The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a light-weight carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945.

It is universally known as Zero from its Japanese Navy designation, Type 0 Carrier Fighter (Rei shiki Kanjo sentoki), taken from the last digit of the Imperial year 2600 (1940), when it entered service. In Japan it was unofficially referred to as both Rei-sen and Zero-sen. The official Allied code name was Zeke (Hamp for the A6M3 model 32 variant); while this was in keeping with standard practice of giving boys' names to fighters, it is not definitively known if this was chosen for its similarity to "Zero".

In order to correct the deficiencies of the Model 32, a new version with folding wingtips and redesigned wing was introduced. The fuel tanks were moved to the outer wings, fuel lines for a 330 L (87 US gal) drop tank were installed under each wing and the internal fuel capacity was increased to 570 L (150 US gal). More importantly, it regained its capabilities for long operating ranges, similar to the previous A6M2 Model 21, which was vastly shortened by the Model 32.

However, before the new design type was accepted formally by the Navy, the A6M3 Model 22 already stood ready for service in December 1942. Approximately 560 aircraft of the new type had been produced in the meantime by Mitsubishi Jukogyo K.K.

According to a theory, the very late production Model 22 might have had wings similar to the shortened, rounded-tip wing of the Model 52. One plane of such arrangement was photographed at Lakunai Airfield ("Rabaul East") in the second half of 1943, and has been published widely in a number of Japanese books. While the engine cowling is the same of previous Model 32 and 22, the theory proposes that the plane is an early production Model 52.

The Model 32, 22, 22 kou, 52, 52 kou and 52 otsu were all powered by the Nakajima (Sakae) 21 engine. That engine kept its designation in spite of changes in the exhaust system for the Model 52.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" fighter that was piloted by Lieutenant Commander Shigeru Itaya, who was attached to the 2nd Squadron, 1st Section, then embarked upon the IJN Carrier Akagi, when it participated in the raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, during December 1941. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5-1/4-inches
Length: 5-inches

Release Date: March 2022

Historical Account: "Multiple Flight Decks" - The Akagi was an aircraft carrier serving with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The only ship in her class, Akagi played a major part in the Attack on Pearl Harbor, but was sunk along with three other large carriers by dive bombers from US carriers Enterprise and Yorktown in the Battle of Midway.

Akagi was laid down as an Amagi class battlecruiser at Kure, Japan. However, the Washington Naval Treaty, which Japan signed in 1922, prevented Japan from completing Akagi. Because the Treaty authorized conversion of two battleship or battlecruiser hulls into aircraft carriers of up to 33,000 tons displacement, the incomplete hulls of Amagi and Akagi were selected for completion as carriers.

Amagi's hull was damaged beyond economic repair in the Great Kanto earthquake of September 1st, 1923. The remaining battlecruisers of the class, Atago and Takao, were cancelled and scrapped in 1924, in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Akagi, the only remaining member of her class, was launched on April 22nd, 1925, and completed at Kure Naval Arsenal on March 27th, 1927. As completed, the ship had two hangar decks with a capacity of 61 aircraft. The hangars opened onto two superimposed flying off decks at the bow. In theory, this permitted aircraft to take off directly from the hangars, while landing on the main flight deck above. Funnel gasses were discharged through a downturned starboard funnel. To compensate for the weight of the hangar structure, the horizontal armor was reduced from 3.8 to 3.1 inches and moved one deck lower. The belt armor was reduced from 10 to six inches and was also lowered by one deck.

In practice, the multiple flight deck arrangement proved unsuccessful. From 1935 to 1938, Akagi received a massive reconstruction at Sasebo Naval Arsenal. It extended the hangars forward, removed the flying off decks, and increased aircraft capacity to 91. The refit added an island superstructure on the port side of the ship, which was an unusual arrangement; the only other carrier to share this feature was a contemporary, the Hiryu. Akagi and the Hiryu were intended to work in a tactical formation with starboard-sided carriers, in order to improve the flight pattern around the formation, but the experiment was not continued beyond those two carriers.