When American Pilots Discovered the Zero Could Not Roll Right: The Intelligence Coup That Changed... скачать в хорошем качестве

When American Pilots Discovered the Zero Could Not Roll Right: The Intelligence Coup That Changed...

September twentieth, nineteen forty-two. Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California. Lieutenant Commander Eddie Sanders gripped the control stick of an aircraft that should not exist in American hands. His palms sweated despite the cool morning air rolling off the Pacific. The instrument panel before him displayed characters in Japanese. The controls felt foreign. The entire cockpit smelled of oil and unfamiliar materials. Beyond the windscreen, armed guards surrounded the hangar, their orders clear since the precious cargo arrived three weeks earlier. This was the most valuable aircraft in the world, and Sanders was about to become the first American to fly it. He released the brakes, and the Mitsubishi A6M2 Model Twenty-One Zero fighter rolled forward, its engine purring with surprising smoothness. Within minutes, this single test flight would expose weaknesses that would transform American fighter tactics and doom Japan's aerial supremacy. The secrets locked inside this captured machine would help create a weapon that would shoot down over five thousand enemy aircraft and turn the tide of the Pacific War