Name: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Zero
Uploaded: 2021-06-01T11:42:32.000Z
Duration: 13 min 13 s
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基礎受動態

This episode of Real Engineering is brought to you by Brilliant, a problem solving website

that teaches you to think like an engineer.

In the late 19th and early 20th century the Japanese Empire was under rapid expansion,

fueled by a feudal born military economy and European technology.First invading the chain

of islands north and south of it's home island, fighting a bitter war with Russia

for control over Manchuria and annexing Korea all before WW1.

The outbreak of World War 1 gave Japan the perfect platform to expand further, alling

against Germany and taking control of German positions in the Pacific.

Making Japan the dominant power in the east Pacific, with its sphere of influence extending

from the Asian mainland to the mid Pacific.

To maintain this influence Japan had undergone rapid industrial expansion, growing from a

technologically primitive feudal country, and developing the third largest Navy in the

world, with only the United States and the British Navies challenging it.

With US territory in the Philippines and Hawaii, and British territory in Malaya, Hong Kong

and British Borneo, conflict was inevitable and tension in the Pacific was rapidly growing.

On September 27th 1940 Japan entered an alliance with Germany and Italy, a clear warning to

Enter the war in Europe, and you will face war in the Pacific.

This warning did not come unchallenged and the United States moved it's pacific fleet

from California to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

From here many of us are familiar with the story.

Japan capitalized on this ill advised show of force and took the United States by surprise,

attempting to wipe out the US Navy in the Pacific in one foul swoop.

A decisive victory that announced Japan to the Western world as a force to be reckoned

At the height of their power in WW2 Japan seized control from Western powers in China

But the war machine was doomed to failure, and was destined to over extend itself.

Nothing illustrates the turning fate of the Japanese Empire like it's iconic fighter

A plane that entered world war 2 as feared and formidable advisory for any plane in the

pacific theatre, but slowly and surely lost its tactical advantage until it was finally

regulated to a dispensable resource, fitted with 250 kilogram bombs and flown straight

at enemy ships in a last ditch effort to protect the Empire.

The Zero was a thoughtfully designed plane.

Its designer Jiro Horikoshi, built upon the framework of his previous design the A5M,

the world's first carrier based monoplane.The Imperial Japanese Army challenged Mitsubishi

and Nakajima to both design and build successors to this plane to aid the war effort in China.

The plane was to have a top speed of 500 km/h, be fitted with two 7.7 mm machines guns and

two 20 mm cannons, incredibly heavy armaments for fighters of that era.

On top of all this, it was to have an operating ceiling of 10,000 metres.

Be capable of flying 2 hours at max speed, and 6 to 8 hours at cruising speed with drop

These were fuel tanks that could be jettisoned when empty, or when an enemy was encountered

These specifications alone were ambitious enough, but the plane also needed to be carrier

based, which limited it's wingspan to 12 metres.

The specifications were so ambitious that Nakajima pulled their bid from the project,

Incorporating many of the most advanced techniques of the era.

Thin elliptical wings minimised drag, along with state of the art flush riveting.

New heat treatment knowledge obtained from the Germans allowed Horikoshi to develop an

It's frame entirely made from this new age hardened aluminium and he cut holes into the

All to achieve that ambitious range requirement of the Imperial Japanese Army, but that requirement

forced Jiro to make some sacrifices to the planes design.

Favouring speed, maneuverability and range with its lightweight construction, over heavy

It's skin was only 1.2 millimeters thick over it's thickest sections, like the leading

edge of the wing, and forward fuselage to just 0.5 mm thick at it's thinnest over

While enemy outer skin thicknesses were not significantly thicker, the outer skin is intended

to be a smooth aerodynamic surface not protective armouring.

Typically these planes would contain thicker plate armouring over key locations like the

On top of this the zero did not employ self-sealing fuel tanks, which used several layers of rubber

that would swell and expand when soaked in fuel, and thus seal any holes.

Weight savings even came down to the cockpit size, which was smaller than most Western

designs, designed to fit the on average, shorter Japanese pilot.

The zero was designed on a doctrine of training skilled pilots with nimble, lightweight planes.

What use was armor if you didn't get hit, what use was armor if you didn't have the

The lightweight skin made it difficult to get into the plane without damaging it, so

the designers incorporated footholds and handles, which sat flush to the planes surface, and

could be released with a button when needed.

This mechanism seen from the inside of the plane looks like a mushroom.

With these rounded domes protecting an internal bag which could be inflated using a pilot

controlled valve which redirected air from the front air intake, so that in the event

of an crash landing into the sea the plane would not sink.

The designers of this plane clearly never intended it to be used as a disposable weapon.

The Japanese Air Force met little airborne resistance in China, it's vastly more advanced

planes picked the archaic chinese bi-planes out of the sky with ease.

It would meet a far more formidable enemy on December 7th, 1941, when Japan attacked

The surprise attack aimed to cripple the US Navy and cement Japan as the most powerful

Navy in the Pacific.[3] A show of force to dissuade the mighty American Navy from interfering

An ill advised attack that had the opposite effect.

America entered WW2 the same day, with it two primary fighters at the time.

Neither were as nimble as the A6M,and in early battles the Zero had a tactical advantage,

despite both planes having a higher top speed.

Much of this was down to the superb training of the Japanese pilots, who at the outset

of the war, were among the best in the world.

The Japanese focused on quality over quantity.

This slowly changed over the course of the war.

字幕リスト動画再生

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Zero

devastating

straight

force

advantage