ZERO MYTH

A Remarkable Story About the Japanese Zero Fighter, by Roy Day

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Zero A6M5_Aleutian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :
LeRoy “Roy” Day is an aerospace engineer, a graduate of Georgia Tech, who began his career as a Naval Officer. His early work was in the development and test of guided missiles and pilotless aircraft. During this period he worked with several German scientists who had been brought to the United States after the conclusion of World War II. He joined NASA shortly after John Glenn made the first American orbital flight in Februari 1962. He headed a group that did the initial planning for the Space Shuttle and then continued as the Deputy Director, Space Shuttle for its development and first flight. Roy Day holds advanced degrees from UCLA and MIT. He has written numerous technical papers, an autobiography Road from Hildene, as well as Manned Space Flight, personal reflections on the Space Program. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, a recipient of NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal and listed in Who’s Who in America. After retirement he lived with his wife Mary in Rockville, Maryland. His beloved wife died in 2014.

 

2 thoughts on “ZERO MYTH”

  1. A couple of problems with that article, nitpicking really. The main point is valid. The flying tigers did not fight Zeros. They fought the Army fighters, Ki-27 ( fixed gear ) and Ki-43. The Mitsubishi J2M was to be the successor, but Mitsubishi did not have the resources to build them fast enough. Therefore, they were instructed to keep updating the Zero, which further hampered J2M production. Due to the lack of progress on the J2M, the Navy also had Kawanishi make a land plane version of the N1K1 seaplane, to supplement the J2M in service. Bottom line, no resources….lack of manufacturing capability.

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airplane construction interbellum – like Rohrbach and many other pioneers