[WingZero]

Very nice aircraft! 8)

Just one question: Is there a reason why the A6M3-32 does not have a 250kg bomb loadout like all other Zeros have!?

Oh and just a historical question: Why was the use of 30mm cannons on later Zeros abandoned? Would have been an incredibly powerful armament capable of tearing aircraft apart in the blink of an eye. Was it too heavy? Did it reduce overall performance by too much?

Hi,
I am WingZero, a member of Tainan-Kosho.
I will try to explain of background for A6M3-32's armaments by historical trueth.

At first, we should say that A6M could not handle 250kg bomb until A6M7.
There is some possibility to be for Kamikaze by only field modification.
we can say also there might be some possibility of A6M3-32 which has been modified to handle such a bomb, but only for kamikaze attacking.
They could not "release" such bombs because they would attack enemy ships by themselves with bombs. They did not need to release them...
We think no one want to play A6Ms only for kamikaze attacking.

About 30mm cannon,
Imperial Japanese Navy(IJN) could not finish to develop 30mm cannon until the end of war. they could get only some proto types.
As you know well, IJN has been developing next fighter plane for A6M and used main resources for them.
It means if war was longer than real history and IJN could finish to develop 30mm, it was equiped for such NEW fighter planes or attacker planes.

Type2 30mm which was modified Elikon as proto type and made only few pieces has still problems of durability and mass-production, we guess.
It was very light though.

Type5 30mm was made as official model from other line up, but too late.
They were equipped to some night-fighter like "Gekko(Moon light)" for sevice, but they had many troubles.
They were planed to equip to Shinden(J7W1), Reppu(A7M), high-alt fighter planes(proto types), but war was end.

A6M3-32kai with 30mm is an experimental model which was realized as a proto type during the war.

This is the reason and historical background.
We hope it helps your enjoying our MOD.



The Tainan technical and development department