What is the comment on this today? Did the Japanese copy H-1 or not? Thanx for your answers!

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I'm puzzled. What are the similarities between the two machines?

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That is a myth. To make a light weight racer into a carrier fighter would be more trouble than it is worth. You would have to rework everything in order to withstand the salt air, landing and take off stresses, weight of fuel, guns, ammo, bombs, drop tanks. I think the Japanese were interested in the flush skin rivets and stressed skin wing and fuselage only.

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

Thanx TA!

Howard himself seems to have thought they did copy his plane but then again Howard was saying alot of things....

http://www.library.unlv.edu/hughes/pages/aviator.html

After the war, Howard Hughes claimed that "it was quite apparent to everyone that it [the Japanese Zero] had been copied from the Hughes [H-1 Racer]." Hughes had most likely made this statement with reference to both the wing planform, and the tail empennage design, the similiairty of the Zero's and his racer's being striking.(Howard Hughes, in his own words).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-1_Racer

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A similarity in planform geometry design doesn't have much to do with similarities in aerodynsmival and engineering design.

What about flying surface sections, angles of incidence, dimensions, power setups, location of centres of pressure and gravity, structure design, fuel tank location, armament loads?

The planes certainly had nothing in common bar the fact they both had wings, a radial engine and pretty little else.

Even less than the Space Shuttle and Buran, which beyond the superficial resemblace have nothing in common at all.

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There is no relationship here. The Zero actually had a number of unique features in its structurial design that had not been previously seen in aircraft manufacture. For example:

The wing spars formed part of the skin of the wing rather than being skinned over as was normally done in aircraft construction.

Mitsubishi made use of a new alloy of duraluminum (copper - aluminum alloy) that had a higher tensile strength. All skinning of the aircraft was carefully calculated to use the thinnest possible sheetmetal to save weight. So, the skin thickness varied over the aircraft to a very great degree.

Wing folding was foregone due to the weight involved. Mitsubishi did put in folding wingtips due only to the size of elevators on existing carriers. Even these were hotly debated on the weight issue again.

The engine exhaust system was set up to add a little bit of thrust to the aircraft.

The tail wheel did not retract due again to the weight issue.

Yes, the Zero did use flush rivets but, so did virtually every other aircraft that was contemporary in its construction.