Seiji Lepine
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So close! And it got away.
A6M2-N Zero Rufe chased by a F6F Hellcat
This clip shows a poor innocent...okay maybe we started that off wrong....
If you can imagine what it must have felt like to see an American Navy fighter plane and a really good one at that...literally raining bullets on you for
a good several minutes, I am sure feeling cold at subfreezing temperatures thousands of meters above in the dark skies of the Pacific is the last
thing you will be think of. You might even need to crack open the window because you are feeling too hot all of a sudden. I know if I was the IJN
pilot, I would be sweating all over my flight suit in the minus 50F or colder temperatures.
The pilot shown in this film clip is flying a A6M2-N which is a seaplane variant of the A6M2 Model 21 Zero. The A6M2-N was about 20% slower than
the full blown Mitsubishi Zero. Having a big pontoon in the center and two smaller ones to the sides gave you a lot of aerodynamic drag, which this
pilot must have felt was like trying to run away with a parachute open and attached against the much faster F6F Hellcat. The Rufe as it was known
was otherwise just like the Zeke it was derived from, but being 20% slower is a huge disadvantage when 5% advantage in the right pilots hands
could mean 90% victory probability.
There were only 327 of these aircrafts built so it was a rare airplane from the beginning. It's primary role was to be a defender of new territory where
there were no airfields created yet for the land and ship based A6M. The aircraft is pretty popular in current pop culture because of its configuration.
It certainly wasn't the first sea plane fighter made for the Imperial Japanese Navy, but it was probably the last.
It certainly is a beautiful plane.
So a Data Plate for one of these ultra rare planes came up. And I really went for it, I was really disappointed that someone else wanted it even more than
I did, the price of that plate went into vintage watch territory.
Note: There are no A6M2-N that I am aware of that still exist even as a wreck or pile of aluminum scrap. Congrats to the winner of that auction 
Well, all is not lost... I did win this one. While these were not rare planes, they were the iconic A6M2 Type 21 which was made with tail hooks and folding wing tips. This was the plane that flew from the carriers.
I don't know how this person found these data plates other that going into the jungles and finding remaining wrecks and smuggling the items out of the country.
So close! And it got away.
A6M2-N Zero Rufe chased by a F6F Hellcat This clip shows a poor innocent...okay maybe we started that off wrong.... If you can imagine what it must have felt like to see an American Navy fighter plane and a really good one at that...literally raining bull...
I do own one. In fact I have two 😄
Maybe the way I wrote the replies or the article was confusing. I do own two of them out of the twenty known. One of the easy way to tell is with the Japanese writing on the back of the Weems which you saw. There is another way to tell, which is by the or...
Amazing, you are endless when it comes to collecting Longines !!! I went to give a look at the Chrono24 model, and was amazed to read that these were primarily sold to the US, i.e. the Japanese army went to buy them there !
And I agree the price is decent (even though out of reach for me), definitely a taker for those who can ! Thanks again for this encyclopedic yet shared knowledge !
Super interesting - also interesting to note that the Zeros, while superior at the beginning of the pacific war became comparatively worse as it dragged on, due to strained resources on Japan...
...due to poorer quality materials AND fewer materials! Also, I learned from the Dan Carling podcast, that the zeros were dragged out of the Mistubishi factory by oxen to the nearest airfield 20miles away! This is because the planes were too fragile to tr...
Took some pictures with the new Data Plate
For a Nakajima Built Zero A6M2 Model 21 Zeke. Serial 41565 or correctly 1565. Enter text ...
Scored another plane!
This is one of the rarest super heros in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Yokosuka D4Y1 was a beast of a plane. Faster than the one of the fastest planes in the Pacific Theater the Zero. There were two major versions of the D4Y. One was based on a German d...
