By Bob Arko Mitsubishi A5M 'Claude'
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Volume 43 Number 11 Website: http://www.aerohistorians.org November 2009 1/72 Mitsubishi A5M4 ‘Claude’ by Bob Arko Mitsubishi A5M ‘Claude’ for a 7-Shi carrier fighter to replace was adopted by Mitsubishi and by Peter Starkings the Type 90, then only just coming other manufacturers in several sub- Reprinted from ‘JAS Jottings’, into service. sequent aircraft. Vol. 5, No. 2, 1999 Used with permission The Mitsubishi IMF10 entrant The Nakajima NKIF entrant was a low wing design, the first such was, in effect, a navalized version BACKGROUND for the Navy, with a 780hp Mitsubi- of their Army Type 91 Fighter with a The successful debut of the Mit- shi A4 air cooled radial engine and slightly more powerful engine. The subishi A5M1 into JNAF service in a trousered undercarriage. The first single prototype was tested by the early 1937 marked the culmination prototype was ready for testing in Navy in early 1933, but rejected of five year's work. It had started in the Spring of 1933, but it crashed through failure to meet the required 1932 with the Navy's newly insti- when the tailfin failed during a test performance specification. gated continuous development pro- dive later that year. A second proto- gram for operational aircraft design, type crashed a year later after failing A NEW SPECIFICATION when it was realized that mono- to recover from a flat spin. Although Following failure of the 7-Shi planes would have to replace bi- the design was rejected by the competition, Mitsubishi and Naka- planes in order to meet ever more Navy because of poor controllabil- jima were asked to compete again demanding performance criteria. ity, it was considered advanced for in 1934 for a 9-Shi single seat The first such opportunity for fighter the time. In particular, the aircraft fighter. Omission of the carrier aircraft arose when Mitsubishi and incorporated a box-spar feature qualification was deliberate in order Nakajima were asked to compete which, after later improvements, (Continued on page 4) Page 1 TCAH Officers From the Vice President Upcoming at the December by Larry Donovan meeting will be the Second Annual President , Dave Nelson Club Contest. It is open to any I will keep this short and sweet model you have made in 2009; so Vice-President , Larry Donovan this month...hard to believe no ram- get finishing. bling and blithering about, eh! It Secretary , Merrill Anderson happens. Finally (about time, huh!), in the October SAMI with pictures from Treasurer , Dave Hueffmeier Number one on the agenda is the US Nats was a certain airplane that dues are due...regular dues are slash tank...way to go Kyle for the Historian , Tom Norrbohm $10; with youth and seniors being unique idea and great finish and $5. I am really happy that there will presentation of your work. If any- be no increase for next year. Re- one else recognizes other members Newsletter Info member dues support the news let- entries in the Nats fromin SAMI or Article Submission Deadline: 22nd ter, maintaining and paying the any other magazines please for- of each month. website, and other expenses that ward them to the club so we can occur through a year. So campers recognize these gentlemen for the Editor bring your checkbooks to the No- great work!!! Bob Arko vember meeting. 6417 Rice Court See you at the November Lino Lakes, MN 55014 Secondly November is the elec- meeting: bring stuff for the auction, 651-481-8887h tion of officers for the next year. vote early and often, and don't for- 763-496-6742w Ballots will be past out by the Sec- get the dues!! Until then happy [email protected] retary at the beginning of the meet- modelling!! ing. As of this writing the following Distribution Editor have been nominated: President- Rick Schmierer Larry Donovan; Vice-President- 1852 E. 39 Street Merrill Anderson; Treasurer-Dave Treasurer’s Report Minneapolis, MN 55407 Hueffmeier; and for Secretary-Mark by Dave Hueffmeier 612-721-8787 Jaques. We will open nominations [email protected] again before voting. Please vote so At the meeting on Saturday, that we continue the tradition of ex- October 10, the attendees voted to Send articles to: cellent leadership in club that we maintain the TCAH annual dues at Bob Arko have had in the years past. last year's levels: $10.00 for mem- 6417 Rice Court bers, with $5.00 annually for Lino Lakes, MN 55014 NOW the fun part about No- "Seniors" (65+ years) and for [email protected] vember...yep it is AUCTION DAY!!!! "Junior" members. Dues may be We all have bunches and bunches paid in person at the November Send Change of address notice to: of kits, decals, books, resin and meeting, or by mailing payment to Dave Hueffmeier etch stashed away in the attic, ga- my address (please see the roster). rage, spare bedroom(s), and what- ever storage areas. Now c'mon, Final results for NordicCon let's be honest to ourselves. Are 2009 will be available as soon as you REALLY going to live to be 656 the membership votes on the TCAH This Month years old to finally go through your amount of the donation to be made stash. So clean out those storage to the Knights of Columbus hall for The monthly meeting will be held areas, especially the ones with cob- the use of their facility. Saturday November 14, at Fleming webs worthy of Halloween House of Field, South St. Paul, beginning at Horrows. SO BRING YOUR KITS, For preliminary NordicCon re- 1:30 pm. Vendor baiting will begin DECAL SETS, BOOKS, DVDS, sults, or if any member has any about 12:30, so come early. RESIN AND ETCH SETS TO THE questions about TCAH finances, NOVEMBER MEETING!!!!!. Oh please feel free to contact me at and bring cash and checks. It's in- "[email protected]" or tele- teresting how I usually bring home phone me at 651-772-4562. (We (sneak home) more kits and etcetra decided at the October meeting that than I brought to the meeting origi- we would prefer not to post any fi- Picture your model someplace in nally. Hopefully I'll hit 657 years old nancial data on our website or pub- the Newsletter! to finish 'em. lish it in the newsletter, as both are open to nonmembers.) Page 2 Airline Chatter now, United Airlines has 1100 pilots from last year. by Terry Love laid off. The bottom pilot on the sen- iority list was hired in 1999. TACA and Avianca, both vintage Airbus A-320 series is selling Central American airlines, are going very well. Therefore, Airbus has Delta Airlines has two Airbus A- to merge bolstering its clout in Latin given a very low priority of design- 319s in permanent charter configu- America. ing its replacement. Airbus says at ration for sports teams. They are least 15 years before it will fly. N354NB, fleet number 3154, and Airbus sold two aircraft in Sep- N362NB, fleet number 3162. tember, but received four cancella- Boeing 737-800 series is also tions for a net loss of two. For the selling very well. So Boeing is say- Midwest Airlines was recently year, Airbus now has 123 orders. ing the same thing that a replace- purchased by Republic Airways. The cancellations came from King- ment will not be available until after Now Midwest will park all of the fisher Airlines of India. Boeings’ net 2020. This opens up the market for fairly new Boeing 717s (the latest orders for this year are 79. Airbus airliner builders from Brazil, China, version of the DC-9), and replace t delivered 38 airliners in September, Canada, Japan, and Russia to de- hem with Embraer 190, and a few bringing their total deliveries for sign a replacement for the 100-150 Airbus A-319s from Frontier Air- 2009, as of October 1, to 358. seat narrow body airliners to leap lines, which was also recently pur- ahead. chased by Republic. Thus, Midwest Republic Airways bought 10 Em- will lay off all Boeing 717 pilots braer 190Ar airliners from U S Air- Airbus says that 25,000 new air- along with about 50 other employ- ways for $35 million. liners are expected to be delivered ees. Republic is considering a shift in the next 20 years. Airbus says of from 150 to 400 jobs from Fron- Southwest Airlines earned $23 Asia/Pacific airlines will take over tier in Denver to Milwaukee – head- million in the third quarter of 2009. 30%, Europe will take about 25%, quarters for Midwest. Also some North America will take over 20%, jobs will go to Republic’s headquar- Japan Air Lines could go into India will take about 10%, and ters in Indianapolis. bankruptcy if nothing is done. China will take about 10%. Delta Airlines parked former Delta Airlines says that they are United Airlines furloughed an- Northwest Airlines Douglas DC-9- NOT going to paint all ex-Northwest other 290 pilots on October 1. Air- 31, N8929E, fleet number 9948, Airlines Douglas DC-9-30s, DC-9- line employment is now at a 16 msn 45866, on September 29. Also 40s, and Boeing 757-200s, since year low for a total of 386,000 full Delta Airlines parked former North- they are going to be parked or time employees with airlines in the west Airlines Airbus A-330-323, scrapped soon. The only ex- United States. N804NW, fleet number 3304, msn Northwest Airlines aircraft that have 0549. N804NW will be parked until not been painted in Delta Airlines Airbus will deliver 13 Airbus A- January 2010 when it will be ferried markings are one Douglas DC-9- 380 super jumbo airliners this year.