The Local A6M Zero Flew for the First Time Yesterday!

[Bob Womack]

There's an old saying in the war bird restoration industry: "the aircraft is 90% done… with 90% left to go." This bird has been in the works since the 1990s when it was recovered as two wrecks from Toroa island in the South Pacific, where it had sat derelict since 1945. It was built in 1942. This is truly a restoration, everything that could be saved, was. Technically it is a Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero, Model 32. The tail empennage is from one wreck and the rest is from the other. The only significant substitution is the use of a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 double-row radial engine instead of the original Nakajima Sakae 21. There are so few of those engines left that few would want to risk one in the air (but there is one flying). For that matter, with this flight, there are only two flying Zeros in the air!

This one was restored in Everett, Washington. Between 1990 and this year it had changed hands multiple times, usually exhausting the resources of the outfit attempting the restoration, until it came into the possession of the Military Aviation Museum. By last year they had run the engine and taxied the aircraft but were still struggling with a couple of technical details. You can read about this first flight and see great pics, HERE. After testing and final certification this plane will join the flying Hurricane, Spitfire, Messerschmitt BF-109G, Focke Wulfe 190s, Wildcat, Coursair, etc. at the Virginia Beach museum.

Bob