AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 109 / 247

Plate 109 of 247 · Second World War · Carrier fighter

Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero

A6M5 Zero (Model 52), '61-120', painted as '61-120', Nakajima-built A6M5 Zero c/n 5357 of the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California, the only Zero still flying on its original Nakajima Sakae engine, captured on Saipan in June 1944, test-flown in the United States and later taken back to Japan on several tours: the Imperial Japanese Navy's Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 52, a light low-wing single-seat fighter with a close-cowled 14-cylinder Sakae 21 radial and individual exhaust stacks, a long greenhouse canopy, a short-span wing with rounded tips, two 20 mm cannon in the wings and a three-blade propeller, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel with the canopy closed, in the scheme it wears in the museum: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey-green undersides, a blue-black cowling, plain red hinomaru on the fuselage and wings, yellow identification strips on the inboard wing leading edges, yellow '61-120' across the fin and rudder, red walkway outlines on the wing roots, grey undercarriage legs and blue-green wheel wells (shape from a published A6M5 three-view, checked against photographs of c/n 5357); IWM Duxford holds the cockpit section of another A6M5.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as '61-120', Nakajima-built A6M5 Zero c/n 5357 of the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California, the only Zero still flying on its original Nakajima Sakae engine, captured on Saipan in June 1944, test-flown in the United States and later taken back to Japan on several tours: the Imperial Japanese Navy's Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 52, a light low-wing single-seat fighter with a close-cowled 14-cylinder Sakae 21 radial and individual exhaust stacks, a long greenhouse canopy, a short-span wing with rounded tips, two 20 mm cannon in the wings and a three-blade propeller, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel with the canopy closed, in the scheme it wears in the museum: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey-green undersides, a blue-black cowling, plain red hinomaru on the fuselage and wings, yellow identification strips on the inboard wing leading edges, yellow '61-120' across the fin and rudder, red walkway outlines on the wing roots, grey undercarriage legs and blue-green wheel wells (shape from a published A6M5 three-view, checked against photographs of c/n 5357); IWM Duxford holds the cockpit section of another A6M5. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (A6M5 Zero, B5N2 Kate); engine, crew and dimensions are for the A6M5 Zero (Model 52), '61-120' modelled here.

History

The A6M5 Zero

Jiro Horikoshi’s team at Mitsubishi designed the A6M to a 1937 Imperial Japanese Navy specification that asked for a carrier fighter faster, longer-ranged and more agile than anything then flying. To meet it they cut weight everywhere, using a new high-strength aluminium alloy, a one-piece wing built into the fuselage and no armour or self-sealing tanks. The first prototype flew on 1 April 1939. The navy accepted it in 1940 as the Type 0 Carrier Fighter, from the last digit of the imperial year 2600, and Japanese pilots and the Allies alike came to know it as the Zero.

Zeros first fought over China in September 1940, and on 7 December 1941 they escorted the carrier strike on Pearl Harbor. For the first months of the Pacific war their range and climb took Allied pilots by surprise. That changed after a Zero that force-landed on Akutan Island in the Aleutians in June 1942 was recovered almost intact, repaired and flown by the US Navy, and as the Grumman Hellcat and Vought Corsair arrived in 1943. The light structure that gave the Zero its agility also meant it burned easily and could not dive as fast as its opponents.

The A6M5, the Model 52, was Mitsubishi’s answer, in service from the autumn of 1943. It had a shorter wing with rounded tips, heavier skinning for higher diving speeds and individual exhaust stacks that added a little thrust, and it was built in greater numbers than any other version. Nakajima built about twice as many Zeros as Mitsubishi, and nearly 11,000 were made in all, more than any other Japanese aircraft of the war. By 1944 the Zero was outclassed, and in the last year of the war many were flown in kamikaze attacks.

This airframe

A6M5 c/n 5357 (61-120)

61-120The airframe modelled

Nakajima-built A6M5 c/n 5357 was one of a number of Zeros captured by US forces on Saipan in June 1944 and shipped to the United States for testing. It later passed to Ed Maloney’s Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino, California, which returned it to flying condition in the 1970s; it is the only Zero that still flies on an original Nakajima Sakae engine, and it has been taken back to Japan for display. Britain has no complete Zero: the nearest is the cockpit section of another A6M5 at IWM Duxford. The model shows c/n 5357 as it is displayed at Chino, standing tail-down on its wheels and tail wheel with the canopy closed: dark green upper surfaces and fuselage sides over light grey-green undersides, a blue-black cowling, plain red hinomaru on the fuselage and both surfaces of the wings, yellow identification strips on the inboard wing leading edges, yellow ‘61-120’ across the fin and rudder, red walkway outlines on the wing roots, light grey undercarriage legs, blue-green wheel wells and a red-brown propeller with yellow tips. The shape follows a published A6M5 three-view, checked against photographs of the aircraft.

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the A6M5 Zero in 2 UK collections.

Every airframe and serial All 247 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.