A6M2 (China)
.jpg)
Contents
Description
The ␗A6M2 Reisen is a premium rank III Chinese fighter with a battle rating of 3.7 (AB/RB) and 3.3 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.93 "Shark Attack".
One thing many players note when fighting the Zero is its immense manoeuvrability and turn rate. It is incredibly nimble and has an amazing climb rate, which allows you to run literal rings around many opponents. Even fighters renowned for manoeuvrability, like the mighty Spitfire, will think twice before engaging in a turn fight with the Zero. A deadly addition of two 20 mm cannons and two 7.7 mm machine guns mean that you can compete with other fighters.
The Zero's lightly loaded, high lift wing and low weight make it a dream to fly at speeds below 400 km/h, with an ability to execute wild gyrations and zoom climbs at the whim of the pilot. However, the Zero is hard to handle as it approaches speeds of 480 km/h.
Force an enemy pilot into a dogfight at 370 - 400 km/h and below 6,000 meters. At this speed and altitude, no enemy fighter can out-manoeuvre or out-climb you. Jump on cruising enemy aircraft from above, fasten onto the tail of the bandit, use your superior manoeuvrability to match his evasive moves, and put enough rounds into him to bring him down. Use your machine guns first to "bore-sight" the enemy - once you get hits on him, finish him off with your cannons. Below 480 km/h, you can fling the Zero all over the sky to get on an enemy's tail or to shake off all but the most determined attacker. Climb away from most enemy aircraft, hanging on your prop in a near-vertical climb. Manoeuvres like the Immelmann are easy, and heavier fighters can't stay with you. The Zero rolls faster to the left than to the right. Roll left to tighten your turn and get onto the enemy's six. Don't dive away from attackers - your plane doesn't have the power or weight to out-run most fighters. To exploit your plane's best performance, force the enemy lower and slow down the pace of the engagement.
General info
Flight performance
This aircraft is a copy of the A6M2 in the Japanese tech tree: it has really good turning and maneuverability, is able to accelerate fast, has a good climb rate and is known for being the best turn-fighter at its battle rating with the cost of being very weak in terms of armour protection against enemy fire. This aircraft also has a slow top speed, but is still very competitive with other fighters at its BR.
| Characteristics | Max Speed (km/h at 4,400 m) |
Max altitude (metres) |
Turn time (seconds) |
Rate of climb (metres/second) |
Take-off run (metres) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB | RB | AB | RB | AB | RB | |||
| Stock | 491 | 477 | 10300 | 17.7 | 18.1 | 10.2 | 10.2 | 175 |
| Upgraded | 531 | 510 | 16.8 | 17.0 | 17.4 | 13.3 | ||
Details
| Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat flaps | Take-off flaps | Landing flaps | Air brakes | Arrestor gear | |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | X | ✓ | |
| Limits | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wings (km/h) | Gear (km/h) | Flaps (km/h) | Max Static G | |||
| Combat | Take-off | Landing | + | - | ||
| 0 | 310 | 510 | N/A | N/A | ~12 | ~7 |
| Optimal velocities (km/h) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailerons | Rudder | Elevators | Radiator |
| < 270 | < 420 | < 410 | > 324 |
| Compressor (RB/SB) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Setting 1 | ||
| Optimal altitude | 100% Engine power | WEP Engine power |
| 3,400 m | 950 hp | 1,075 hp |
Survivability and armour
- No armour plates
- No armoured glass
- No self-sealing fuel tanks (1 in each wing root & 1 between the cockpit and the engine)
Your biggest asset to survive is your extreme manoeuvrability: use it to stay out of the enemy's crosshair. The absence of armoured protection means incoming shots from any angle will penetrate and inflict damage to your critical components. A fuel tank on fire will in almost every case burn entirely through, leading to the airframe's destruction.
Modifications and economy
2 × 60 / 180 / 280 % 2 × 136 / 136 / 136 % | Flight performance | Survivability | Weaponry | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Offensive armament
The A6M2 (China) is armed with:
- 2 x 20 mm Type 99 Model 1 navy cannons, wing-mounted (60 rpg = 120 total)
- 2 x 7.7 mm Type 97 navy machine guns, nose-mounted (680 rpg = 1,360 total)
Suspended armament
The A6M2 (China) can be outfitted with the following ordnance:
- Without load
- 2 x 60 kg Navy Type 97 Number 6 bombs (120 kg total)
Usage in battles
The best tactic to use in this aircraft is to sneak up behind your enemies and use your excellent turn rate to your advantage, something that most other fighters don't have at the BR. The most dangerous enemies in this aircraft come from above, Boom and Zoomers will rain fire from above if you are not careful.
Force an enemy pilot into a dogfight at 370 - 400 km/h and below 6,000 meters. At this speed and altitude, no enemy fighter can out-manoeuvre or out-climb you. Jump on cruising enemy aircraft from above. Fasten onto the tail of the bandit, use your superior manoeuvrability to match his evasive moves, and put enough rounds into him to bring him down. Use your machine guns first to "bore-sight" the enemy - once you get hits on him, finish him off with your cannons. Below 480 km/h you can fling the Zero all over the sky to get on an enemy's tail or to shake off all but the most determined attacker. Climb away from most enemy aircraft, hanging on your prop in a near-vertical climb. Manoeuvres like the Immelmann are easy, and heavier fighters can't stay with you. The Zero rolls faster to the left than to the right. Roll left to tighten your turn and get onto the enemy's six. Don't dive away from attackers - your plane doesn't have the power or weight to out-run most fighters. To exploit your plane's best performance, force the enemy lower and slow down the pace of the engagement.
Mastering trigger control is crucial for the A6M2, as each of its type 99 model 1 cannons only has a 60-round drum that runs out very fast with a long burst which is commonly done by inexperienced pilots. An interesting way to practice trigger discipline is to bind the keys for firing (usually RMB) and bailing out (usually J) together. This way you are forced to fire short bursts for no more than 3 seconds each time, or you will be bailed out. This can be very effective as a short burst of the 20 mm is generally enough to cripple if not destroy a target, and the price for shooting longer than that is not only wasting ammo unnecessarily, but also losing the chance to keep fighting, which is a lesson one will not want to learn.
- In Simulator, the A6M Zero is overall a great plane to fly. Its advantages include the extremely smooth handling, impressive turn rate, low stall speed, the ability to not enter spins in extreme manoeuvres, and decent rear visibility. It is able to pull really tight turns or barrel rolls without losing control or going into a spin, allowing the player to use this stability to their advantage. Its disadvantages, however, are the fragile protection, wing-mounted guns with very little ammo, and the cockpit scattered with frames. Although not thick, these frames can still be obstructions in a fight. Also the gunsight is small and mounted very low, resulting in inadequate visibility over the nose. This can limit the player's ability to see the target in a turn fight since to lead the target, the player must cut inside its turn, meaning the nose will now block the target. The A6M can perform dogfighting, some ground pounding and some intercepting.
- You can bring the minimum amount of fuel (29 minutes) since this model of the Zero only has a 60-round drum per cannon, as a result you might need to constantly return to airfield to reload so there is no need to bring more fuel. Set the convergence to 150-300 m. When taking off, the A6M will shift severely to the left so it is best to set separate keybind for left and right brakes to counter the torque.
- For dogfighting, it is better to engage with an altitude advantage so climb to around 2,500 m. Track the opponent using lead or pure pursuit, as with lag pursuit you will eventually end up at the 6'o clock of the target aircraft whose fuselage will soak up most of your MG bullets, and your wing mounted cannons will become really awkward to aim. With the amazing stableness the aim should be easy. Target their wings or nose and avoid the back half of the fuselage as there is usually nothing in there. You can turn with most planes with your combat/takeoff flaps deployed. Note that it is best to fire in 5-round/half-second bursts to avoid wasting cannon rounds. Once the cannons are out, the leftover 7.7 mm MGs can only effectively damage single engine fighters.
- For ground pounding with bombs, look for tanks and pillboxes. First you need some separation between you and the target so you have enough time to line-up the drop. Dive at the target at a rather shallow angle, and release the 60 kg bombs when you are very close, with the target below the gunsight and filling up around half of it. If you only use the MGs, your targets are trucks, AAA and howitzers. Dive at it and stabilise the plane so the gunsight stays overall still at the target. Then, once the target fills out around 1/6 of the gunsight, open fire. If your aim is accurate you can destroy one target in a single pass. However, it is very recommended to set keybind for firing MG only as you can definitely not waste the valuable cannon rounds. Save them for any unexpected dogfights.
- Landing is easy thanks to the low stall speed and lovely handling. Line up and approach the airstrip at treetop, decrease speed to at most 210 km/h and deploy combat, takeoff and landing flaps in order. Further decelerate so the touchdown speed is no more than 180 km/h to avoid bouncing up. Keep braking until the plane reaches a full stop, you don't have to worry about the nose dipping down and causing a propeller strike.
Enemies worth noting:
- P-61: this plane is one tough nut to crack. It is quite fast, packs a fatal punch, has a searching radar, and a deadly turret on top. The turret consists of 4 x 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns that cover the upper half of the plane, and most P-61 players tend to fly low or get you into their upper half to target you with the turret. Avoid being above them at all costs, utilise the Zero's manoeuvrability and sneak under their belly. Its appearance resembles a P-38: a center fuselage with two engine nacelles extending backwards and forming the twin tail like a frame, you will know it is a Black Widow and not a Lightning when red tracer bullets start shooting out from it.
- I-16: the late I-16s are equipped with ShVAK cannons that can be pretty dangerous to your fragile airframe. They can turn equally well as the Zero, have superior roll rate but the stability is so terrible that as soon as they pull a little more on the stick, they will enter spins. Therefore it is quite easy to counter them: engage a turnfight with them and turn tighter and tighter, or do a few barrel rolls. They will quickly lose control and start spinning and it is quite hard to recover. Then simply get some separation, turn around and put some solid shots into them. They have an I-15's short and fat fuselage, a flat radial engine and triangular stabilisers located right after the low-mounted mono wings, all covered in olive green paint.
Manual Engine Control
| MEC elements | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixer | Pitch | Radiator | Supercharger | Turbocharger | ||
| Oil | Water | Type | ||||
| Controllable | Controllable Not auto controlled |
Controllable Not auto controlled |
Controllable Not auto controlled |
Separate | Not controllable 1 gear |
Not controllable |
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent turn and roll rates
- Excellent climb rate up to 4,500 m
- Good cannon armament
- Extremely manoeuvrable, your opponents will have a hard time hitting you
- Very good at catching enemies off guard
- Can out turn most enemies it can face
- Tail hook enables it to land on carriers
- Very short takeoff distance
- Excellent smooth handling in simulator and great rear visibility
Cons:
- Mostly faces Japan (facing equally/more manoeuvrable planes)
- No armour and no pilot protection
- Limited 20 mm cannon ammunition
- 7.7 mm machine guns don't really do any significant damage
- Guns have different trajectories, you need to get really close to a target to be effective
- Attacking bombers is one of the worst jobs for the Zero, as it is easily damaged by tail gunners
- Slow in a straight line
- Strictly limited to the air-to-air role, although it performs exceptionally in it
- No self-sealing fuel tanks and the plane is littered with fuel tanks, will ignite and burn to death quite often
- Can easily be countered by just doing simple Boom & Zoom as the Zero lacks adequate energy retention
- Low dive speed, and easily compressed in a dive
- Has lots of bars inside the cockpit, limiting visibility
- Prone to ripping during high-speed manoeuvres
History
In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy's Koku Hombu (Aviation Bureau) issued the "Planning Requirements for the Prototype 12-shi Carrier Fighter" to the Mitsubishi Kokuki K.K. (Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Ltd.) and the Nakajima Hikooki K.K. (Nakajima Aeroplane Company Ltd.), requiring designs for a new fighter to replace the Mitsubishi Type 96 Carrier Fighter (A5M). The requirements were extremely challenging: manoeuvrability equal to or better than the Type 96 fighter, heavier armament including 20 mm cannons, exceptional rate-of-climb to intercept bombers, a range of at least 1,010 miles with a normal fuel load to escort bombers, a take-off distance of less than 230 ft into a 30 mph wind, landing speed of less than 67 mph, and a top speed better than 310 mph.
Nakajima soon bowed out in the face of such seemingly impossible requirements, but Jiro Horikoshi, who had previously designed the A5M, and his design team at Mitsubishi were undeterred. In addition to the already demanding requirements of the IJN, Horikoshi was also limited by the relatively weak engines that the Japanese aviation industry had to offer at the time. Selecting the lighter but less powerful Mitsubishi Zuisei-13 ("Holy Star"), which had a rating of less than 900 hp, the Mitsubishi team strove to design the lightest possible airframe around the engine, but that was still strong enough to withstand carrier operations and carry enough fuel and weapons to be an effective fighter. To this end, they were fortunate that the Sumitomo Metal Company had just finished developing a new strong zinc-aluminium alloy known as Extra Super Duralumin (ESD), allowing thinner sheets to be used for the skin of the fighter without loss of strength. However, they also had to dispense with self-sealing fuel tanks and any sort of armour for the pilot. The relatively light but less powerful Oerlikon FF 20 mm cannon was chosen as the fighter's main armament, produced in Japan as the 20 mm Type 99. A large wing ensured a low wing loading to ensure maneuverability but limited the diving and level speeds.
The first flight of the Prototype 12-shi carrier fighter (later designated A6M1) took place on 1 April 1939. The next month, the IJNAF expressed its intentions to switch from the Zuisei-13 to the more powerful Nakajima Sakae-12 ("Prosperity") 14-cylinder radial engine, and it was first installed on the third prototype. This prototype would be designated as the A6M2, and it was with the Sakae radial engine that almost every model of the A6M fighter family would go to war. Testing of the first three A6M prototypes took place later that year. The A6M1 was able to meet all but the maximum speed requirements, but the Sakae-equipped A6M2 exceeded them at 331 mph. On 31 July 1940, the Mitsubishi A6M2 was formally accepted by the IJNAF as the Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 11.
The A6M2 proved itself during combat in China. The aircraft also performed well during its carrier trials. One problem that did quickly arise was its ability to fit on carrier's elevators. The solution was to have the A6M2 fold its wing tips to avoid damage. This reduced the total wingspan by 20 inches. This change required it to have a new designation. The aircraft was put into production in November of 1941 and a total of 740 were constructed. This particular variant was code-named "Zeke 21" by Allies.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- A6M2 (USA) - USA-captured A6M2
- A6M2 - Original version in the Japanese tree
External links
| Mitsubishi Company (三菱商会) | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | A5M4 · Hagiri's A5M4 |
| A6M2 mod. 11 · A6M2 · A6M3 · A6M3 mod. 22 · A6M3 mod. 22Ko · A6M5 · A6M5 Ko · A6M5 otsu · A6M5 Hei · A6M6c | |
| A7M1 (NK9H) · A7M2 | |
| J2M2 · J2M3 · J2M4 Kai · J2M5 · J2M5 (30 mm) | |
| Hydroplanes | F1M2 |
| Interceptors | Ki-83 · Ki-109 |
| Bombers | G4M1 |
| Ki-21-Ia · Ki-21-I hei · Ki-67-I Ko · Ki-67-I otsu | |
| Jet Fighters | Ki-200 |
| Captured | ▃A6M2 · ␗A6M2 |
| See also | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Post-War) |
| China fighters | |
|---|---|
| British | ␗Gladiator Mk I |
| French | D.510C |
| Japanese | ␗A6M2 · ␗Ki-27 otsu · ␗Ki-43-III ko · ␗Ki-44-II hei · ␗Ki-61-I otsu · ␗Ki-84 ko |
| American | CW-21 · Hawk III · P-66 · ␗P-40E-1 · H-81A-2 · ␗P-43A-1 |
| ␗P-47D-23-RA · ␗P-47D-30 · ␗F-47N-25-RE · ␗P-51C-11-NT · ␗P-51D-20 · ␗P-51K | |
| Soviet | ␗I-15bis · ␗I-153 M-62 · ␗I-16 Chung 28 · ␗I-16 type 5 · ␗I-16 type 10 · ␗I-16 type 17 · ␗La-11 · ␗La-9 |
| China premium aircraft | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | ␗A6M2 · D.510C · ␗F-47N-25-RE · H-81A-2 · Hawk III · ␗Ki-45 hei/tei · ␗Ki-84 ko · ␗P-51C-11-NT |
| Jet fighters | Shenyang F-5 · J-7D |
| Strike aircraft | A-5C · ␗F-84G-31-RE |
