Very cool Chris. Kudo's to the air museum for letting you have a self-guided cockpit tour. Those aviator's, geez, having guns in so close. They came back smelling like burnt powder. Minimalism in instrument cluster. Really something else.
Well done, Chris! Fagen Fighters is a fantastic small museum tucked away in rural southwestern Minnesota about 2 hours west of Minneapolis. Staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and the admission fee is modest. Their aircraft are not only in flying condition, but most are actually flown from time to time (I can't speak to the Zero, but I've seen a P-51, an F6F, and a P-40 from their collection flying). One of the hangars also contains a sizable aircraft library. If you have an opportunity to visit, take advantage of it!
初めまして、貴重な零戦を紹介していただきましてありがとうございます。日本人パイロット人形が頭に巻いているハチマキが上下が逆になっておりますのでよろしくお願いします。 First of all, thank you for introducing me to your precious Zero Fighter. Please note that the headband that the Japanese pilot doll wears on her head is upside down
This was fantastic. What a stunning Aircraft, I have always appreciated Japan's ability to design and build amazingly good aircraft. I always learn something new while watching these videos and this doesn't disappoint. And thank you to the museum for allowing this, I am based in the UK and unfortunately will never get to see this beautiful aircraft in person, so these videos are the closest I will ever get.
If anyone else like me was wondering, I believe the Zero's folding wingtips were meant to allow them to fit onto Japanese carrier elevators more than being optimized for hangar storage space.
Yeah it's a "just enough" type of thing. This was during the birth of the modern aircraft carrier and some things were in flux. Should've just clipped them imho. That little Miata could already out turn everything several times over. There was no need to preserve all that when clipping could give other advantages. Better dive and better roll rate would be more useful against American fighters because it didn't take long for them to start refusing the turning fights the Zero excelled at and just keep their speed up and boom and zoom.
I made it to the museum in June of last year with my dad and son. It was a memorable trip. Great to see a Zero in person, glad they opened everything up for you to do your thing!
One of my favoutite planes-along with , of course the Spitfire, P-51, FW190, Me262, Mosquito, Mig 17, and Cessna C-152 (not all are Warbirds) Apparently, so the story goes, Chuck Yeager flew a Zero and said it was a delightful airplane to fly, but he wouldn't want to fight in one. Great video of a great airplane, thanks Chris. Cheers, from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
10 หลายเดือนก่อน +18
Very nice Video. Nice of the Museum to let you get up close with such a legend.
Nice museum with some interesting looking exhibits. It looked like a Helldiver in pieces in the background of the P-47 shot at 10:54. Thanks to Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum for the chance to look in the cockpit of this beautiful A6M3. And thank you Chris for your dedication and knowledge, and your willingness to share.
Wow! Thank you for a fine tour of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever produced. I understand the frustrations of rebuilding, original parts are as scarce as moon rocks. How anyone gets their hands on a Zero must be quite a story. The Fagan Fighters WW2 Museum looks very nice. I will put that on my list of destinations. Well done.
A huge thank you to you and the museum for this video, which allowed us to enter the original Zero plane. Once again, a big thank you to the museum and you for the effort you put in, so that we could see these rare birds. 🎉❤
Great video! The scarcity makes it unreplacable, so I am delighted beeing able to see all the details. Big shoutout to Chris and, of course, to all the people at the museum who took exellent care for this precious machine!
There is a really good book that has the accounts of Japanese pilots who flew the Zero. One of the pilots talked about how they got a newer model and it had less fuel tanks which caused issues a number of times. I think it was this model actually, but don’t quote me on that.
Thank you Chris (from a fellow German resident) for a fascinating insight into this aircraft. Appreciation to Fagen Fighters for enabling access to this aircraft.
The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a beautiful airplane and magnificently restored that also highlighted what thin aluminium panels it was using and of course no armour of any kind. But I would like to point out it's achievement in long distance was only possible to the great reliability of The Nakajima Sakae, a thing that very has commented on this issue. Anyway again you did a great job 👏 👍. Looking forward to see your new videos
The Zero's great beauty is, in so many ways, in the eye of the beholder, the angle of one's POV perhaps most of all depending on what side of two of them you were on, like a gun, a good side and bad side. This first occurred to me when watching an F4 Phantom of the Blue Angels fly right at me for a low-altitude maneuver on the only large swimming pool in the area where I was, somehow, this time, directly at me and us. Now the Phantom had the same effect as having a high caliber weapon pointed right at you with a loud, screaming belligerent unknown assailant-thing behind it, looking aggressive and destructive as can be coming right at me faster than a speeding bullet is altogether different from my previous reactions to the warbird. So too it was with the Zero's prey.
@@warpartyattheoutpost4987 "Brutal" describes it - I couldn't believe that the Zero pilot sits in the cockpit by design with both the 50 caliber machine guns in there with him, ONLY so he could easier clear them if they jammed! The enormous noise, smoke and flashing must have been BRUTAL every time they pulled the trigger - for the pilot too! Such disregard for human life, I think stems from entirely mistaken supernatural-based conclusions about life, the environment, morality, . . . everything good and important was misjudged just as much and only. The Japanese were terrific and infamous foes in WW2 for that reason alone.
Once more a wonderful video allowing access to an historical aircraft, keep up the wonderful work. Also kudos to the Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum for allowing access to one off their stunning exhibits.
Granite Falls is my hometown! On a clear summer day it wasn’t uncommon to hear P-51s flying overhead. I’m so glad you enjoyed the museum and I didn’t know they got a zero so I’m gonna have to visit again.
An Excellent job as usual, Chris! The A6M is an excellent example of how different Tactical Philosophies and Design Approaches can have a huge effect. In the early Japanese planning for the outbreak of the Pacific War, they were originally planning to have 3 Aircraft Carriers supporting the initial airstrikes and landings on the Philippines. (Then a U.S. Territory) The demonstration by some operational A6M squadrons that showed the, as you say, "Unbelievable" range of the Zero allowed the fighter cover to be flown from Formosa (Taiwan), freeing up those carriers for the other actions that were to occur on Dec 7/8 (International Date Line). With its almost biplane-like maneuverability, exceptional (For the time) Cockpit Visibility, and, if you got close enough, 20mm punch, if you were able to keep on the offensive, you could defeat anything they were going to encounter in 1941-late 1942. It took the introduction of a new generation of fighters, like the Hellcat, Corsair, P-38, P-47 and P-51 to tip the scales, moving their peak performance out of the Zero's envelope. As you note - it's structure was very strong for its weight - as long as it was undamaged. The light weight meant that there weren't a lot of acceptable alternate load paths to provide strength if the structure was compromised. (Sort of like a cardboard box, strong when it's intact, but tear it, and it comes apart.) I wonder if this was the airplane that was part of the pool of aircraft available for comparison flights at the Joint FIghter Conference held at Patuxent River, Maryland, in October 1944. The Maintenance Officer would stress every day that pilots flying the airplane had to be careful to put their feet on the steps, so that they wouldn't have his tinsmith's working all night to fix the damage to the skin. A great look at an iconic airplane.
Have you ever wondered why the IJN had a policy of steaming their carriers directly at the enemy, rather than stand off and take advantage of their longer range aircraft's ability to hit? I can't find any book that explains this.
@@fazole If I had to guess, it's a question of reconnaissance with a smattering of bad luck. Range doesn't help too much if you don't know where the enemy is, and the Pacific Ocean is a pretty big place.
@@fazole The closer you are, within limits, you don't want to be too close, the less you target will have moved from its last reported position, the shorter the flight times for your strike to fly out to the target and return, it gives you the option of trading fuel for weapons (Heavier/more bombs, and so forth), and the more likely it is that damaged aircraft will, if not able to make it back and land on the carrier, will at least be able to ditch in close proximity to a friendly ship, improving the chances of rescuing the crew. The shorter launch, fly out/return, land cycle times means that it may be possible to get more followup strikes in. When you're attacking one fixed location (Say, Manila) from another (Taipei, for example), you don't need to worry about finding the target, then finding you home base again.
@@kizzmequik70four I actually found out from a divebomber comparison video, that their Val bombers did not have very long range like the A6M2 did. Even the Dauntless had more range. So the IJN aircraft capabilities were very mismatched with Zeroes and Kate torpedo planes having long range, but the Vals not having it.
Great video and great museum. I used to work at an aircraft museum with a wreck of a Zero. It's a lot more elegant plane than many might think. Thanks for this vid!
I saw that (admittedly only during the editing) and was reminded of a conversation with a curator (different museum) who said that in their collection they had 1-2 things that were "wrong", with visitors constantly telling them, but it was based on photographic evidence. I don't know if this is the case here, maybe there is a picture of a Japanese pilot having it upside down (stranger things happen) that was used as a reference - or if this is just human error.
@@MilitaryAviationHistory Upside down hachimaki weren't a thing. In the 40s Japanese script was still written right-to-left (thus 勝必) but modern hachimaki are written to modern conventions (thus 必勝). They probably flipped it upside down in an attempt to match a scene in the movie Tora Tora Tora (the only photo I can find of a "Japanese pilot" wearing a headband that clearly says 必勝; and wouldn't they have been flying M2s?). Photographic evidence is also meaningless without context or greater knowledge surrounding it.
My Pops was an aircraft engine mechanic on biak island which contained a large Japanese aircraft boneyard. He said he couldn’t believe how fragile and lightly built the aircraft were
Thing's so ridiculously small. With such light wing loading. It really is a masterpiece of design. Too vulnerable and a one trick pony, but there's just something special about a machine that does one thing better than all the others no matter its shortcomings.
You can still find strafing marks on Pearl Harbor asphalt where there are regular gaps from the propeller interrupter. This near air museum hangers, which still have windows shot out.
I really like the outlines you put in to highlight the various controls. This was really helpful it showed stuff that might be missed like the actual shape of some controls because let’s face it any cockpit is kind of cramped and hard to see stuff in
My very first scuba dive after my certification on Guam was to a Japanese Zero fighter. It was on about 50 feet of water. It was almost entirely intact. The rising sun was still visible on the fuselage and wings. The guns and cannons were still in place, and you could see the 7.7 ammunition belts behind the engine and in front of the cockpit. It was obvious that the pilot had ditched the plane in the surf and swam ashore. It was amazing.
What a magnificent opportunity to see such a significant part of history. Hats off to those who managed to restore this old bird to flight and to those who keep it flying.
I'm actually doing a zero inspired livery for my Na Miata. It's an NA6 MX-5 so I'm calling it NA6M5 like an A6M5 zero so great timing to see the interior to see what I can replicate for the interior of my miata
AMAZING video, info is great, and I really like the cockpit rundown and video.Awsum how a museum let you do this. .....When I think of the Zero, I think of what Saburo Sakai wrote, when he was jumped by a mass of Hellcats. He had just returned after losing an eye. His first encounter with the F6F. A very harowing experience. He only escaped because those Americans flew like they had little experience, and by flying into a water spout ( tornado). 'Zero pilot' by Sakai is a must read.
Hey Chris, I’m from Minnesota and live just outside Minneapolis. I’m kicking myself because the last time I was in granite falls I failed to visit this museum. Actually, I didn’t realize there was such a great collection of planes so close to me. Next time I’m in the area I’ll get my visit in for sure. If you’re ever in Minnesota again, post something about your trip before hand. I’d love to meet you. Big fan!!
Thank you for adding Japanese audio! Although the Zero Fighter is Japan's most manufactured fighter aircraft, access to the actual aircraft is limited, so there has never been a video that explains it in such detail in Japan. I support your videos from Japan👋
Another gauge thats's russian is the triplet gauge at 14:19. Looks exactly like the fuel pressure and exhaust temp gauge on a Tupolev Tu154 soviet airliner.
It's not that Mitsubishi couldn't make those, but rather those weren't strictly in the requirements. Meanwhile IJN torpedo bomber types all had those, because they are usually much bigger than fighters. Having few more planes on your carrier would usually be a nice thing, but that's bit more complex than just stuffing more in. You still need all the supplies to keep them running for the required amount of time. More importantly most of these planes still operated from ground bases, meaning they weren't always that well optimized for carrier use.
Interesantisimo Documental, Chris! Muchas gracias a Ti y a Fagen Fighters. Es muy agradable ver aviones que en el pasado fueron encarnizados enemigos, ahora juntos, en paz y cuidadosamente conservados con mucho cariño. Best Regards from Spain (Europe).
BEST comment by CHRIS was it was a great plane as long as you don't shoot at it! As a pilot it would be nerve-wracking to realize just a 30-caliber bullet an easily pass through the fuselage and go right through you!!
I had the honor to have a private view of Mitsubishi's Zero at their Kamaki plant in Nagoya, Japan. This is where all of the zeros were manufactured during the war. At 6'1", I was too big to get in the airplane, which was rather sad. It's a great memory.
Great video, Chris! Your description of this Zero sounds much like my old VW Beetle: air cooled, light weight, great mileage, very maneuverable, and no protection!
Many thanks for the detailed survey of the plane. This plane changed history. It first saw action in the 1930s in China and was incredibly successful there. It totally dominated anything the Chinese could throw at it, and during those years that it terrorized Chinese air and land forces, it developed pilots that were arguably, the best in the world. Because of its overwhelming success, the Zero gave the Japanese war machine the (false) confidence that it could dominate the Asian and Indo Pacific.
Excellent video, Chris. The only fault I could find is that the headband (hachimaki) on the pilot mannequin standing beside the aircraft is upside-down. It's not your fault, of course, but considering the amount or research you do for these videos I expected you to note it. (Just kidding, Chris. About expecting you to note it. The hachimaki is indeed upside down.)
I was lucky enough to have seen an original Zero in a rare demonstration flight, next to a present day propeller trainer of the USAF. I've heard the Zero was highly maneuverable, but I had no idea how much. Then I saw the Zero beginning some real flying next to the trainer. There is this expression in the English language, "running circles around me". The Zero was literally flying circles around the Texan, while maintaining speed, direction and altitude. Only then I completely understood why it was so feared in dogfights. It was stunning.
9:28 WWII Japanese nomenclature can be confusing, particularly "Type" numbers. Both the IJN and the IJA used Type numbers deriving from the traditional Imperial dating system which counts years from the ascension of Emperor Jimmu in 660 BCE. Each Type number referred to the last two digits of the Imperial year in which the item was adopted. The Mitsubishi A6M2 was adopted in IY 2600 (1940), thus "Type 97" refers to the aircraft MG adopted in 1937. However, the Army also adopted a new MG that year, also known as the Type 97. These two have nothing in common except the designations. The Navy's Type 97 was a licensed copy of the Vickers Type E aircraft MG as used by the British S.E. 5 fighter in WWI. It even used the same .303-rimmed ammo as the Vickers gun. The Army's Type 97 MG was a vehicle-mounted weapon derived from the Czech ZB vz.29 LMG. The ammo was also a 7.7mm, but in this case, it was identical to the rimless ammo fired by the Arisaka Type 99 infantry rifle and in no way interchangeable with the ammo used by the Zero. The IJA air force also has a 7.7mm aircraft MG, but this was a semi-rimmed cartridge! Crazy.
On a thematically related note, if you ever get to Japan you should definitely see if the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum would be willing to let you film Inside The Cockpit episodes. They have the world's only surviving Ki-27 (definitely a plane worth covering), the only surviving A6M3 with squared wingtips (admittedly redundant to this video), a T-33, and... the J7W1 Shinden replica from Godzilla Minus One! Considering the current state of the only surviving real one (at least it still exists though) and the ABSURD quality and attention to detail or the replica, it absolutely seems like something worth taking a look at, even if it's "only" a replica. :)
The Zero’s 20mm was a very small and light gun not much bigger than a heavy machine gun. It was blow back operated with both a low rate of fire and low muzzle velocity.
Placing the trigger on the throttle, and turn and slip indicator up near the gunsight were little aids to improved shooting accuracy, and I think are actually really smart additions
There are examples of some rare Japanese aircraft at; Historical Museum of Kanoya Air Base, Gifu Kamigahara Air and Space Museum, Aichi Museum of Flight, Airpark JASDF Hamamatsu Air Base Museum, and, Tokorozawa Aviation Museum. If you wanted to do a tour of Japan from Kagoshima to Tokyo you could see all the museums in ~10 days as well as Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kobe,…
The headband on the pilot mannequin is upside down. 😅 Fantastic look at a Zero, thank you Fagen Fighters and Christoph. Never knew the gun trigger is on the throttle instead of the joystick. 👍🏻👍🏻
I'm a big fan of the Zero and to greeted by this video waking up is nice. I played Far Cry 3 while listening to this video and coincidentally the game's cinematics zoomed into a Zero wreck just as Chris finished with the exterior portion of the video.
Very cool Chris. Kudo's to the air museum for letting you have a self-guided cockpit tour. Those aviator's, geez, having guns in so close. They came back smelling like burnt powder. Minimalism in instrument cluster. Really something else.
Ron and Evan Fagen were great hosts! Superb museum, it was very fun!
The Mitsubishi Zero is still spectacular, even after 80 years!
They sure flamed out spectacularly
Well done, Chris! Fagen Fighters is a fantastic small museum tucked away in rural southwestern Minnesota about 2 hours west of Minneapolis. Staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and the admission fee is modest. Their aircraft are not only in flying condition, but most are actually flown from time to time (I can't speak to the Zero, but I've seen a P-51, an F6F, and a P-40 from their collection flying). One of the hangars also contains a sizable aircraft library. If you have an opportunity to visit, take advantage of it!
Big thanks to _Fagen Fighters WW II Museum_ for letting us inside! A rare honour. \m/
初めまして、貴重な零戦を紹介していただきましてありがとうございます。日本人パイロット人形が頭に巻いているハチマキが上下が逆になっておりますのでよろしくお願いします。
First of all, thank you for introducing me to your precious Zero Fighter. Please note that the headband that the Japanese pilot doll wears on her head is upside down
Thank you Christoph and Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum. Beautiful display and a true privilege.
A6M3 notification…. Clicked on the video as fast as I could!
You were not the only one. :P
@@pRahvi0Banzai!
As close to perfect video as I have seen in a long time, no filler, opinions or waste of time. Thankyou greatly.
This was fantastic.
What a stunning Aircraft, I have always appreciated Japan's ability to design and build amazingly good aircraft.
I always learn something new while watching these videos and this doesn't disappoint.
And thank you to the museum for allowing this, I am based in the UK and unfortunately will never get to see this beautiful aircraft in person, so these videos are the closest I will ever get.
Never say never. You may get an unexpected opportunity.
If anyone else like me was wondering, I believe the Zero's folding wingtips were meant to allow them to fit onto Japanese carrier elevators more than being optimized for hangar storage space.
Yeah it's a "just enough" type of thing. This was during the birth of the modern aircraft carrier and some things were in flux.
Should've just clipped them imho. That little Miata could already out turn everything several times over. There was no need to preserve all that when clipping could give other advantages. Better dive and better roll rate would be more useful against American fighters because it didn't take long for them to start refusing the turning fights the Zero excelled at and just keep their speed up and boom and zoom.
I made it to the museum in June of last year with my dad and son. It was a memorable trip. Great to see a Zero in person, glad they opened everything up for you to do your thing!
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!
one of the iconic aircraft from ww2, so interesting to get a look inside
Chris,
Thank you very much for this opportunity to see Zero. Special thank to many people who put soo much effort to restore this Zero.
One of my favoutite planes-along with , of course the Spitfire, P-51, FW190, Me262, Mosquito, Mig 17, and Cessna C-152 (not all are Warbirds) Apparently, so the story goes, Chuck Yeager flew a Zero and said it was a delightful airplane to fly, but he wouldn't want to fight in one. Great video of a great airplane, thanks Chris.
Cheers, from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Very nice Video. Nice of the Museum to let you get up close with such a legend.
Nice museum with some interesting looking exhibits. It looked like a Helldiver in pieces in the background of the P-47 shot at 10:54. Thanks to Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum for the chance to look in the cockpit of this beautiful A6M3. And thank you Chris for your dedication and knowledge, and your willingness to share.
Thanks to Christoph and to the Fagen Fighters museum, very appreciated.
Wow! Thank you for a fine tour of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever produced. I understand the frustrations of rebuilding, original parts are as scarce as moon rocks. How anyone gets their hands on a Zero must be quite a story. The Fagan Fighters WW2 Museum looks very nice. I will put that on my list of destinations. Well done.
A huge thank you to you and the museum for this video, which allowed us to enter the original Zero plane. Once again, a big thank you to the museum and you for the effort you put in, so that we could see these rare birds.
🎉❤
Ahhhhhh I’ve been waiting for this for years, no joke! Absolutely love the zero and any more information I can gather on it. Thanks for making this!!!
Great video! The scarcity makes it unreplacable, so I am delighted beeing able to see all the details. Big shoutout to Chris and, of course, to all the people at the museum who took exellent care for this precious machine!
The extremely precarious way the pilot has to get into the plane makes me wonder how difficult it was to service this machine.
There is a really good book that has the accounts of Japanese pilots who flew the Zero. One of the pilots talked about how they got a newer model and it had less fuel tanks which caused issues a number of times. I think it was this model actually, but don’t quote me on that.
Most ww2 planes are like that. I think the sakae was easy to service and reliable
@@Christian-zj2us What book is that?
Why don't use the metric system?. Love your videos.
@@iamsensei943 The Last Zero Fighter by Dan King. The stories told are interviews that the author had with the pilots.
Fantastic look inside an old, rare warbird! HUGE THANKS to the museum!
Thank you Chris (from a fellow German resident) for a fascinating insight into this aircraft.
Appreciation to Fagen Fighters for enabling access to this aircraft.
The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a beautiful airplane and magnificently restored that also highlighted what thin aluminium panels it was using and of course no armour of any kind. But I would like to point out it's achievement in long distance was only possible to the great reliability of
The Nakajima Sakae, a thing that very has commented on this issue. Anyway again you did a great job 👏 👍. Looking forward to see your new videos
The Zero's great beauty is, in so many ways, in the eye of the beholder, the angle of one's POV perhaps most of all depending on what side of two of them you were on, like a gun, a good side and bad side. This first occurred to me when watching an F4 Phantom of the Blue Angels fly right at me for a low-altitude maneuver on the only large swimming pool in the area where I was, somehow, this time, directly at me and us. Now the Phantom had the same effect as having a high caliber weapon pointed right at you with a loud, screaming belligerent unknown assailant-thing behind it, looking aggressive and destructive as can be coming right at me faster than a speeding bullet is altogether different from my previous reactions to the warbird. So too it was with the Zero's prey.
Brutal beauty. I saw the Blue Angels fly Phantoms at an airshow when I was a kid. It's why that was the first model plane I built.
@@warpartyattheoutpost4987 "Brutal" describes it - I couldn't believe that the Zero pilot sits in the cockpit by design with both the 50 caliber machine guns in there with him, ONLY so he could easier clear them if they jammed! The enormous noise, smoke and flashing must have been BRUTAL every time they pulled the trigger - for the pilot too! Such disregard for human life, I think stems from entirely mistaken supernatural-based conclusions about life, the environment, morality, . . . everything good and important was misjudged just as much and only. The Japanese were terrific and infamous foes in WW2 for that reason alone.
Once more a wonderful video allowing access to an historical aircraft, keep up the wonderful work. Also kudos to the Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum for allowing access to one off their stunning exhibits.
Thank you, great video.
I'm actually in the process of making A6M5 model kit and will use this video to help me out with cockpit. Cheers
Granite Falls is my hometown! On a clear summer day it wasn’t uncommon to hear P-51s flying overhead. I’m so glad you enjoyed the museum and I didn’t know they got a zero so I’m gonna have to visit again.
An excellent Inside the Cockpit Chris. And a hearty thanks to Fagen Fighters for permitting such a good walk around and showcase.
An Excellent job as usual, Chris! The A6M is an excellent example of how different Tactical Philosophies and Design Approaches can have a huge effect. In the early Japanese planning for the outbreak of the Pacific War, they were originally planning to have 3 Aircraft Carriers supporting the initial airstrikes and landings on the Philippines. (Then a U.S. Territory) The demonstration by some operational A6M squadrons that showed the, as you say, "Unbelievable" range of the Zero allowed the fighter cover to be flown from Formosa (Taiwan), freeing up those carriers for the other actions that were to occur on Dec 7/8 (International Date Line). With its almost biplane-like maneuverability, exceptional (For the time) Cockpit Visibility, and, if you got close enough, 20mm punch, if you were able to keep on the offensive, you could defeat anything they were going to encounter in 1941-late 1942. It took the introduction of a new generation of fighters, like the Hellcat, Corsair, P-38, P-47 and P-51 to tip the scales, moving their peak performance out of the Zero's envelope. As you note - it's structure was very strong for its weight - as long as it was undamaged. The light weight meant that there weren't a lot of acceptable alternate load paths to provide strength if the structure was compromised. (Sort of like a cardboard box, strong when it's intact, but tear it, and it comes apart.)
I wonder if this was the airplane that was part of the pool of aircraft available for comparison flights at the Joint FIghter Conference held at Patuxent River, Maryland, in October 1944. The Maintenance Officer would stress every day that pilots flying the airplane had to be careful to put their feet on the steps, so that they wouldn't have his tinsmith's working all night to fix the damage to the skin. A great look at an iconic airplane.
Have you ever wondered why the IJN had a policy of steaming their carriers directly at the enemy, rather than stand off and take advantage of their longer range aircraft's ability to hit? I can't find any book that explains this.
@@fazole If I had to guess, it's a question of reconnaissance with a smattering of bad luck. Range doesn't help too much if you don't know where the enemy is, and the Pacific Ocean is a pretty big place.
Hey, you seem like you've read a lot. Have you got any book recommendations?
@@fazole The closer you are, within limits, you don't want to be too close, the less you target will have moved from its last reported position, the shorter the flight times for your strike to fly out to the target and return, it gives you the option of trading fuel for weapons (Heavier/more bombs, and so forth), and the more likely it is that damaged aircraft will, if not able to make it back and land on the carrier, will at least be able to ditch in close proximity to a friendly ship, improving the chances of rescuing the crew. The shorter launch, fly out/return, land cycle times means that it may be possible to get more followup strikes in.
When you're attacking one fixed location (Say, Manila) from another (Taipei, for example), you don't need to worry about finding the target, then finding you home base again.
@@kizzmequik70four
I actually found out from a divebomber comparison video, that their Val bombers did not have very long range like the A6M2 did. Even the Dauntless had more range. So the IJN aircraft capabilities were very mismatched with Zeroes and Kate torpedo planes having long range, but the Vals not having it.
Ah yes, my favorite WW2 plane, thank you for showing us this! What a rare sight
Amazing Plane! Thank you for showing us this legend...!!!
Congrats from Brazil!!!!!
Great video and great museum. I used to work at an aircraft museum with a wreck of a Zero. It's a lot more elegant plane than many might think. Thanks for this vid!
0:10 - the headband is upside down. I'm surprised a museum would miss such an obvious detail that could easily be Googled.
I saw that (admittedly only during the editing) and was reminded of a conversation with a curator (different museum) who said that in their collection they had 1-2 things that were "wrong", with visitors constantly telling them, but it was based on photographic evidence. I don't know if this is the case here, maybe there is a picture of a Japanese pilot having it upside down (stranger things happen) that was used as a reference - or if this is just human error.
@@MilitaryAviationHistory Upside down hachimaki weren't a thing. In the 40s Japanese script was still written right-to-left (thus 勝必) but modern hachimaki are written to modern conventions (thus 必勝). They probably flipped it upside down in an attempt to match a scene in the movie Tora Tora Tora (the only photo I can find of a "Japanese pilot" wearing a headband that clearly says 必勝; and wouldn't they have been flying M2s?). Photographic evidence is also meaningless without context or greater knowledge surrounding it.
I saw the same error in a museum in Florida. When I pointed it out, though, they changed it.
Not when aircraft is inverted ! Ha - come on big buddy - Sharp eye though !
To be fair, most Japanese wouldn't be able to know if English script is written upsidedown or not
Thank you and a big thanks to the museum for maintaining these aircraft.
Just fantastic! Outstanding tour!👍🏼
Wow, I love the detail-part by part with a robust history to ground it all. Subscribed!
My
Pops was an aircraft engine mechanic on biak island which contained a large Japanese aircraft boneyard. He said he couldn’t believe how fragile and lightly built the aircraft were
Thing's so ridiculously small. With such light wing loading. It really is a masterpiece of design. Too vulnerable and a one trick pony, but there's just something special about a machine that does one thing better than all the others no matter its shortcomings.
Thank you to all involved! Greetings from NYC!
Thank you for this visit.
Thanks for the great video Chris, and thank you to the Museum for letting you get inside such a rare aircraft!
You can still find strafing marks on Pearl Harbor asphalt where there are regular gaps from the propeller interrupter. This near air museum hangers, which still have windows shot out.
I really like the outlines you put in to highlight the various controls. This was really helpful it showed stuff that might be missed like the actual shape of some controls because let’s face it any cockpit is kind of cramped and hard to see stuff in
Thank you for especially cockpit view.
Ty so much Fagen Fighters for allowing us to tour the Zero! :)
Fascinating look inside this iconic aircraft. Thanks to the Fagen Museum for the opportunity.
Great video! I love the way you outlined the parts you were talking about in the cockpit.
Excellent content and tour 👍🏻 beautiful museum Thank you!
Very lovely to see inside this cockpit Chris! EXTREMELY privileged access.
My very first scuba dive after my certification on Guam was to a Japanese Zero fighter. It was on about 50 feet of water. It was almost entirely intact. The rising sun was still visible on the fuselage and wings. The guns and cannons were still in place, and you could see the 7.7 ammunition belts behind the engine and in front of the cockpit. It was obvious that the pilot had ditched the plane in the surf and swam ashore. It was amazing.
What a magnificent opportunity to see such a significant part of history. Hats off to those who managed to restore this old bird to flight and to those who keep it flying.
I'm actually doing a zero inspired livery for my Na Miata. It's an NA6 MX-5 so I'm calling it NA6M5 like an A6M5 zero so great timing to see the interior to see what I can replicate for the interior of my miata
There is a child in all great men.
AMAZING video, info is great, and I really like the cockpit rundown and video.Awsum how a museum let you do this. .....When I think of the Zero, I think of what Saburo Sakai wrote, when he was jumped by a mass of Hellcats. He had just returned after losing an eye. His first encounter with the F6F. A very harowing experience. He only escaped because those Americans flew like they had little experience, and by flying into a water spout ( tornado). 'Zero pilot' by Sakai is a must read.
Thank you Fagen fighters! That is so rad! Well done as always
Hey Chris, I’m from Minnesota and live just outside Minneapolis. I’m kicking myself because the last time I was in granite falls I failed to visit this museum. Actually, I didn’t realize there was such a great collection of planes so close to me. Next time I’m in the area I’ll get my visit in for sure. If you’re ever in Minnesota again, post something about your trip before hand. I’d love to meet you. Big fan!!
Thank you for posting this.
It looks like a fantastic air museum.
Really enjoyed your comprehensive tour of this plane! First time I've come across your channel. I'm anxious to see more.
Makes me sad there are so few WW II aircraft of all types glad there are places like this museum to show the few that are still around
Outstanding! Great presentation and very cool that the museum allowed this!
Thank you for adding Japanese audio!
Although the Zero Fighter is Japan's most manufactured fighter aircraft, access to the actual aircraft is limited, so there has never been a video that explains it in such detail in Japan. I support your videos from Japan👋
Much awaited, much appreciated looking forward to excellent insights as always from you.
Another gauge thats's russian is the triplet gauge at 14:19. Looks exactly like the fuel pressure and exhaust temp gauge on a Tupolev Tu154 soviet airliner.
Great video. Very nice walk-around and cockpit tour.
Grumman really had the advantage on folding wings vs. Mistubishi.
It's not that Mitsubishi couldn't make those, but rather those weren't strictly in the requirements. Meanwhile IJN torpedo bomber types all had those, because they are usually much bigger than fighters. Having few more planes on your carrier would usually be a nice thing, but that's bit more complex than just stuffing more in. You still need all the supplies to keep them running for the required amount of time. More importantly most of these planes still operated from ground bases, meaning they weren't always that well optimized for carrier use.
Interesantisimo Documental, Chris!
Muchas gracias a Ti y a Fagen Fighters.
Es muy agradable ver aviones que en el pasado fueron encarnizados enemigos, ahora juntos, en paz y cuidadosamente conservados con mucho cariño.
Best Regards from Spain (Europe).
BEST comment by CHRIS was it was a great plane as long as you don't shoot at it! As a pilot it would be nerve-wracking to realize just a 30-caliber bullet an easily pass through the fuselage and go right through you!!
Spitfire was same at first. No armor protection and gas tank right in front of the pilot!
Great walk-around as usual, much appreciated, thank you.
I had the honor to have a private view of Mitsubishi's Zero at their Kamaki plant in Nagoya, Japan. This is where all of the zeros were manufactured during the war. At 6'1", I was too big to get in the airplane, which was rather sad. It's a great memory.
LOL at the headband being upside down.
Great video, Chris! Your description of this Zero sounds much like my old VW Beetle: air cooled, light weight, great mileage, very maneuverable, and no protection!
Thanks Chris & the museum !
はちまき の「必勝」が上下 逆です。
悪意が在るとは思いません、単に間違えたのですよね。
異国の文字は難しいでしょうから。
0:10の鉢巻き「必勝」、上下反対に巻いてます🤣🤣🤣
Cheers for making your videos, Chris; a remarkable aircraft, certainly :)
A big thanks to the museum for this one! ❤
THANKS FOR THE INSIDE THE COCKPIT VIEW!
i didnt know about this place ! but now i do! going to visit this summer, an 8 hour drive from Canada.
Many thanks for the detailed survey of the plane. This plane changed history. It first saw action in the 1930s in China and was incredibly successful there. It totally dominated anything the Chinese could throw at it, and during those years that it terrorized Chinese air and land forces, it developed pilots that were arguably, the best in the world. Because of its overwhelming success, the Zero gave the Japanese war machine the (false) confidence that it could dominate the Asian and Indo Pacific.
Loving how great your work has progressed
The only japanese warbird available to be see... incredible! Thanks to you, the contributors and the museum
Excellent video, Chris. The only fault I could find is that the headband (hachimaki) on the pilot mannequin standing beside the aircraft is upside-down. It's not your fault, of course, but considering the amount or research you do for these videos I expected you to note it. (Just kidding, Chris. About expecting you to note it. The hachimaki is indeed upside down.)
The A6M Zero just might be my favorite fighter aircraft used by the Axis powers, specifically Japan, during WW2. Thanks for the video!
I was lucky enough to have seen an original Zero in a rare demonstration flight, next to a present day propeller trainer of the USAF. I've heard the Zero was highly maneuverable, but I had no idea how much. Then I saw the Zero beginning some real flying next to the trainer. There is this expression in the English language, "running circles around me". The Zero was literally flying circles around the Texan, while maintaining speed, direction and altitude. Only then I completely understood why it was so feared in dogfights. It was stunning.
9:28 WWII Japanese nomenclature can be confusing, particularly "Type" numbers. Both the IJN and the IJA used Type numbers deriving from the traditional Imperial dating system which counts years from the ascension of Emperor Jimmu in 660 BCE. Each Type number referred to the last two digits of the Imperial year in which the item was adopted. The Mitsubishi A6M2 was adopted in IY 2600 (1940), thus "Type 97" refers to the aircraft MG adopted in 1937. However, the Army also adopted a new MG that year, also known as the Type 97. These two have nothing in common except the designations. The Navy's Type 97 was a licensed copy of the Vickers Type E aircraft MG as used by the British S.E. 5 fighter in WWI. It even used the same .303-rimmed ammo as the Vickers gun. The Army's Type 97 MG was a vehicle-mounted weapon derived from the Czech ZB vz.29 LMG. The ammo was also a 7.7mm, but in this case, it was identical to the rimless ammo fired by the Arisaka Type 99 infantry rifle and in no way interchangeable with the ammo used by the Zero. The IJA air force also has a 7.7mm aircraft MG, but this was a semi-rimmed cartridge! Crazy.
IJA and IJN really hated each other. Any cooperation was strongly avoided.
Thank you to Fagen Fighters and to Chris for a great video.
Thank you for this extremely interesting video, a legend of a plane. No I have to go watch Empire of the Sun.
This aircraft was at EAA Oshkosh in 2013. Flown by my friend Warren Pietsch.
On a thematically related note, if you ever get to Japan you should definitely see if the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum would be willing to let you film Inside The Cockpit episodes. They have the world's only surviving Ki-27 (definitely a plane worth covering), the only surviving A6M3 with squared wingtips (admittedly redundant to this video), a T-33, and... the J7W1 Shinden replica from Godzilla Minus One! Considering the current state of the only surviving real one (at least it still exists though) and the ABSURD quality and attention to detail or the replica, it absolutely seems like something worth taking a look at, even if it's "only" a replica. :)
Yes the Navy shoots big stuff! Many thanks to the museum for this.
The Zero’s 20mm was a very small and light gun not much bigger than a heavy machine gun. It was blow back operated with both a low rate of fire and low muzzle velocity.
Placing the trigger on the throttle, and turn and slip indicator up near the gunsight were little aids to improved shooting accuracy, and I think are actually really smart additions
There are examples of some rare Japanese aircraft at; Historical Museum of Kanoya Air Base, Gifu Kamigahara Air and Space Museum, Aichi Museum of Flight, Airpark JASDF Hamamatsu Air Base Museum, and, Tokorozawa Aviation Museum. If you wanted to do a tour of Japan from Kagoshima to Tokyo you could see all the museums in ~10 days as well as Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kobe,…
日本各地を飛行してた零戦２２型ですね。
日本人所有でしたが、資金難で手放した事は聞いてますが、この地に居たのですね。
The headband on the pilot mannequin is upside down. 😅 Fantastic look at a Zero, thank you Fagen Fighters and Christoph. Never knew the gun trigger is on the throttle instead of the joystick. 👍🏻👍🏻
Excellent job Chris---that Hat is very becoming--
I'm a big fan of the Zero and to greeted by this video waking up is nice. I played Far Cry 3 while listening to this video and coincidentally the game's cinematics zoomed into a Zero wreck just as Chris finished with the exterior portion of the video.
Hmm it lost the IFF yellow marking on the wing edge
Thanks for the in-depth look : )
Pretty interesting stuff. Thank you for making this.