Warbird Information Exchange

ID the one in the forground. Post your best guess and we'll see who gets it first. The winner gets a smily face.

Good Luck
Curtis Block

A5M

Mitsubishi A5M

Editing out wrong answers is very sneaky.

The one in the background is a Zero, the one in the foreground is a Nate.
Jerry

LOL!!!!!!

I was waiting for someone to pipe up about it. Hey, it's late My eyes kept telling my wildcat, but my brain was going, Japanize.

I'll post the correct answer tomarrow, along with more pictures and an explanation of where they were taken. Untill then keeep posting your guess. If you get board, check out the pictures I posted in "dumping and burrying 'stuff' after WWII."

Curtis Block

Yep..it's and A5M "Claude" (the "Nate" was the Army's Ki-27) Man, somebody needs to recover that one, I thought the type was extinct!

SN

Thanks to Paul, aviosaurus, and Steve we know what it is (A5M "Claude")

As for where... it's in the No. 2 cargo hold of the sunken freighter Fujikama Maru on the bottom of Truk (now Chuuk) lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia.

Wow, an A5M...

One would have to be exceedingly careful with this, coming as it would be from a salt lagoon. Assuming a successful recovery and conservation could happen, though, here is a prime candidate for "cloning". From what I have heard, the A5M was an extraordinarily fine-handling fighter (as was its Army contemporary, the Ki27). Recover and conserve this A5M; place her on show in a museum (in Japan, probably); but along the way, reverse-engineer half a dozen copies. I can picture any one of a good number of experienced Warbird pilots, some of whom frequent WIX, performing sublime aerobatic routines in such a sweet ship...

(Nathan--there's one of your prewar/early-war classics back from extinction, kinda...)

S.

I'd like to know how they ended up on top of each other...

Ship may have turned over as it sank, with its cargo tumbling all about.

Cheers,
Matt

Well the cat’s out of the bag. I see you guys have been busy when I was at work. Paul, Aviosaurus and Steve all get a . TBDude (though I think he has inside information) gets extra points for knowing where it is.

The aircraft is a Mitsubishi A5M4 “Claude.” As TBDude wrote the aircraft is in the #2 hold of the Fugikawa Maru (not Fujikama, but close enough) sunk in Truk Lagoon, Feb. 18 1944, during operation Hailstone. These pictures were taken by Bill Jeffery, on a series of dives we did to survey this site for the Chuuk Historic Preservation Office.

When I first saw a picture of this aircraft it was from a similar angle. I almost choked when I saw it. When I asked what it was however I was told it was a Zero, like the other three aircraft in the hold. After a bit of arguing and persuading however, it was decided to mount a dive to test my impossible theory that the aircraft was a “Claude”(honestly I had a hard time believing it myself, but that was no Zero).

We conducted about three dives on the wreck which lies in about 90’ of water, which can give you a good amount of bottom time if you can stop hyperventilating from excitement. By the end of the third dive I had finally convinced myself that the aircraft was in fact a “Claude.” It is the only example of its type I know to exist. We had also managed to document five more Zeros in the hold, bringing the numbers up from four Zeros, to eight Zeros and one A5M4.

Now the question I pose to you is what is an aircraft that was considered obsolete in 1941, doing in the hold of a ship on the front lines in 1944? A little information that may be important is that no as far as I could tell had an engine or armament mounted.

Now more pictures.
Enjoy,
Curtis Block

P.S.
The stick is 3 meters.

Great pics!

Unfortunately, as Nathan says, it appears too incomplete and badly corroded to be a candidate for restoration. Still, it'd be great to see it conserved before it completely disintegrates.

SN

Great!

A fascinating discovery Curtis; and well spotted that it was a Claude. From your later posts I can understand why it was a surprise when it 'should have been a Zero'.

When we published our book on the Claude, AFAIK, there were no survivors.

It would be great to see this recovered and either conserved or restored, but looking at the holes in the fuselage and lower tail, I don't think it would even get to the surface without crumbling like charred paper, let alone stand the hose down and desalination that would be required. What do you think, having been close to it?

Even these underwater shots would have been great in our book, as without a survivor, we are stuck for detailed colour.

http://mmpbooks.biz/books/8391717801/8391717801p.htm



Thanks a lot for sharing. That's a winner. Seeing one (or more) fly would be very cool. Like the Sopwith Pup, it's a type that would clearly be a fun aerobat as well as a historic fighter.

Regards,