Tora, Tora, Tora "Zero" North American AT-6B Texan N11171.
Posted on 01/27/2016 6:22:00 AM PST by Olog-hai
One of Mitsubishi's legendary Zero fighter planes took to the skies over Japan on Wednesday for the first time since World War II.
The restored plane made a brief flight to and from a naval base in southern Japan. Decorated former U.S. Air Force pilot Skip Holm flew the aircraft.
Zero fighters were considered one of the most capable fighter planes in World War II, rivaling the British Spitfire. Their long range allowed them to play a prominent role in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Only a few are still in operating condition. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
God works in mysterious ways. There is a reason for this guy. Perhaps I will live long enough to understand. Perhaps not.
“Sank you vely much.”
wrong thread
The Zero.
Best carrier fighter in 1941
Worst carrier fighter in 1945
Thank you for posting this.
Tora, Tora, Tora "Zero" North American AT-6B Texan N11171.
The "naval base" was Kanoya, in Kagoshima prefecture, from where most of the kamikaze flights took off towards the end of WWII. There is a museum there today, which explains why the Zero would be flying from there now.
The Mitsubishi Zero was an excellent airplane for it’s time. It was a death trap and the same time with almost zero armor to protect the pilot.
“The Zero.
Best carrier fighter in 1941
Worst carrier fighter in 1945”
Maybe the worst by 1943.
The Zero, Me109 and Spitfire were in a class of their own until late 1942. The US didn’t have anything that could match them until the introduction of the F4U corsair, Hellcat and P51
Worst president in history.....................
Part of the problem of there not being any left and difficult reproductions, is that almost all were destroyed in the war and the actual plans were written in an obscure Japanese engineering language that few could read. They had to go to old folks homes and find workers that were still alive to get anybody that could understand them......................
I may off a little in this comment=
Zero did not keep up with competition due to intractability of Japanese mindset.
Basically same reason we were able to read their radio traffic.
The Japanese were incapable of believing that they were not the best and smartest on the block,
Due to the culture- lower ranks would never question higher ranks decisions, therefore even though their crypto people knew that codes get broken they could not question or change said codes. We got to read during most of the war.
Zero suffered the same fate- should have been updated to deal with changing conditions but by the time they were losing they were unable to change as pilots were in short supply and their infrastructure was getting hammered.
I must say for its time was an impressive fighter- as were the ME109 and Spitfire.
That is true.
The Kanoya kamikaze museum is more like a shrine, like Yasukune. Nine Young Gods & all that.
The Zero which the Japanese wish wasn’t intact was the `Akutan Zero’ that was recovered, made flyable, & studied in flight. What was learned affected the outcome of the Pacific war as much as their defeat at Midway, according to one Imperial admiral.
The Wildcat and the P-40 could hold their own against a Zero. The improved Wildcat(FM2) was effective against Zeros.
Wildcats had a 6:1 kill ratio on Zeros.
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