A9M

OUTDATED!!! FULL OF INCORRECT INFO!!! WAIT FOR MY LAZY ASS TO EDIT THIS

The A9M is a twin engine tricycle landing gear Fighter/Interceptor designed by Weber Werke and Mitsubishi that was used by the fortress of japan during the second world war. It first saw action in late December of 1945. and stayed in service until the end of the war. Due technical complexity and powerplant production issues the A9M was built in limited numbers however the planes that were pushed out of the factories saw a lot of combat.

## A9M

Side view of Albert Meyer's Tagespfeil, an early A9M7 bofors-armed bomber interceptor. Specifications for the A9M5:

## Armaments

Guns: 4x 20mm MG151/20 cannons (180 RPG)Hardpoints: 1 or 2 hull mounted hardpoints, 4 wing mounted light ordinance hardpoints

## Info

The A9M was direct response to the newly threatening British attacks on various naval bases located at both Japan and Japanese occupied China. It was designed with power in mind so that it could reach any hostiles at altitude. Despite having little armor the A9M's internal structure was heavily reinforced for the high stresses that such a heavy aircraft would experience during high G turns. This, paired with thicker duralumin skin then most aircraft had, made the A9M a fairly rugged plane.

As for it's raw dogfighting capabilities the A9M was generally liked by pilots though several inherent shortcomings plagued it throughout it's service life. These were mostly connected to the weight of the plane, which while compensated for by the engines made the aircraft behave strangely at low speeds. The aircraft had a very small "sweet spot" where it was on-par in terms of agility with most of the enemies it was meant to face which meant the plane was at a disadvantage both in a stall and a dive. Though the latter was fixed in the A9M5 variant this issue was a great disadvantage for early variant pilots as many lost their lives to planes that locked up or stopped responding on them in the worst possible times. Besides this the A9M sometimes required a high angle of attack to generate adequate lift for level flight. This was not much of an issue at first though it soon became obvious that the A9M could not progress from inland operations to fulfill it's envisioned role of a naval fighter due to this issue. Despite the difficult low speed handling and poor visibility during landing the use of A9Ms on carriers was attempted, though after several test flights it was clear this aircraft could not reliably land on flight decks of carriers, thus making the first three variants obsolete before they saw service on any carrier. The name, now incorrect due to the the plane's naval inabilities was never changed thus leaving the A in the name to remain an artifact lost to time.

## Variants

* A9M1 - Original prototype version, 2 built, one powered by a single Db605, other by two Db701 engines.
* A9M2 Ko - First naval production variant. Equipped with an arrestor hook and foldable wings as well as various reinforcements and centerline hardpoints, 12 built.
* A9M2 Otsu - Second naval production variant with improvements done to the folding mechanism and landing gear. 17 built
* A9M3 - Final naval production variant, equipped with a newer Db704B engine and a methanol/water injection mechanism. 4 built.
* A9M4 Ko - First land based production variant. Most were made from A9M2s stripped of their folding mechanism, arrestor hook and many other now useless reinforcements in an attempt to reduce complexity and weight. 13 built.
* A9M4 Otsu - Second variant of the A9M4 Ko. Improved shell ejection for the two double 20mm gun clusters on the wings. 21 built.
* A9M4 hei - A9M4 Otsus fitted with four additional hardpoints in the wings for greater payload capabilities. 24 built.
* A9M5 - Second land based production variant with hydraulics boosted elevator control. Fitted with more efficiently spaced wing tanks and a water ehtanol injection mechanism for high altitude flight. 102 built.
* A9M6 - Strike variant made from A9M4s Upgraded with two additional wing hardpoints and ammo extensions for the four mg151/20 cannons. Due to the balance offset by the ammo extensions a retractable tail skid was added to stop damage from occurring if the plane fell on it's tail during landing or takeoff. Skid was kept for all later variants. 27 built.
* A9M7 "Auge" - Bomber interceptor variant fitted with a single modified hub-firing 40mm bofors cannon with 23 rounds of ammo instead of the four mg151s. Underseat plates actively cooled by radiator during firing to prevent dangerous amounts of heat from radiating into the cockpit. Though the plane was tweaked for hunting heavy aircraft it ended up a little bit lighter then the A9M6. 9 built.
* A9M8 - Third Land based production variant equipped with full hydraulic boosted control, two 30mm Ho-5 cannons with 60 RPG and brand new, lighter Db705 engines. 13 built.
* A9M8 Axt Kai - Second variant of the A9M8 equipped with advanced cockpit temperature control and extended air provisions for pilots. Primitive radar was mounted onto the wings of the aircraft to help with night operations. 93 built.
* A9M9 - Experimental recon variant. Though 2 examples were built with passable performance, converting older models to A9M9s proved far too complex to be worth the gain.

Total number of unconverted factory produced A9Ms is estimated to be about 140 though not many have survived after the war ended.

## Trivia

* If the A9M's designation was to be properly changed after the naval evaluation it would have been called the J9M.

haha fun fact

reminder To add later:

Internal fuel 865 liters

one 450l drop tank on hull point and two up to 300l drop tanks on wing points