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Zero fighter flies over Japan for 1st time since WWII
Associated Press ^ | Jan. 27, 2016 7:54 AM EST | Miki Toda

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 ...


TOPICS: Japan
KEYWORDS: aerospace; howardhughes; japan; mitsubishi; navair; reisen; zero
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To: central_va

Collecting “ditched” pilots is one thing.

What happens when the ship itself that they are on sinks?

Another problem they had is that after Midway, the Japanese built seven carriers; we built 70+.


81 posted on 01/27/2016 9:25:57 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

You misspelled “Flying”. It is properly spelled “S-u-p-e-r” in this context.


82 posted on 01/27/2016 9:29:52 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Bender2
My son and I rode in the 9-Oh-9 a few years back. The route took us over our house.

Then the pilot allowed us to stand up in the aircraft's midsection & poke out heads out into the slipstream while he stood the plane up on a wing on a pass over Moffett Field. Unforgettable.

83 posted on 01/27/2016 9:33:20 AM PST by skeeter
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To: DuncanWaring

A man-after-my-own-heart!

My FIL was WWII Army Airborne in Germany and my SIL is now in the BIG RED 1 headed for Ranger School.

That said, thanks for all YOU have provided to the USA!


84 posted on 01/27/2016 9:34:48 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym defines the science.)
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To: Fai Mao

Made obsolete by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, June 26, 1942 date of first flight.


85 posted on 01/27/2016 9:35:08 AM PST by 2001convSVT (Going Galt as fast as I can.)
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To: Olog-hai

Cool !

I always enjoy seeing the WWII stuff,especially the planes.

.


86 posted on 01/27/2016 9:36:31 AM PST by Mears
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To: NFHale

only 13 survived according to this source: Mitsubishi not the major manufacture?

http://ww2db.com/aircraft_spec.php?aircraft_model_id=3

By the end of WW2, 10,937 Zero fighters were manufactured. Mitsubishi built only 3,880, while the majority of the remainder were built by Nakajima, the company that declined to bid on the original request for such a fighter.

After the war, most surviving A6M Zero fighters were destroyed. A few of them were sent to the United States for testing. Many of them were abandoned across the various Pacific islands, rusting very quickly in jungle climates. Only about 13 were available for museum display today, such as the Zero fighter on display at Yushukan museum adjacent to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. Only a very small number are in flyable condition today.


87 posted on 01/27/2016 9:45:36 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: pfflier

The US managed to salvage a Zero and fly it. They discovered that its biggest weakness was turning right in a dive. Once the pilots discovered that, it was all she wrote.


88 posted on 01/27/2016 9:56:01 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: DCBryan1

Good read, thanks


In February 1945 Cmdr. Richard G. Crommelin was taxiing Zero 4593 at San Diego Naval Air Station, where it was being used to train pilots bound for the Pacific war zone. An SB2C Curtiss Helldiver overran it and chopped it up from tail to cockpit. Crommelin survived, but the Zero didn’t. Only a few pieces of Zero 4593 remain today. The manifold pressure gauge, the air-speed indicator, and the folding panel of the port wingtip were donated to the Navy Museum at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard by Rear Adm. William N. Leonard, who salvaged them at San Diego in 1945. In addition, two of its manufacturer’s plates are in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage, donated by Arthur Bauman, the photographer. Leonard recently told me, “The captured Zero was a treasure. To my knowledge no other captured machine has ever unlocked so many secrets at a time when the need was so great.”


89 posted on 01/27/2016 10:00:25 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: AppyPappy
My dad was in Alaska when they found the Zero flipped in the mud. He had nothing to do with the salvage operation other than being a weather observer in the Aleutians.

The F-6F was also rumored to have been developed based on the captured Zero's performance as well as reports from the Pacific fleet.

90 posted on 01/27/2016 10:10:49 AM PST by pfflier
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To: null and void

#40 The gunner on the ground was a good shot.


91 posted on 01/27/2016 10:13:58 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: BobinIL

“The US didn’t have anything that could match them”

More than a few zeros and 109’s were downed by P-40s. With the right tactics they held their own. The P-38 likewise. The P-39 also. Recent analysis of actual action for the P-40 showed it was a lot better than its modern reputation. Heck man, the Wildcat had a 5.9:1 kill ratio in 1942. Don’t believe everything you have read.

The P-40 did fine against the 109... except that the RAAF used a lot of P-40s as bombers in Africa and 109’s caught them flying low and slow with bombs. So kill ratio were skewed by that. In the air to air role they did fine against 109s.


92 posted on 01/27/2016 10:16:49 AM PST by TalonDJ
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To: skeeter

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

If good tactics make aircraft A dominate aircraft B then it can not be said that aircraft B is superior.


93 posted on 01/27/2016 10:18:20 AM PST by TalonDJ
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To: saminfl
#22 Add < in front and a > at the end. Save your photo to your desktop then open and see the dimensions. Reduce them if too big. I use a calculator to divide by 2 or 3 then if need be I round up the number. Preview before posting. Also use br with the < in and > at the end to separate text and or image.

img src="example.jpg" alt="ping" width="300px" height="200px"
94 posted on 01/27/2016 10:21:41 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: Fraxinus
The Germans and Japanese had no fear of the P-40. The P-39 underperformed at fighting altitudes but average below 10K AGL. The P-38 wasn't as maneuverable as the Zero or the Me-109 but was a devastating gun platform. The F-4F had the same flaws as the P-40 not agile but it had the same strengths too, rugged and heavily gunned.

The early strength of American fighters was their ability to absorb hits from opposing fighters. When armed with the 50 cal machine guns, they were also more lethal because of the amount of firepower they could muster on a target.

I left the P-36 out of the mix because it was mostly not a factor. Then there was the Brewster Buffalo...

95 posted on 01/27/2016 10:33:34 AM PST by pfflier
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To: GreyFriar

Thanks for the ping. I didn’t know there are any Zeros left.


96 posted on 01/27/2016 10:43:13 AM PST by zot
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To: TalonDJ

It can if one-on-one aircraft B more often wins. And one on one the A6M would prevail in most cases.


97 posted on 01/27/2016 10:57:07 AM PST by skeeter
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To: pfflier

BTW the Russians loved the P39 as a low altitude ground support role. But in the air superiority role it stunk on ice.


98 posted on 01/27/2016 10:58:50 AM PST by skeeter
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To: knarf

More than you’d ever want to know about television during WWII:

http://www.qsl.net/w2vtm/mil_television_history.html


99 posted on 01/27/2016 11:49:05 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Falcon 105)
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To: PeterPrinciple

“...Many of them were abandoned across the various Pacific islands, rusting very quickly in jungle climates...”

Damn... imagine recovering a couple of those and restoring them. Probably completely obliterated by now. 13 left, out of thousands.

I was at an airshow in Reading PA last summer; they had a P61 Black Widow that was recovered from a crash site in New Guinea and is under restoration. There’s only a few of those left too. Big, twin tail night fighter, sort of like a P38 Lightning on steroids.


100 posted on 01/27/2016 11:57:23 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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