Out of the rising sun

Flight Journal, Apr 2000 by Davisson, Budd

The Mitsubishi Zero Sen was born to be a dogfighter, and it knew no equal when it came to fighting the slow-speed, groveling match to which all true dogfights eventually deteriorate. That was the goal behind its design: make it turn quickly, make it go fast, and do it with only 1,100hp.

Jiro Horikoshi, Mitsubishi's chief designer, knew that the only way to meet the design specifications was to make it light-unbelievably light. This meant eliminating such combat "niceties" as self-sealing gas tanks and pilot armor. More important, it meant compromising production in favor of light weight. For instance, the plane had no normal wing fittings: the wings and forward fuselage were built as a single unit, which greatly complicated the distribution of its production throughout "cottage-industry" locations. For that reason-although in production for more than five years-only slightly over 10,000 Zeros were finished, while more than three times as many Messerschmitt 109s were built during the same period.

The Zero's biggest drawback was that owing to its combat success during the first six months of the War, the Imperial leadership saw no reason to aggressively seek a replacement. When Hellcats and Corsairs began to choose their own fights and use their speed and brute firepower to gnaw away at Japan's few experienced pilots and aircraft, the leadership's mistake was obvious. By then, there was too little time left for Japan to adequately develop its own highpowered, heavily armed fighters. If the Zero hadn't been such a superb fighter at the outset, perhaps our pilots would have found themselves battling Jacks and Franks in larger numbers. The Zero was, quite literally, a victim of its own success.