516 MITSUBISHI A5M4 'CLOUDE'

The Mitsubishi M5A is a Japanese, single-engine fighter with a low wing structure and a metal structure from the Second World War. It was the first monoplane fighter of the Imperial Navy. In the early 1930s, the command of the Japanese Navy undertook a program of basing the development of naval aviation on its own designs. The tactical and technical requirements for an on-board fighter, announced in 1932, did not work, so two years later, new, improved requirements were issued, according to which the new fighter was to have a maximum speed of not less than 350 km / h and a climb time at 3000 m not longer than 6 min. 30 sec. The span and length could not exceed 11.0 and 8.0 m, due to the dimensions of the carriers on aircraft carriers. The team led by Eng. Jiro Horikoshi at Mitsubishi plants developed the Ka-14 project. The flight of the prototype with the Nakajima Kotobuki 5 engine (551KM) and the W-shaped airfoil (seen from the front) took place in February 1935. It turned out that it exceeded the requirements set for it too much (e.g. the maximum speed was higher by 100 km / h). The stability was worse and therefore in the next prototype powered by the Kotobuki 3 engine (646HP) the W-shaped airfoil was abandoned. The elliptical contour of the airfoil was retained, however. Despite the fixed landing gear and open cabin, the aerodynamics of the aircraft were carefully developed, and the system of the cantilever low-wing aircraft was a revolution in the tradition of biplane on-board fighters. Trials of 6 prototypes were very successful and in 1936 the plane was put into production with the Nakajima Kotobuki 2 Kai 1 (581KM) engine as a Navy Type 96, Model 1, A5M1 fighter. Serial aircraft entered service in 1937 and soon took part in the Japanese-Chinese conflict. Thanks to this, the Japanese achieved a decisive advantage in the air, which increased even more after the introduction of the improved A5M2a model with the Kotobuki 2 Kai3A engine. Soon, the A5M2b model was put into production, which temporarily had a covered crew cabin, which, however, did not suit the Japanese fighter pilots. The most produced variant was the A5M4 with the Kotobuki 41 engine with a take-off power of 714KM and 789KM at an altitude of 3000 m and an additional external fuel tank with a capacity of 160 dm3. The Model 3, with the Hispano Suiza 12Xers in-line engine, was not mass-produced. In total, approximately 1,000 A5M aircraft were produced, including approximately 800 at the parent plant. In 1941, these planes began to be gradually moved to the second line. They were not reused until the end of the war as Kamikaze. In 1943, a two-seater training version appeared, designated A5M4-K (103 copies). The plane bore the designation Claude in the Allied code, although the first prototype was assigned the designation Sandy, unaware that it was just a prototype. Technical data (A5M4 version): length: 7.55m, wingspan: 11m, height: 3.2m, maximum speed: 440km / h, maximum range: 1200km, maximum ceiling 9800m, armament: fixed - 2 machine guns Type 97 cal .7.7mm.