A6M5c Zero Fighter type 52c

The Zero Fighter was the imperial Japanese navy´s first singel seated and single-engined shipboard fighter with the retractable undercarriage. It was the most produced types of all japanese combat aircraft of world war II. Designed to the 1937 specifications, the Zuisei-powered prototype flew in the spring of 1939, but the most more successfull sakae-powered prototype was adopted as the Zero type 11, and two squadrons with 15 aircrafts were sent to China in July 1940 for trials under operation conditions. More than 400 had been delivered by the time the type 21 and type 32 appeared at Pearl Harbor. After the battle of Midway the Allies slowly gained the ascendancy, and the Zero found itself outclassed by the F4U Corsair and F6F Hellcat. Mitsubishi urgently tried to devise improved versions and type 52 was build in quantities far greater than any other Japanese combat aircraft. To satisfy front line demands for increased fire power and pilot protection, most of the changes were made in these areas under the designation type 52c. Especially, armament was increased to an additional 13mm machine gun mounted in each wing just outboard the 20mm cannon and underwing bomb rack for 30kg bomb. In late of war, hundred of Zeros of many sub-types and young pilots were converted for reckless suicide attacks; Kamikaze.