PART TWO

 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-Sen .Land based and carrier based fighter, this plane had many names and it was the most famous plane of the Japanese during WW2. It was called Zero-sen Zero, but the Japanese preferred to call it Reisen , while in the american code it was designed Zeke . During the firist part of the war it became the terror of the sky, because of its swift manouverability that outpassed all the American , Dutch and British planes in the Far East theatre. It was the air weapon that great contributed to Japanese victories until Midway. His secret was in the light-wooden structure and in the powerful engine that greatly increased his manouverability, but also decreased the armor and the pilot protection. So , when it has to combat with the new generation of american planes (Hellcat, Corsair, Lightning), his supremacy began to fade out , despite of he many improvements made during his long life.

 Avro 683 Lancaster . In the history of the aviation sometimes an excellent aircraft design originated from a weak prototype. This is the case of the Lancaster , quadrimotor developing of the unlucky bimotor Avro 679 Manchester . By only adding 2 engines and more wing areas, the Lancaster revealed to be the most important bomber of the RAF during the Second World War. After the early testings, the plane was built in series from 1941, and the production began to speed up so quickly that Packard US factory was assigned to build Merlin engines. The base model (B-I) was improved in many other variants, generally changing the engines, but remained in production until the end of the war. The most important variants were the B-II with Hercules engines, the B-III with Packard engines and the B-X, built in Canada.

FIAT CR42 Falco . Developed in the wrong convintion that the biplane formula had a future, while other aeronautics were developing monoplane fighters, the CR 42 has many of the previous models (CR 32, 40 , 41) s characteristics, with a powerful radial motor and a metallic structure. After the early testings, Regia Aeronautica ordered 200 exemplars of the plane, and the first arrived in February 1939. Between 1939 and 1941 Belgium, Switzerland and Hungary recieved many exemplars of the plane. During the first years of war, the Falco was widely employed on various fronts (United Kingdom, Mediterranean, Africa). But it was surpassed by the new Allied monoplanes, so it was given to attack, training and night interception roles. However it was built until 1944 and the last 150 exemplars were used by Luftwaffe in night actions. Some monopost and bipost exemplars survived the war and were used by Aeronautica Italiana during the second half of 40s.

Writed by TAGLIA