Its armament consisted of thirteen 0.50-caliber machine guns and a bomb payload weighing up to 9,600 pounds. The rest of the plane was impressively sized, at around 75 feet in length, with a 104-foot wingspan. The first thing that may strike the casual observer of the Flying Fortress is how disproportionately large its tail is, yet this was an essential component that provided extra stability during high-altitude bombing runs. They quickly gained a reputation among the deadliest aircraft as the United States immediately declared war on Japan. On December 7 th, 1941, under the attack signal, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" the Japanese launched their assault on Pearl Harbor, with the fleet of Zeros raining mayhem from above, strafing the docks with gunfire and devastating the U.S. The Mitsubishi Zero will forever be remembered as the plane that was instrumental in bringing the United States into World War II. Its 14-cylinder 1,130 horsepower engine propelled it to a top speed of 350 miles per hour, and its armament consisted of two 7.7-millimeter machine guns and two 20-millimeter cannons, with its two notorious 132-pound bombs beneath each wing. A zinc-aluminum alloy was specially concocted for more stressed components, making this a meticulously-designed plane, delivered in a timely manner by 1940, having gone into production in 1937. The Zero was incredibly nimble, well-equipped, and lightweight, with its designer Jiro Horikoshi using aluminum and plywood instead of steel as a weight-saving measure.
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