World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
12 Feb 2016 08:03:29 PM

ONCE A TIGER:

File photo of an A6M5, Model 52 has tail number 61-131 it was one of (12) Zeros captured on Saipan. Shipped back to the USA for testing & evaluation. Aircraft 61-131 was chosen as it was the most photographed of the zeros captured.

Restored in 1976 the Zero assigned to the 261st Kokutai it carried the tail number 61-108, the Museum incorrectly lists the zero's tail number as 61-131 and that it was built by Mitsubishi not Nakajima.
After testing its left landing gear was out of alignment, and unsafe for flying, the zero was grounded, and put into storage. It survived the great post-war scrapping frenzy...

2.  Bill says:
2 Dec 2016 04:44:09 PM

LAST OF THE LINE: A6M8

Mitsubishi tried to stretch as much as possible from the A6M airframe. However, it made wartime improvements to keep the Zero in the fight, against improved Allied designs.
The last improvement was the A6M8 Zero Mitsubishi engineer's replaced the standard Sakae 21 engine with the larger Mitsubishi Kinsei 64, to accept the larger engine, the cowling was redesigned along with a larger carburetor air intake above the cowling.
The new design included a larger propeller spinner, taken from a Yokosuka D4Y "Judy".
This modification also deleted the two upper fuselage mounted machine guns, this left the A6M8 armed w/2 x 20mm cannons and 2 x 13mm machine guns mounted in each wing.
Only prototype aircraft were built, before Japan surrendered in August 1945 the A6M8 never went into production. Zero in file photo is one of the A6M5, Model 52's captured on Saipan