akutan Zero, on Akutan Island in the Aleutians. During an air raid over Dutch Harbor on June 4, 1942, one A6M fighter was hit by ground-based anti-aircraft fire. Losing oil, Flight Petty Officer Tadayoshi Koga attempted an emergency landing on Akutan Island about northeast of Dutch Harbor, but his"
"Mitsubishi J2M The Mitsubishi J2M ""Raiden"" (雷電, ""Thunderbolt"") is a single-engined land-based fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in World War II. The Allied reporting name was ""Jack"". The J2M was designed by Jiro Horikoshi, creator of the A6M Zero, to meet the 14-Shi (14th year of the Showa reign, or 1939) official specification. It was to be a strictly local-defense interceptor, intended to counter the threat of high-altitude bomber raids, and thus relied on speed, climb performance, and armament at the expense of manoeuvrability. The J2M was a sleek, but stubby craft with its oversized"
"air, the Ikaria MG FF was used as armament on a number of German aircraft, of which the most famous is the Messerschmitt Bf 109. The Japanese Navy similarly used their copy of the FF, designated the Type 99 Mark One cannon on a number of types including the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. Later in the war, they also equipped fighters including the Zero with the Type 99 Mark Two, a version of the more powerful and faster-firing Oerlikon FFL. The French firm of Hispano-Suiza was a manufacturer of aircraft engines, and it marketed the ""moteur-canon"" combination of its 12X and"
"P-40E Warhawk, Messerschmitt Me-109, Russian Yak-25 (Mig-19), North American F-86D, and the Lockheed P-38L Lightning. Lastly was the Mitsubishi Zero, called the ""Jap Zero"" on the box flaps (Bussie 2007). With the first two Hawk copies, this collection was called the ""Brooklyn Eight"" (Bussie 2007). Aurora Plastic's first kits were aircraft and this was a backbone of sales through the 1950s and 1960s. From early on the company's Famous Fighters line was popular. Included were World War I, World War II, jet age aircraft and a variety of whirlybirds. A series of aircraft from the 1930s were also offered. Sailing"
"the Zero fighter has been far underestimated. I think it is probably one of the finest fighters in the present war. As for the F2A-3, (or Brewster trainer) it should be in Miami as a training plane, rather than used as a first line fighter. Claire Chennault's report on the Zero and air combat reached Washington in 1941, where it was disseminated to aviation forces of the U.S. Army and Navy. This information, along with the development of two-plane mutual defensive formations and tactics, were incorporated into U.S. and Marine Corps air combat training doctrine by some prescient U.S. commanders,"
"CAC CA-15 The CAC CA-15, also known unofficially as the CAC Kangaroo, was an Australian propeller-driven fighter aircraft designed by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) during World War II. Due to protracted development, the project was not completed until after the war, and was cancelled after flight testing, when the advent of jet aircraft was imminent. As the limitations of the CAC Boomerang became more and more obvious against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero during 1942, Sir Lawrence Wackett proposed designing a new advanced performance fighter from scratch with Fred David heading an in-house CAC design team. During 1943, following the"
"from these defeats the Navy stabilized its lines in summer 1942. At the start of the war, the United States and Japan were well matched in aircraft carriers, in terms of numbers and quality. Both sides had nine, but the Mitsubishi A6M Zero carrier fighter plane was superior in terms of range and maneuverability to its American counterpart, the F4F Wildcat. By reverse engineering a captured Zero, the American engineers identified its weaknesses, such as inadequate protection for the pilot and the fuel tanks, and built the Hellcat as a superior weapon system. In late 1943 the Grumman F6F Hellcats"
"such as a lack of hydraulic flaps and rudder rendering it extremely unmaneuverable at high speeds, and an inability to equip it with a more powerful aircraft engine, the Zero gradually became less effective against newer Allied fighters. By 1944, with opposing Allied fighters approaching its levels of maneuverability and consistently exceeding its firepower, armor, and speed, the A6M had largely become outdated as a fighter aircraft. However, due to design delays and production difficulties, which hampered the introduction of newer Japanese aircraft models, the Zero continued to serve in a front line role until the end of the war"
"at Dayton, Ohio in 1942. It was noted that the ""experimental"" Grumman XF6F-1s then under-going testing in June 1942 and the Zero had ""wings integrated with the fuselage,"" a design feature not normally practiced in American aircraft production at that time. The Akutan Zero was destroyed during a training accident in February 1945. While the Zero was taxiing for a take-off, a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver lost control and rammed into it. The Helldiver's propeller sliced the Zero into pieces. From the wreckage, William N. Leonard salvaged several gauges, which he donated to the National Museum of the United States Navy."
"active service. In September 2010, the only known G.50 bis still in existence was undergoing restoration in the Museum of Aviation, in Surčin, at Nikola Tesla Airport, Serbia. Fiat G.50 The Fiat G.50 ""Freccia"" (""Arrow"") was a World War II Italian fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by aviation company Fiat. Upon entering service, the type became Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal monoplane that had an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage. On 26 February 1937, the G.50 conducted its maiden flight. During early 1938, the ""Freccias"" served in the ""Regia Aeronautica"" (the Italian Air Force) and with its expeditionary arm, the ""Aviazione"
"Fiat G.50 The Fiat G.50 ""Freccia"" (""Arrow"") was a World War II Italian fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by aviation company Fiat. Upon entering service, the type became Italy’s first single-seat, all-metal monoplane that had an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage. On 26 February 1937, the G.50 conducted its maiden flight. During early 1938, the ""Freccias"" served in the ""Regia Aeronautica"" (the Italian Air Force) and with its expeditionary arm, the ""Aviazione Legionaria"", in Spain, where they proved to be relatively fast and very manoeuvrable in comparison to its adversaries in the theatre. Early in the Second World War, it"
"thus the years of ""Showa"" were those used, which began in 1926. Thus, the Mitsubishi Zero was designed to meet the 1937 specification called ""12-shi carrier fighter"". After 1929, aircraft types were given a type number based on the last two digits of the year as counted from the mythical founding of Japan in 660BC by Emperor Jimmu. Added to this was a brief description of the aircraft's function. The Mitsubishi Zero was so-called because entered service in 1940 which was the Japanese year 2600, thus it was designated ""Type 0 Carrier Fighter"". Model numbers were added to show subtypes."
"""Shi"" （試）numbers, the Type numbering system and an aircraft designation system broadly similar to that used by the U.S. Navy from 1922 until 1962. Each new design was first given an experimental ""Shi"" number, based upon the current Japanese imperial year of reign. The Mitsubishi Zero so started its career as Navy Experimental 12-Shi Carrier Fighter （海軍十二試艦上戦闘機）. Upon entering production the aircraft was given a Type number. The 'Zero' was so fully known as Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter （海軍零式艦上戦闘機）, as the Zero was accepted in 1940, or 2600 in the Japanese calendar. The aircraft was also given a ""short"