ZERO AM6 "El avión japonés que humilló a los Aliados" | La leyenda del Mitsubishi A6M Zero

Video from the channel STUKA40 about Mitsubishi A6M Zero, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:02. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

An overview, in Spanish, of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the long-range fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Navy between 1940 and 1945. It covers its origin, the Japanese designation system that gave it its name, the evolution of its engines and armament, and its decline against Allied fighters.

The project began with a naval fighter request from May 1937, known as the 12-Shi carrier fighter. It was led by Jiro Horikoshi, a Mitsubishi engineer in Nagoya, and the first prototype flew in March 1939. It entered service in year 2600 of the imperial calendar (1940), which is where "type zero" comes from. In the designation A6M, the A indicates carrier-based fighter, the 6 that it was the sixth of that type, and the M, Mitsubishi. Early in the war it is credited with a 12-to-1 kill ratio. From mid-1942, new tactics and aircraft such as the Grumman F6F Hellcat eroded its advantage, and it was eventually used in kamikaze attacks and as an interceptor against B-29s.

Close to 11,000 were built, more than any other Japanese aircraft. The engine progressed from the 780 hp Zuisei 13 to the 980 hp Nakajima Sakae 12 and the 1,130 hp Sakae 21, which gave it a top speed of around 560 km/h. It measured 9.06 m long with a 12 m wingspan, weighed 1,680 kg empty, and carried no armor or self-sealing fuel tanks until the A6M5.