First Flight / Zero Presentation, April 27, 2024
April 1st, 1939, Kagamigahara Air Base outside Nagoya, Japan, the first Mitsubishi A6M1 prototype takes to the air with test pilot Katsuzo Shima at the controls. The test flight goes well, with only a slight tendency to vibrate noted, corrected by changing from a two-bladed variable-pitch propeller to a three-bladed constant speed Hamilton-Standard propeller license built under agreement with the US company. Mid-1943, the Solomons, enter the US P-38 Lightning and the Vought F4U Corsair, and things start going south. In between, the Zero rules!
On Saturday April 27th the Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing at the Camarillo Airport conducted a presentation remembering the 85th anniversary of that first flight of the Zero. Thank you to all who came out to hear about the legendary start and subsequent painful ending of the iconic Imperial Japanese Navy’s A6M Type 00 fighter.
