Gloster F. 5/34 and A6l\/l Zero Fighter

Gloster F. 5/34 and A6M
Enigma
Zero Fighter
of Jiro Horigoshi and
his design roots
Jiro Anzai
On
the 48th Congress
Matchikaneyama
campus,
the Principle Section,
of the Japanese Psychological Association held at Osaka
0n 14th
but
F. 5/34 and the Japanese
September,
also read
1984,I
a paper
on
University's
had not only acted as a coordinator
the British Gloster Eχperimental
Navy's carrier-based fighter Zero
A6M's
prototype.
Te!escoping
matter, I have compared
nine other single-seat monoplanes
of the days, ranging from
Mark
Seversky
V-48B,
1, Curtiss P40-A,
Vought
V-143
P-35,
Vultee
Vanguard
Grumman
to two Italian fighters, all together nine of the monoplane
out with the only
one plane, in about
18 vital parts, that earned
of
Fighter
the
Spitfire
F-4-F3,
and
fighters, and come
1 5 points of similarity, the
while the two others scoring g points, three others 6 points, and finally three others ge廿ing
only two
points in smimilarity
score.
Of these comparisons,
points was no other than the Gloster Eχperimental
For
all this, my
an expose
aeronautics
tentative conclusion
of debuking
the case presented.
one verging on the eχpos6 of debunking
celebrated
F. 5/34, as shown
was such that one could
nature; in fact, at the time
eχpert to examine
fighter of the World
War
the sole aircraft that scored 15
l was more
in the chart.
not possibly have
or less asking for the real
Either its very nature had been
nature on the Japan's No.l
II or Zero,
or else my
called it
men
were
no longer
quest had seemed
to have
fallen on stone ears. Nevertheless, l kept searching and researching this matter until my
to get at the root was so enhanced
about
what
this time
some
ex-RAF
that l resolved to visitEngland:
veterans who
l had said in that congress; this move
the same period
l had
pub!ished
psychological interpretation,"
publishing house.
To
from
my
have
of my
throttled on my
5 th Japanese
the PHPけhe
book
famed
of this to Assistant Gordon
given me some
of the basic material concerning
chatけhe
it so happened
work
to know
activity, no doubt; but at about
Matsushita
of Midway
Electric Works'
Museum
at Hendon,
Leith there, and Mr. Leith was kind enough
point that has been
desire
that it was
had wired me
entitled “Battle
cut the preface short. ！ visited the RAF
sented a copy
During'our
heard
as
aircraft designer of the
country
interested in pressing the issue to the original root, for a while my
taken
− a
affiliated
and preto have
the said Gloster F. 5/34｡
sticking to my
77
mind
again came
to the surface;
Jiro Anzai
that is, be it Sidney
when
Cum's
Hurricane
or Folland's Gloster, or Mitchell's Supermarine
their designed craft had been lined up chronologically, there seem
colour and thread which
can be identified as something
designer's, a sort of engineer's Scarlet Thread.
Spitfire,
to have been a peculiar
idiosyncratic peculiar to the particular
What
seems
to be so odd is for allits remark-
able exploits as the actual service fighter, the Zero's very configuration is such an abrupt break
from
the Type
or the
96 carrier-based fighter or the Zero's predecessor, and
Zero's
break-off
immediate
from
successor-to-be, (also designed
its predecessor).
How
forgotten, there had
on the experimental
and in each case, even though
been in the Allied camp,
stage, whose
the World's Aircraft some
It was sometime
widely
from
specs and pictures had been published
sea to mountain,
turned
specializing in engineering books,
out to be a copy
theless, my
Army
Gad!
fighter plane whose
on
crafts
not only in Jane's All
and I had
streamlined
came
naming
of Sankaido,
betrays they published
aircraft and other motorized
forth with the special appendix
been
poring our fascinated eyes
came
out to be
new
never-
on every page
of this
across to the configuration
of the
shape, taken as a whole looked
picture of the UN's
issue,
filledwith line drawings, with
of the top secret stamp, it turned
eager turning we
the
so much
like the configuration
carrier-based fighter plane or A6M
fighter!
At
the closer scrutiny my
undercarriage,
with
tailplane; moreover,
brother
discovered
the equally disimilar layout
compared
tail cone,
indeed
as if it had swallowed
some
this darwing's
craft had
Alice's puffing-up
15 points of similarity between
tail cone
F. 5/34 had a funny-looking
the Zero
and Gloster as I had come
thirty four years after the V-J Day, Bill Gunston's
say as follows:
Mitsubishi A6M
― 78
―
that housed
pill! For all that, inasmuch
forty years later, our on-the-spot insight cannot be dismissed as a mere
For some
quite dissimilar
of the vertical tailplane against the horizontal
to the Zero's gracefully slenderized
retracted tailwheel, this one or Glosetr Experimental
some
at large had
prototype-like
of various aircraft, with usual specs of performances;
one of our
of the then-relased-to-the-public
Zero
and Navy
data; for allits ominous
elder brother
and
the world
in the intent of crowning
of the Allied Aircraft brochure
pages of line or skelton drawings
booklet,
and Seas; as their name
the vesrsions for school children. This company
brief performance
complete
ENCOUNTER
Pavillion of Mountains
exploits by the Japanese Imperial
which
the resembling
after the Fall of Singapore, that the publisher by the name
translated means
craft, including
another
years before, but also in other aviation magazines.
CHILDHOOD
which
Horigoshi,
Raiden
is it that in the two out of three, each successor had
taken an entirely different configuration,
mercifully
by
the interceptor
the
sausage-like
as there are
to discover
child's fancy.
Classic Fighters came
out to
Gloster F. 5/34 and A6M
In all important
Japanese
Navy
respects the design
Zero Fighter
of this carrier-based fighter of the Imperial
was ordinary to the point of being old-fashioned.!t
was, for eχample,
almost identical in size, shape, weight, engineering detail design and performance
the British Glosetr
F. 5/34
flown in December
]937,
almost
]8 months
to
before the
Japanese fighter ‥‥I
To
be sure. there have
proclaim
been
many
articles and
books
including
Ziro Horigoshi's
the similarity is superficial, and in fact a lot of ingenuities are woven
that
into the craft,
designed by him.
For
all that, there are several matters that had crossed my
not so negligently pass by. little as l know
about
mind,
the facts which
aviation, aerodynamics
I could
and its engineering
details.
OF
THE
ANTI-SPIN
Of the plane's anti-spin tendency,
Concerning
ment
into
proved
tliat the original Zero
a flat spin from
made
at the Naval
Technology
fighter design did have the tendency
Establislト
of getting
which it could not possibly recover. To rectify this some
to the tailconfiguration; that was the back-ing away
the vertical tailplane, and
plane,
TAKEN
Dr. Horigoshi says as follows:
spin, the vertical windtunneにests
merits were
of
MEASURE
thus enhancing
bringing upwards
assess-
of the position
the position of the horizontal
tail-
the directional stability of the aircraft at a greater ang!e of
attack?
When
said in a technical jargon, there seems
had one taken a second
what
might
have
been
thought
made
For
had
been
and tried to envisage from
nothing
so extraordinary
the above-mentioned
but
description
the original tail configuration in respects to the fusalage, one would
have seen a certain configuration
F｡5/34
to have
the shape
of which
nearly superimposes
that of the Gloster
in 1937｡
we
forwarded
the vertical plane of the present-day
remaining
Zero's iai!けhe
relation of the vertical tailplane closer to that of Gloster's tailplane configuration, and likewise
the lowering
of the horizontal tai】planespreadout
one step or more
closer to tlie extraordinary
alongside the aft fuselage, would
have come
tailplane position realized on the 1937
Gloster
Experimental.
Only
had
difference prominent
that contraption
which
would
open
been
is. even
a hidden
automatically
assessed thus farけhat sausage-like configuration; but
container in which
antiflat spin parachute
concealed.
as in case of another British military aircraft Blackburn
1)Bill Gunston, Classic･Fighter緋London: Hamlyn, 1978), p」00.
2)Jiro Horigoshi and M. Okuniiya, 'ZeroFigﾉiter(TokyoトKyodoshuppan,
−79−
1953), p,7フ．
Saia,
Jiro Anzai
the story would
have
suggested in my
Osaka
been
taken
an altogether
Dr. Horigoshi's meticulous
prototype
or the first model
Is it not because
Eχperimental,
different picture.
University deliberation. When
description takes entirely a different hue.
put into the windtunnel
Horigoshi
This possibility,l had already
taken in this shade, what
thought
Why
did the Zero's
tests develop an unrecoverable
had gotten an inspiration form
but given no second
seems to have
the confuguration
flat spin?
of the Gloster
to the blimp-like part, and only came
to slender-
ized the original tail part, its end result was the flat spin?
Whether
Freud's
these meticulous
slip of tongue
description by Horigoshi
or the designer's unconscious
a position to know.
But
these facts remain
were something
close to Dr. Sigmund
e汀ort at setting facts as facts,I am not in
to be wanting
a proper
assay by
the genuine
aviation eχpert for trialof fire eχamination.
What
about
the Raiden
strange similarity between
Horigoshi
and
Interceptor
and
the Vultee
Vanguard's
the later materialized production
the preceeding
Experimental
61? There
service craft Raiden
Craft by Vultee
that ended
are also a
designed by
in the eχperimental
stage.
As days
progressed
so rapidly in the wartime
deteriorating rapidly for the Japanese,
brother
and l were found
!y drew
began
ourselves
us closer to the world
poring over the new
of air-craft productions,
my
colleagues
fighter that should
ing with
l must
as soon
were
new
hotly
bring down
discussing
a feeling of d&ja vue, that feeling one would
have seen somewhere,
as l got home,
Asahi, until I came
this period l
(Thunderbolt),
of this newly
relased
as well as fighters√「had been wonderoccasionally get when
one is eχhausted.
an interceptor like this. Yet I could not quite track it down,
I started to track it down,
up to several of them.
that of Raiclen, its name
of the Raiden
the picture image
bombers
During
or early 1945, our Newspaper
by the name
about
a lot of enemy
was Λmerican
my
natural-
and on our sparse holidays, we again
it was late 1944
interceptor
both
student workersいhis
as well as back issues of aviation magazines.
flashed a picture of the Navy's
or fortunes began
so rapid was our skinking that pretty soon
at factory lines as mobilized
also got a jolting eχperience of encountering;
while
years, the tide of war
and
getting out all those back issues of the Koku
The configuration of this interceptor is so alike to
Company
Vultee's Vanguard
61，again an eχperimental
Aircraft｡
l had
stiffled my
mouth
configuration, its shape
when
of langding
I came
to the picture, because
gear, wheel's arrangement
table tail wheel
with its split-open doors, looked
latticed canopy
or cockpit, this one
this time
again the total
even to the completely
so alike; moreover,
had the latticed cockpit
retrac-
unlike Zero's clearcul
part that continued
rest of aft fuselage in one piece (this had been at least two years of the Pacific War
with the
the Allied
fighters characteristics/In turn the Allied war defense manuals
used
out. clearcut bubble
on this point, this Raiden
seeming
copy
ceptors
had
canopy
of the Western
eχtended
long
as distinctively Japanese). For
tradition; moreover,
propeller
transmission
−80−
as we
found
shafts, with
to emphasizeけhat
after the war, both
eχtremely
deep
bulged
is a
the inter-
and curved
^"^＼
Other
■7
^＼
Monoplane
7f A6Ml＼Fighters
Gloster
Spitfire
Curtiss
Seversky
Fiat-50
Vultee
Macchi-20.0 Vanguard
V-48B
Grumman
Vought
F4F-3
V-143
1
P-40-A
P-35
X
X
X
X
X
X
o
X
11.63
11.25
11.30
10.97
10.74
10.58
11.00
11.58
10.40
X
X
X
X
X
o
o
o
X
9.76
9.15
9.60
7.70
7.80
8.19
8.50
7.93
X
X
X
o
o
X
X
X
2,450
2,680
3,080
2,540
2,200
2,659
2,659
1,982
o
o
o
X
X
X
X
X
X
21.36
o
22.50
21.93
20.40
18.25
16.30
18.30
24.20
X
X
X
X
X
X
17.38
o
115.0
119.0
140.0
125.0
131.5
135.0
145.0
X
o
X
F. 5/34
Propeller
&
Spinner
Cowling
61
Air
Intake-
Canopy
&
Cockpit'
r uselage
Main Wing
Tailplane
Horizontal
Tailplane&
Elevator
Main
j
Undercarriage J
o
Wing
12
Span (m)
Total
Length
(m)
8.7
o
Total
Weight
(kg)
2,343
Wing
I 22-44
Area (m)
Loading
100.3
o
Speed
(k/h)
508.8
506
o
Power
875
Plant (HP)
840
SimilarityScores
15
(O=l
point each)
X
587
X
530
X
2,400
8.90
o
no.o
o
515
115.0
X
481
483
481
505
563
o
o
X
X
X
X
X
X
1,030
1,260
950
840
840
1,200
1,200
750
2
2
2
6
9
9
6
6
SuperficialSimilaritiesb etween Zero and other fightersof the period (1936―1941)
i
Data assessed by Jiro Anzai.
Gloster F. 5/34 and A6M
cowling around
air-cooled radial engines!
But the similarity hunch
I swore
Zero Fighter
myself
of mine
that l would
situations fanned
was only limited to the outward
not slip this find even
the witchhunting
to my
antispy campaigns
configuration, and yet
brother, for the deteriorating war
so much
so that l was scraed to death
for even harbouring
such a find. By then even girls'school kids had been dragged into factory
lines, some
even
moreover,
my
of them
given the very honour
only a month
before ！ had been
relative, that she had
teacher on account
been
of servicing the military planes in airdromes;
disclosed from
a beautiful elder girl of 17 years;
left tied, with her hands
of her having spilled a vitalinformation
and
feet in one, by her fencing
concerning
this accused spilling turned out to be just deploring of the worsening
were
so many
mechanical
bugs developed
the military situation,
situations,in which
there
that very few service craft could ever reach even the
second lines.
With
myself
the war over, my
line had of course shifted to other direction, and having turned
a historical psychologist
with
interest in the history of the RAF
Then one
popular
day l came
nonfiction
fighter,it went
elongated
than anything
to overshoot
seems
to be an absurd
Yanagidaけhe
while showing
until it gave a lauding hand
the Raiden
as an evidence
curious coincidence
equally credit-given (among
Here again, even
account?
a paean
to Horigoshi
written by the very
of praises on the Zero
even for his adapting the
of his ingenuity. And
seems
this caused
me
more
Eχperimental Fighter
preceeds
configuration
markedly
to have
been
occurring in the less-known
but
the Japanese circle)interceptor designed by Dr. Horigoshi.
the original performance
oblivion)also
extended
smothered
else to set the records right.
Indeed, another
Vanguard
across what
writer Kunio
shaft into
special interest in the British History, my
returned.
some
(again remained
as the prototype
three years the appearance
resembles,
propeller shaft, and
specs are not so far dissimilar,with the Vultee
now
tliistime
complete
in such
with
stage and
of the Raiden. But
the important
the canopy
faded
into
again, its basic
detail as the use of
and aft fuselage as one-piece
dorsal line configuration!
About
Length
57
specsいhe Vultee's wingspan is 10.70 meters as against the Raiden's 10.80.
o臼he
Vultee is 8.90 meters as against 9.47 meters of the Raiden;
centi meters
are di叩erence anyhow,
always
benefit by
which
certainly
refining on
Vultee
61, our Raiden
within
the prototype,
provided
have
is 2,861 kg， which
to form
one would
question
that the posterior can
as against 2,272
an additional 140 kg weight
for the heavier armament
craft with eχtended fuel capacity enforced
be too quick
means
to think
the copier has enough
the designer's ability. Weight-wise,
this can be easily accountable
lmay
but here we
Overall
skill to copy,
kilograms
added:
intsalled in the actual combat
of
again,
service
by the Japanese Navy.
a hasty conclusion;
on the surface it may
⇔← kヴ〃〃i〃〃=-･ご〃･--･a〃=一匹φ=r〃･="･=････ふ←〃-w-〃J-.J→
3)Kunio
Yanagida, Zero Fighter(Tokyo: Bungeishunjyu-sha, 1985), p.155.
4)Jane's Ail the World'sAircraft，1938,1939, 1940 and 1941 Editions.
81
seem
so; but l
Jiro Anzai
earnestly urge the reader to have more
One
of the fact that I cannot
statement
mission
as if of the said Horigoshi's ingenuity;
were
some
possibly swallow
brazen-faced
several attempts
by
patience and follow the lines with me
Japanese
before liisadaption.
is stemmed
from
the eχistence of the
to the effect that extended
Lawk
a mercy,
For eχample, American
propeller shaft transthere had been
teclinological achivement;
P-39
missions all over the
for the Zero in the Pacific Theatre should not negate her
in fact, the Airacobra
was
far and
cessor in realizing not only the eχtended shaft transmission
through
at least
Bell Aircraft Corporation's
Airacobra is one of the service aircraft that had been flying actual combat
world, the fact it had been no match
to the end.
its center aχisけhus turning herself the most
wide
known
as the early sue-
but the inner-shaft 37 mm
formidable
cannon
anti-tank buster in the later
stage of war.
The
readers even
thankless
task, you
others would
at this point would
are heading
come
say, to the effect that what
towards
the precipice
from
out to say there already have been
innovative
genius in the person of the late Dr. Horigoshi,
great man
with
Horigoshi
for his innovating
a paean
fighter, and many
Yes,
of praises even from
“Reduced
other Japanese
it is just on the same
Speaking
Bomber
on the Type
you
you
are trying to is a
are bound
to jump;
a cloud of witnesses to endorse
and who
the Hurricanes'
Rigidity Concept"
the
are you to criticisesuch the
Sidny
Cum
that had lauded
of the control
Dr.
systems in Zero
Navy's service craft.
ground
the able designer and better known
One Attacker (Betty
which
l would
like to argue.
as the miserable
in Allied Code
guy
name)has
O Reconnaissance
For even though less known
that had designed
as
the Illfated Type
to say as follows.
Seaplane
designed by Eitaro Sano, Honjyo
says
as follows:
The most
prominent
that it is designed
further than
this Engineer
a little man
the compulsory
Sano
Hattori, himself
watch
feature of this plane (Type
by
was none
a graduate
of the team
Seaplane ‥. Cheif
advices from
Moreover,
of Tokyo
responsible
Designer
Sano
the college graduates
greatly to the adavance
with rigidity of control
this problem
5)Kaikukai
other than
by means
educational
the Design
Imperial
it was
system
man
Seaplane)is
with
section chief Mr.
an Empror's
for that
fine aircraft or Type
is a remarkably
that had
likable man,
studied
aerodynamics
rigidty concept! Engineer
had ever taught me there is such a phenomenon
O
as
Observation
as science ‥.
to discover a rare phenomenon,
of aviation technology.
This is something
come
thus
to do
to solve
Sano is the firstman
as that?
edit.,The Wakes of the Naval Eagles (Tokyo: Hara-shobo, 1983)､pp. 65−66
82
silver
willing to accept
in the aircraft ‥. in the end he had
of reduced
no
that had hand-picked
Department's
University
the fact
history extended
Director Hattori that had placed Sano
while testing this plane, he had come
contributing
who
O Observation
formal
grade school level. ‥ The
for his excellent achivements;
the chief
whose
Gloster F. 5/34 and A6M
Had
this gentlemanly
Honjyo's
and Dr. Horigoshi's grand statement
come
to a grave doubt
The
saying been
about
is not only an incidence
seven pages of the expose (tucked into a huge
from
days, the volume
Hara Shobo.in
Honjyo
Upon
happens
would
rather protestingly by his twenty-
Wakes
by other aerial eχperts of
of the Naval Eagles, published
he seems to be wanting
to claim the true
It runs as follows:
the series of the test flight for the Zero, Dr. Horigoshi
final ideal ratio l got turned
said guf-
out to be the very one recommended
talk goes on, in detail, and as we read them
by
carefully, there can be no doubt
credibility that the ratio of the horizontal
tailplane itself) to that of the elevators is none
and theorizing; in fact on the same
This ratio is the figure obtained
the ratio obtained
by
me
to my
by me through
on the medium
insistence, and
my
tailplane (or the area of
other than the ratio drawn
page, Honjyo
posing eversince for others to adopt.
heeded
true, Professor
the start."^
the statement's
experiences
been
Rigidity as his own
contributed
to be titled The
fighter'scontribution.
completing
Honjyo's
about
have
1982.
fawingly, "The
you from
must
of Reduced
spoken
volume
in fact inserted other passages by which
credit for his Zero
Now
true, which
the concept
as to its originality.
above, however,
the by-gone
Zero Fighter
The
point
theorizing and actual experimenting,
attackers which
Zero
out of Honjyo's
goes on to declare,
l had designed,
and pro-
fighter is the firstfighter craft that
of years long insistence has been
amply
proven even in the Zero fighter!''
Put
into a straight jargon, l cannot
the area of rudder
work
into
another
break-0汀from
phraseology,
such as modern-day
almost
any
l would
say that like any
that there indeed
other complicated
fighter!"
great thanks
that have provided me
grateful for Assistant Gordon
6&7)
Derek
Library. l
who
am
also extremely
has most
source illumi-
all the Jane's at the Science
Leith
at the RAF
kindly assisted me in securing the Gloster material.
Ibid., pp. 61−62.
N. James,
be continued)
go to Miss Bailey at the British Library for her thoughtful
Reference
Hendon,
into
that can claim “I solely
nation, and several other efficient members
Museum,
piece of
have been incorporated,
can be no one
(To
My
a
the Gloster F. 5/34.
airplane, a lot of other peoples' works
piece of engineering
designed the Zero
had designed
surface to the tailplane ratio, and itis in this part that the Zero has made
definite and unmistakable
Put
but say that not Horigoshi, but Honjyo
Gloster Aircraft since i 97 7 (London:
−83−
Putnam,
1987).