JAPAN’S ZERO FIGHTER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 October 1942, Page 5

JAPAN’S ZERO FIGHTER

ALL DETAILS KNOWN. CANBERRA, Oct. 6. Australian aircraft engineers know every construction detail of Japan’s Zero fighter. Disclosing that experts have dismantled Zeros piece by piece and measured and tested every pa-rt, the Minister of Aircraft Production (Mr Cameron) declared his confidence that Australia could manufacture a better fighter. Mr Cameron said the Zero had a maximum speed of about 315 m.p.h. under normal flying at 10,000 feet and a ceiling of 36,000 feet. At 160 m.p.h. its range was 1600 miles. He was confident, said the Minister, that the time was approaching when Allied planes would drive them from the skies and that Australian aircraft would play, an important role in their destruction.

Referring to a Washington suggestion that Australia might be forced from her own resources to fulfil her need for high altitude fighters to meet the Zeros, Mr Cameron expressed the belief that, given the necessary materials, Australian aircraft engineers could produce snch a plane. Australia’s aircraft industry had achieved near miracles in the two and n-half years of its experience. Australian-made Beaufort tor-pedo-bombers were .in some respects superior to the original British design. An outstanding example of the resource and adaptability of Australian engineers was the “almost overnight” conversion of these planes to carry American torpedoes.