Evening star., 1942-10-10
Captured Zero Plane
To Fly in Tests
From Anacostia
West Coast Shows
Best Performance in
Dogfieht Conditions

United States naval airmen at the
Anacostia Air Station soon will have
an opportunity to give exhaustive
tests to their oft-praised, oft
maligned opponent in the Pacific
the japanese Zero fighter.
A Zero (Mitsubishi '0O), shot down
with only slight damage in the re-
cent Aleutian combats, is to be flown
from the West Coast to the local
base for the tests, the Navy an
nounced yesterday. Preliminary
tests already have been made at the
Naval Air Station at San Diego,
Calf.
Decision to fly the ship here in
stead OF shipping it was made when
1t was definitely established that the
Zero's alrframe is a single unit. with
the wings riveted solidly to the
fuselage. The wings, however, are
hinged feet from the tips to allow
for convenience in carrier storage
and handling.
To Get United States Col0rs.
Details of the cross-country flight
have not been worked out, but one
thing is certain-the ship will be
. repainted from its blueish-gr
"foggy Aleutian" color and given
the regular Navy paint Job and in
sigma, Even then, it will be neces-
sary to inform aircraft spoilers
across the planes route of the flight
to avoid alarms the much-studied
figure of the plane undoubtedly
would cause.
In preliminary tests on the West
Coast, the ship developed a speed
slightly less than 300 miles per hour.
The Navy expects later tests to in
cerase this mark. Naval aviators at
San Diego have found what they ex-
pected-the Zero is at its best in dog
fight conditions where tight turns
make excessively high speeds i'm
possible and where maneuverability
means more than speed.
Control Stiffens With Speed.
Describing findings of the first
tests, the Navy said yesterday:
Around 200 m.ph. the Zero is
very light on the controls, but at
higher speeds the controls become
stiff. Above 225 mp.h. the Zero will
not make fast roll because of this
stiffness. At $50 m.p.h in a dive,
the Zero developes marked flutter
and vibration, which may be in
herent or due to some undetected
disalignment caused by its rough
landing in the Aleutians"
Otherwise, the Navy said, the tests
show the ship to be stable, easy
to-fly plane with generally good fly
ing characteristics" Its liehtness is
not gained by flimsy construction,
but seemingly is due to the lack of
protective equipment for the pilot
armor and self-sealing tanks. These
are the factors which have caused
its poor showing against the Navys
Grumman Wildcats, whose pilots
have shot Zeros down with little
damage to their own ships.
Many pilots who have returned
from the combat areas have told
stories Of Zero planes that blew up"
in midair when hit by only a few
bullets from our planes.
14-CyIinder Motor.
Empty weight of the captured ship
Is 3,781 pounds, and its combat
weight, without belly tank, is ap-
proximately 5000 pounds. The craft
is powered by a 14-cylinder, 900
horsepower radial engine that uses
adaptations or notifications of the
American Pratt & Whitney motor.
The propeller is hree-bladed,
constant speed, hydraulic type
identical with the Hamilton pro-
peller used on our ships The COM
plete dependence of the japanese on
the United States in past plane de-
signs is Illustrated further when it
IS noted that radio equipment is
copied after Fairchild units.
Overall length of the ship is 80
feet 3 inches, and the wing span 80
feet inches. The cockpit is much
smaller than the interiors of Amer
lean fighters, and would be uncom-
fortably small for most of our pilots"
the Navy said.
Armament consists of two 22-mm,
low velocity cannons, one in each
wing, with so rounds of ammunition,
and two II guns, with 500 rounds
each in the nose to fire through
the propeller disk.