_Popular Mechanics, November 11, 2008 __
With the help of some aviation experts and warplane veterans, PM took a look back over the history of single-engine planes, fighters, bombers and attack helicopters.
At the outset of World War II, Japan naval aviation outpaced that of the United States, according to Jon Parshall, co-author of Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. The Japanese Imperial Navy could deploy devastating dive bomber and torpedo bomber attacks, destroying hopelessly overmatched Allied carriers within minutes, Parshall says. But the true class of the fleet was the Zero fighter, manufactured by Mitsubishi. Despite its reputation for early-war dominance that endures today, he says, the Zero might even be underrated. "You have to give it props, if nothing else, for the shock value that it induced in the Allies," Parshall says.
Put simply, the Zero could fly circles around anything the British or Americans could manufacture early on. Japanese manufacturers sacrificed everything—speed, self-sealing gas tanks and armor—to make the most maneuverable aircraft they possibly could. As a result, Parshall says, the Zero "was really good at dishing it out, but couldn't take a hit." That trade-off was acceptable during the early part of the war, he says, because it fit the offensive-oriented Japanese strategy: Japan had expert pilots who used the Zero's advantages to devastating effect. Allied pilots had to learn fast to avoid Zeroes in dogfights.
Unfortunately for the Japanese, Parshall says, the attrition of war eventually kills even the best pilots. Tactics also changed. Allied pilots learned to fight Zeros above 22,000 ft, where the Japanese plane's maneuverability waned and the superior horsepower of American planes took over. Americans not only created better planes as World War II progressed, they created more of them. Parshall says Japan didn't have the manufacturing capability to keep up. Because workers hand-built many of the Zero parts, assembly line mass production was impossible. .........
