Zero fighter flies over Japan for 1st time since WWII

Associated Press ^ | Jan. 27, 2016 7:54 AM EST | Miki Toda

[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. ...

[null and void]

The Zero.

Best carrier fighter in 1941

Worst carrier fighter in 1945

Same as it ever was.

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else-if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

[saminfl]

How do you post a picture? I have a really neat photo of the Tora Tora Tora zeros in formation.

[ryderann]

Did you notice all the solar units on the roofs in the pix?

[Constitution Day]

Interesting, thank you for posting. Here is a photo I found online of it:

Click to embiggen

[wagglebee]

Thanks, I didn't know that (obviously I knew that nearly all were destroyed).

[AppyPappy]

The Japanese actually created better fighters but they ran out of pilots.

[null and void]

[Bringbackthedraft]

The best fighter is only as good as the best pilot. A couple of tracers hitting the Zero = Poof, and a roasty toasty pilot! The AVG guys were shooting them down with P 40’s.

[Nailbiter]

history ping

[central_va]

The CO2 fire suppression system sucks.

[skeeter]

Alot of the Wildcat’s success was due to tactics, for what its worth. Thatch Weave & all.

[Nailbiter]

I agree- but inferior fighters plus surplus of pilots beats superior fighters and no pilots

Same can be said of Germany and their fighter aircraft and no pilots

[skeeter]

I don't think all were destroyed. Japan had thousands of aircraft in reserve waiting for the big invasion that thankfully never happened.

After the war the Japanese were more than happy to cut the remainder up and forget all about what their militarists had just put them through.

[microgood]

I saw one of those at the Okinawa Airport when taking a MAC flight from the Philippines (Subic Bay) back in the early 90s.

[null and void]

How do you post a picture?

Nully's Quick FR HTML Guide:

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You can't just snag a favorite picture from a desktop folder...it has to be hosted someplace on line to be posted here.

Best bet is to save the image to an image hosting service, I use Photobucket. In Firefox right click and select "Copy image location", in Safari right click and select "Open image in new tab" and copy the address in the address bar. Other browsers have similar tricks.

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Cynwoody adds this tip:

You can pre-cue a YouTube video by adding a t parameter to the link. Like so:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=CwrgsufbFH4&t=3m13s

[central_va]

It's successor would have been a heck of an opponent.

A-7 "Reppu"

[AppyPappy]

Germany didn’t waste pilots like Japan did. Germany was confident it would create better planes so it wanted pilots to return.

Japan was willing to let pilots die in the mission. So when they developed better planes like the Frank, there was no one to fly them.

[skeeter]

The Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden was a pretty good fighter as well. But Japan could never produce enough of them to make a dent.

[SandRat]

Did you see this Thread?

[null and void]

It was a death trap and the same time with almost zero armor to protect the pilot.

Sort of the anti- A-10