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CVEs being small carriers, as a normal rule did not have an air group, but a mere composite squadron (VC) roughly 1/3 TBM or TBF, 2/3 FM-2.USS Kitkun Bay (CVE-71) prepares to launch its air wing during the Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944. In the background the carrier USS White Plains (CVE-66) is straddled by 14-inch gunfire from the Japanese battlegroup
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This must be the first picture of a Zero with a 2 blade prop I've ever seen.The prototype A6M Zero fighter took its maiden flight at Kagamigahara airfield, Japan. Mitsubishi Kokuki K.K.
(Mitsubishi Aircraft Company) Chief Test Pilot Katsuzo Shima made the first flight of the prototype Mitsubishi
A6M1 Navy Type 0 fighter at the Kagamigahara air field (now, Gifu Airbase). Completed about ten days earlier,
at the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company factory at Nagoya on the island of Honshu, the prototype fighter had been
disassembled so that it could be transported by road approximately 22 miles (36 kilometers) to the airfield. B
eginning late in the afternoon with taxi tests and a brief "hop" to check control response, at 5:30 pm, Shima took off on what would be a successful test flight.
After the success of the A6M1's initial flight tests, a second prototype, c/n 202, was built and testing continued.
In September 1939 the Japanese Navy accepted the new fighter, the Rei Shiki Sento Ki, or "Rei-Sen," and it was
ordered into production with few changes.
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Good eye!This must be the first picture of a Zero with a 2 blade prop I've ever seen.