Howard Hughes zero?

In fact, during the movie, Hughes mentions that the Japanese "stole" his pre-war racer design and fielded it as the Zero. In Martin Caidin's writings, there is no mention of this as being a fact. He does relate that the designer of the Zero used technological know how gleaned from several competing countries' aircraft to complete the Mitsubishi wonder fighter.

Steve

I believe that the Zero's engine cowling was a NACA design that provided better cooling than traditional Japanese cowlings. I do not know if Howard Hughes designed that cowling or not but I suppose it's possible.

Here is a lengthy discussion of the topic at another forum:

http://www.wrightools.com/h1talk/_disc3/00000021.htm

This is the first post in the thread. To view the replies, click "next" from the top menu, or select from the entire page here:

http://www.wrightools.com/h1talk/index.htm#00000021

This should help shed some light on the subject.

I'd read that there were design components of the H-1 that the Japanese used when designing the Zero - it's entirely probable - a good design is a good design - but remember that the Japanese had an enormous number of their citizens studying and working for many years in the United States prior to WWll in every imaginable industry - gaining an incredible amount of skills and knowledge - and they had brilliant engineers - so it's not surprising that so many of their planes were such fantastic performers.

on that note, is the aviator worth watching ?

I really liked it Reggie, it is an aviation movie. It does focus on Hughes' dimentia some, but DeCaprio suprised me with his character of the young Hughes. Spend the money and see it, you won't be sorry.

There was an article in Wings or Airpower many years ago that suggested that the zero was developed from a Northrop design (P-64?) that mysteriously disappeared on a test flight off the coast of California in the late 30's. I have the magazine but have no immediate plans to locate it at the present time unnless there is a lot of interest from the group on details.

Richard

the Zero was based on the T-6 Texan which is why it was possible to recreate believable Zero's for the movie Tora Tora Tora

The T-6 Texan (aka "Harvard") seems to be a ready made conversion for any aircraft that Hollywood wants to film. They even used them as P-47s in "Kelly's Heroes".

what ? how the heck dya shoehorn a T-6 into a P-47 ???? i guess most people (me included) probably couldent spot the real McCoy

I'm inclined to believe the Zero design had influences from the west but that the design of the aircraft was still of Japanese origin.

Everyone was stealing ideas from everyone else. That is the way of engineering. Like LeeTree above, "A good design is a good design." I think this is seen even today in the way that model kits are designed. (Or anything for that matter.) How much you want to bet that there will be a Hasegawa kit with molded muzzle openings (a la Tamiya's P-47) in the near future?

of course you didnt know that the VAL dive bomber was a derivative of the JU-87 Stuka and that the Luftwaffa actually provided the Japanese with ME-162 and ME-262 fighters.

I heard the Val was from a Hienkel design.

During WWII the US intelegent services (G-2) had a mission to gather a copy of every enemy aircraft varient. This included German, Japanese, and Italian aircraft. The aircraft on display in the Air Force Museum (Me 262 for example) are aircraft that were returned to the U S for evaluation. It is no coincedence that the Bell X-5 looks like a German proto-type.

The U.S. paid a Korean Mig pilot $Million to defect with a Mig 15, Remember?

Then there was the Mig 25 that was flown to Japan by a defector. The U.S. moved in, dismantled the aircraft, packed it up, and shipped it to a U.S. facility (Gaum or Okinawa maybe). The Japanese are still smarting about that one.

Does anyone remember the origin of the B-57, or the AV-8 Harrier?

The point is that any country is goint to put a good idea to work if it is to their advantage. This is especially true in times of war. To this day there is very little respect for the world agreements regarding patents, and copyrights for that matter.

I submit to you all that we will regret the free flow of technology to other countries, especially those that do not honor patents or protections of intelectual property.

The next time you open a model look at the information telling you where it was made, no matter what the brand name is on the box. Then look at the price!

Sorry for the rant. I hope someone finds it pertinent to the discussion, and pertinent to the general subject of the forum.

rangerj
afterthought!
Look at the Soviet copy of the B-29, or their "Space Shuttle".

QUOTE: Originally posted by rangerj Sorry for the rant. I hope someone finds it pertinent to the discussion, and pertinent to the general subject of the forum.

It's comes up every so often. It was floating around here a couple weeks ago.

Just a quick comment about the Mig-25. It was dismantaled and inspected by US but it was returned to the Soviets in a dismantled condition.

Richard

QUOTE: Originally posted by mats.man Just a quick comment about the Mig-25. It was dismantaled and inspected by US but it was returned to the Soviets in a dismantled condition. Richard

I read a book about the incident titled "Mig Pilot" quite a number of years ago. A very interesting read. Some of the design and manufacturing concepts they encountered when dismantling the Mig seemed really strange and archaic well others where seen as brilliant.
Would sure like to see a documentry on the incident. Or has someone already done that?