Lockheed L10:: Earhart, Amelia

The stars seemed near enough to touch and never before have I seen so many. I always believed the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, but I was sure of it that night.

- Amelia Earhart, Aviator

 Lost off the coast of Howland Islands on July 2nd

Fokker G.I::le Faucheur

In 7 months, Fokker’s head engineers Marius Beeling and Erich Schatzki designed and created the first G.I prototype, intended to be a fighter and hunt cruiser, a role deemed vital in the quest of acquiring control over air force and power. On the 16^th March 1937 at Welschap Eindhoven, the twin engine fighter plane took to the skies and was comparable to the German Messerschmitt BF 110 and the British Mosquito. It was heavily armed with eight 7.9mm forward firing FN-Browning machine guns placed in the nose, one in the rear turret and capable of carrying 300 kg of bombs, the feature capturing the attention of the public at the Paris Air Show 1936. Le Faucheur “Reaper”  was mixed in construction, as were it’s Fokker counterparts. The front of the central pod and the tail booms were built around a welded frame that was covered with aluminium plating. The back of the central pod and the wings were made of wooden frames, covered with triplex. The G.I had good handling, and good firepower. It’s only weakness was that it could not match the maneuverability of single seaters fighters. There is only one remaining Fokker G.I to date, a replica exhibited in the Dutch Air Force Museum in Soesterberg. The rest – 23 to be exact, were destroyed on the 10^th of May 1940 in the Netherlands, during the German invasion. 

Structure:

Mixed construction

Engine:

2x Bristol Mercury VIII radial engine,  9-cylinder, air cooled, single row-piston

Rated power at 730hp, 2650 rpm at takeoff

830hp at 4100m at 2750rpm

Flight parameters:

Max speed: 475km/h at altitude 4100m

Rate of climb: 13.5 m/s

Range: 1510 km

Armament:

8x 7.9mm forward firing FN-Browning machine guns mounted on nose

1x 7.9mm machine gun on rear turret

Payload: 400kg at 4 underwing points

Type 0: Mitsubishi A6M Zero - Sen

The A6M Zero took the skies on 01.04.1939 and remained in the service of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air until the end of the WW II in 1945. The Allies called it the “Zero”, a short form of Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter, and it was the best carrier-based fighter the world had ever seen. The A6M had superb maneuverability, superior agility, had a range of 3107 km and was the first shipboard fighter that was capable of surpassing a land-based aircraft. It soon earned a reputation as a supreme dogfighter particularly against F2A Buffaloes, Curtiss P-40s and Grumman F4F Wildcats. In 1937, when the Zero was still in the prototype stage, leader of the Flying Tigers, the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, Claire Lee Chennault warned the USA Air Force of the increasing danger of Japanese fighter aircraft development. However, his warnings were ignored, and when the Zero took to the skies the Americans were caught unprepared. The Zero was the most produced Japanese fighter aircraft, and possessed a kill ratio of 12:1.Thanks to Mitsubishi’s lead designer, Jiro Horikoshi, all the extreme specifications laid out by the Imperial Japanese Navy were either met, or exceeded beyond their expectations. Horikoshi employed weight-saving methods to ensure that the aircraft was made as light as possible to meet the requirements imposed. The following are the Zero’s final specifications;
Structure:

T-7178 Al, a top secret aluminium alloy developed by the Japanese specifically for the aircraft
Low- wing, cantilever monoplane layout, using a cantilever to support the plane’s wings made the construction lighter, and reduced drag as compared to using struts and cables.
Retractable wide-set landing gear.
Enclosed cockpit

Engine:   
Nakajima NK1C Sakae 12 rated at 709 kW

14-cylinder, Air-cooled

Radial Engine (high power, low maximum rpm making reduction gearing of propellers unnecessary & piston arrangement – same plane allows even cooling of all pistons by air, thus reducing weight on water-cooling system)

Flight parameter:   
Max. Speed – 533 km/h or 287 knot

Rate of Climb – 15.7 m/s

Range – 3107 km

Armament:    
2x 7.7mm Type 97 machine guns in engine cowling, 500 rounds/gun

2x 20mm Type 99 Cannons in wings, 60 rounds/gun

2x 60kg bombs
1x 250kg bombs (kamikaze attacks)

Nearing the end of the war, the Zero was used in Kamikaze (Divine Wind) attacks against American naval ships, its outstanding success in using this tactic resulted in the formation of Air Group 201, the first Kamikaze suicide squadron in the Japanese Naval Air Force.

" Never try to turn with a Zero. Always get above the enemy and try to hit him with the first pass. "

- Claire Lee Chennault, Flying Tigers

USS Missouri about to be hit by a Zero in a Kamikaze Operation.