Once-feared 'Zero' fighter flies again over Japan

Jan 28, 2016, 11:34 PM

Once-feared 'Zero' fighter flies again over Japan:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/28/world/restored-japanese-zero-fighter-plane-flies-over-japan/index.html

This particular plane was discovered rusting away in Papua, New Guinea, in the 1970s. In 2010, Japanese businessman Masahiro Ishizuka purchased it from an American for about 350 million yen (nearly $3 million), the spokesman said.

"I wanted for the people of Japan, and especially young people, to know about this Zero airplane, as well as those who are old who remember the past," Ishizuka told reporters Wednesday. "Each of them should have different thoughts and perspectives on this, but I just want people to know how Japan has developed its technology."

Also look at the, what I assume are, solar panels on those houses.

🎃

Ohiophinphanmoderator

Jan 29, 2016, 07:33 AM

I am glad there is now a fully restored, flyable ZERO. There are others in collections but I am not sure any others are flying.

It shows how technology can make radically different choices. The ZERO was designed to be extraordinarily light. In the hands of a skilled pilot it was exceptional. But after those first 500 Japanese Naval Aviators died, the replacement pilots who flew it found it a death trap. Too light, too vulnerable, underarmed and unarmored. When the USAAF brought in the P-38, the Marines the Corsair, and the Navy the Hellcat; the ZERO was the wrong design track.

But married to the most rigorous pilot training regimen of its day, the ZERO was a remarkable aircraft.

Thanks for finding this.

OHIOPHINPHAN
Witness to the first ever practice of the Miami Dolphins, 1966.