The Zero was designed by Jiro Horikoshi and first manufactured by Mitsubishi one of Japans largest manufacturers of Aircraft during the 1930's & 40's. During the mid 1930's Japans military wanted a new fighter to replace its aging and obsolete "Claude" which was an open cockpit fixed geared fighter with limited performance (top speed was only around 250 MPH and a range of only two or three hours).
Contrary to all of the "Old wives tales" the Zero was not a copy of a Howard Hughes design and was not made of bamboo and paper. These two myths still persist among many people, however. The only connection the Zero had with any foreign nation was that the propeller was made in Japan at first under license from Hamilton Standard of the United States. The rest of the plane was designed, engineered and built by Mitsubishi using a Japanese manufactured Sakae engine.
I have been interested in the Zero as well as the
F6F Hellcat and the Spitfire since I was a boy during WWII and have been
building models now for well over forty years. I began building R/C models
in 1959 and have grown up with the hobby/sport. My primary
interests however have always been in scale. In 1977 when giant scale
became practical, I saw my chance to build a 1/4 size model of the
Zero as well as the other fighters that I have always liked. Having
lived in Japan for over five years and being fluent in the Japanese
language, I was able to obtain several books in Japanese about the
Zero. I used these books as well as factory drawings of the full scale
Zero to draw my plans from. I was also able to obtain first hand
photos of the full scale Zero when one of the few left flying in the
world made a tour of Japan and gave several demonstration flights
in 1978. The full scale Zero in flight is very impressive and this gave
me the impetus to begin the plans for my Zero. I was not able
however to begin the actual construction until around 15
September 1982. Moving from Japan to Hawaii and subsequently
to Oregon set my building schedule back a little. As mentioned
above I began cutting wood 15 September 1982 and completed
construction on 19 March 1983.
The construction materials used were a combination of birch plywood for the wing ribs and fuselage formers, laminated spruce for the main wing spar with 1/4 inch plywood around the engine and other high stress areas. The firewall however was doubled to make it 1/2 inch thick with 3/4 square basswood used for reinforcements. Overall planking was 1/8 balsa with the empenage made of hard balsa strips and stringers. I have found that there will be a considerable weight savings if 3/32 sheet were used in place of the 1/8 sheet. My subsequent designs will be done this way.
I had originally intended to use a 2.6 cu. in. Super Hustler engine for power, but when it became apparent that the Zero would exceed 35 pounds I obtained a Kawasaki 3.15 cu. in. engine. Swinging a 22-10 the Kawasaki has proven to be a good choice for power. The finished weight dry is 37 3/4 pounds.
I made the Cowl, Spinner and Canopy out of fiberglass
using my own plugs. The Zero's cowl is not round so I was not able to use a
round pot or any other available material. The spinner which has a
unique shape also was not available from any standard source.
During the latter part of the war many A6M5 Zeros were coming into combat in other than the standard green/gray colors. This was due to a severe shortage in Japan of paint. This shortage of paint forced the Japanese to simplify their color schemes. One of the alternate colors was an all over grayish blue with a black cowl and red spinner. This is the color configuration I chose for my Zero.
Since I feel that a WWII fighter without retracts only belongs in the traffic pattern I had to have retracts on my Zero. I had contemplated making my own but due to time limitations, I opted for the new Robart 1/4 scale units. There is one drawback with these units and that is that they are about 1 1/4 inches too short to be used for the Zero. I had to therefore lengthen the struts by this amount.
The Zero was finished with K&B 3/4 and 1 1/2 ounce glass cloth and resin and painted with K&B Super Poxy all over.
A s with all new planes when the day came to test fly it I was a little nervous. The Weather was perfect, no clouds and the temperature was around 50 degrees so I could not find any excuse not to attempt to fly. After all of the preliminary range and ground checks I started the Kawasaki, which as many know starts very easily, and noted my tach reading 5800 RPM. With a 22-10 prop I feel that 5800 RPM will be about the best I will get, because I live in
Southern Oregon where the altitude is 4200 feet above sea level. The Zero has flaps but I did not opt to use about ten degrees for the first take off. I taxied out to the edge of the runway but had to wait for a full size Cherokee 140 to take off (I fly off of a country strip and this Cherokee was the first plane to take off or land in weeks) after he was off and gone I taxied into position and applied full power knowing that I would need all the Kawasaki had to get the big plane into the air. I was really impressed with the raw power of the Kawasaki. The take off roll began and I noticed that the rudder was immediately effective for forward control but was not overly sensitive. I had to apply about 1/2 rudder for about the first 75 feet of the take off roll. The zero rotated at about 200 feet, and I made a shallow climb-out for about another 400 feet then made my cross-wind turn. On the downwind leg there are some very tall pine trees but I was able to clear them by about 75 feet. After I climbed to about 250 feet AGL, I retracted the gear and it became a "ZERO".
The airspeed picked up dramatically and the handling improved also. After testing all of the general flight characteristics which revealed no negative surprises I lowered the gear and began to plan my landing approach. The flaps were lowered to about 20 degrees and as with many of the full scale planes I have flown, the nose pitched up requiring a little down elevator trim. After several passes I landed. The landing was a little rough but safe.
The Zero in general looks extremely realistic in flight and would make a fine subject for those guys who like WWII scale "birds". I am now looking forward to my Zero sitting on the runway next to a "Hellcat".
A6M5 ZERO SPECIFICATIONS Scale........................................... 3 inches/foot Wing Chord at root..............................24.5 inches Wing Span .................................... 102 inches Wing Area ............................ 2040 sq. inches (approx) Length including Spinner ...................... 871/2 inches Weight.................................... 37 3/4 pounds (dry) Engine................................. Kawasaki 3.15 cu. in. Propeller.......................................... TF 22-10 Fuel Capacity.......... .............. 32 oz. (US Quadra Tank) Radio ................ ........ World Engines MK II 7 Channel Aileron and elevator servo WE S-16s Rudder servo EWH HD servos Flaps (1) WE S-11 servo for each flap Throttle WE S-5 servo Retract actuating servo WE retract servo Battery ............. 2 WE 550 MA packs with a GSP products 2 x 5 redundant system Controls....Ailerons Elevator Rudder Throttle Flaps Retracts SUMMARY 1. Canopy Glass/butyrate Throttle 2. Cowl Fiberglass Flaps 3. Spinner Fiberglass w/aluminum backplate Retracts 4. Modified Robart Retracts (strut lengthened) 5. Wheels CB Associates 6" 6. Construction Birch ply, spruce, 1/4 inch ply, balsa, basswood. 7. Outline is true scale including the wing and horizontal stab air foils.