Holtzauge
Airman 1st Class
Some more info on the Zero's cable stretch solution for the elevator:
While the solution as such may sound simple, in the book Horikoshi mentions that it was not the first thing he thought of and that he actually had to fight for it because just as can be expected, the Japanese design practice at the time was to design the control circuit as stiff as possible using rod controls if possible. So he actually had an uphill struggle before he managed to convince the customer to even try it out. And connected to this is a funny story: Apparently Horikoshi was away on other business when they planned the first flight trials with the smaller cable diameters. But when the test pilots heard about the modification they were afraid it was too flimsy and would not fly it! So he had to go to the airfield and convince them personally before they would take off! However, the flight trials were a success and showed it worked just as he had hoped for, and the solution was accepted for inclusion in the Zero's series deliveries.
And I can really recommend the book: It's not only a good read because of Horikoshi's memoirs about his life and work at Mitsubishi, but there is also a lot of technical details, figures and photos, flight trial and accident investigation data etc.
While the solution as such may sound simple, in the book Horikoshi mentions that it was not the first thing he thought of and that he actually had to fight for it because just as can be expected, the Japanese design practice at the time was to design the control circuit as stiff as possible using rod controls if possible. So he actually had an uphill struggle before he managed to convince the customer to even try it out. And connected to this is a funny story: Apparently Horikoshi was away on other business when they planned the first flight trials with the smaller cable diameters. But when the test pilots heard about the modification they were afraid it was too flimsy and would not fly it! So he had to go to the airfield and convince them personally before they would take off! However, the flight trials were a success and showed it worked just as he had hoped for, and the solution was accepted for inclusion in the Zero's series deliveries.
And I can really recommend the book: It's not only a good read because of Horikoshi's memoirs about his life and work at Mitsubishi, but there is also a lot of technical details, figures and photos, flight trial and accident investigation data etc.
