It was already a superb dogfigher, putting agility over all else. The A5M “Claude” was the Imperial Japanese navy main monoplane fighter in 1939, a 1st generation model, also designed by Horikoshi with elliptic wings and modern features, all metal fuselage but still antiquated ones, like fixed undecarriage and open cockpit. It’s designated successor, the A7M Reppū never had the time to replaced it, but the A6M went through several iterations and variants to correct its known issues.Ī6M2 in 1940 Design development A successor to the A5M “Claude” This was the result of a number of factors, but its advantages became problems when the allies started to field better planes in 1944-45. The A6M gained an aura of invincibility in the first year of the war, brushing aside all opposition. With 10,939 delivered by Mitsubishi, Nakajima and other plants, it was also the most ubiquitous of all WW2 Japanese models, soldiering over a very large area, between aircraft carriers and land bases, from Mandchuria to New Guinea, Malaysia to the Aleutians. A superb dogfighter, combined with perhaps the best trained naval fighter pilots of the world’s at the time, achieved total air dominance in the Pacific until 1943. Just named colloquially “zero” and still popularly known as such today, the A6M, or “Mitsubishi Navy Type 0 carrier fighter” (零式艦上戦闘機) hence the number used as nickname, was the brainchild of superstar aviation designer Jiro Horikoshi. Imperial Japanese Navy, 10,939 built The legendary Japanese fighter