A6M2 Reisen

[stetto]

I posted this in the Warbirds forum too...This plane is finally flying. I'm looking for video, will post when I have some. The plane flew into Fargo with a huge smoke trail, followed by a Corsair, perhaps to give the image of being "shot down"...

www.fargoairmuseum.org/historic-aircraft-a6m2-type-21-zero-6544.html

[jetmex]

Too cool. Do you know if it has the original Sakae engine, or if it's been replaced by an American engine?

There are several restored Zeros in Japan also, but they are not allowed to be flyable, so the only ones you can see airborne are in the West.

[stetto]

Jaime, I don't know too many details, but I do know that the majority of metal parts had to be fabricated. In the interview with Mr. Beck he did say that they found rare original plans that they went from, I'd like to think that the original engine was refurbished.

If I can get over there I'll learn what I can...

[Galvin]

I believe that this is the one that was originally "restored" by a guy in Canada who stuck an R-2600 out of B-25 in it. The airplane was flown with that engine but the worksmanship of the "restoration" was flat out dangerous and it was sold. The new owners wound up disassembling the ariplane almost completely to correct the defects. The chance of it being the original engine are very slim, especially if it is the A6M-2 version which is comparatively early and used a different engine from the late versions.

The Model 52 owned by Planes of Fame is the only one I know of with the original engine but I have not been keeping score like I used to on these things.

The P&W R-1830 is the exact same size and almost identical in weight and horsepower as the later engines used in the Zero and would be an excellent substitute. The Japanese engine appears to be based on the 1830 but there were some significant differences, not the least of which was the angling of the rear cylinder row's pushrods forward in between and past the front cylyinders to run off the same cam ring as the front ones do. The P&W has a separate cam ring for each row of cylinders as I recall. I'm betting that this one has a Pratt and Whitney.

BTW: The Sumitomo prop used on the Zero was basically a Hamilton Standard Hydramatic, origially built under license, and many of the engine accessories were almost direct copies of their U.S. counterparts so U.S components would not look very out of place anyway.


BTW again: There are two Zeros restored and in Japanese museums. One was a late model 52 found in a swamp on Okinawa back in the 70's and cosmetically restored for display. The other is a very rare two-seat conversion that had been used as an Admiral's barge for a high ranking officer and which was found upside down in the sea, I forget exactly where but I seem to recall it was just off some old Japanese base in the home islands somewhere and had been ditched with relatively little damage. I did see the series of photos of its recovery.

Neither is flyable.

[buckwill]

i have severall pics of zero i took at mojave at scaled composstes,,,,,,with the folding widngtipss,,, ,, but i would be hapy to foreaward to whomever wants them, buck,

[jetmex]

The CAF Zero was flown with a P&W 1830--I think that one has not flown in quite a while, and may not for some time as that organization continues to stagnate.

There are quite a few more Zeros (and other Japanese WWII miltary aircraft) in Japan than are being admitted to. Rumor has it that a private collector has several complete and in-work airframes, and there is a Zero on display at the Mitsubishi factory that is in running (and possibly flying) condition. They are not flown because of the prevailing anti-WWII/military sentiment in Japan. I'll see if I can find a list.

[stetto]

I don't know any specifics on the Zero or it's restorer, but have found this;


Wash. Times 11-27-03

KINDRED, N.D. — Gerald Beck likes to say that he and his buddy, Bob Odegaard, are "just a couple of worn-out crop-dusters." But to fans of military aviation, the two men are rescuing history — one wing, nose and tail at a time.
Mr. Beck and Mr. Odegaard count themselves among a handful of people in the world who do complete restoration of World War II military fighter planes, known as warbirds. They've repaired old planes, made new parts where none existed and created museum exhibits and million-dollar collectors' items. Between them, they've restored about two dozen planes, often taking years to complete them, and they've even made the old planes fly again.
"I'm amazed at these guys' ability to build these things from scratch," said Edward Giller, an 85-year-old retired Air Force general who flew fighter planes in Europe as commanding officer of the 55th Fighter Group in England.
Gen. Giller named all eight planes he flew during the war for his wife. Where other planes sported pictures of scantily clad women, Gen. Giller's had nothing but "Millie G" scrawled on the nose. Mr. Odegaard is now building a ninth "Millie G," using parts from an original P-51 that Gen. Giller flew.
"I'm pleased, proud and happy," Gen. Giller said. "It's better and more thrilling to have them flying than sitting on a pole in a museum somewhere."
The newest "Millie G" will duplicate the originals down to the last detail, including Mrs. Giller's name on the nose.
"Of course I'm pleased, although I've never had much say in it," she said from her Durango, Colo., home.
The restored model will also use the original color scheme. While most warplanes were dully painted or camouflaged, Gen. Giller's unit flew green planes trimmed in red and yellow, with a prancing horse on the tail, thanks to a Walt Disney artist who served with the unit.
But the plane has no armaments. "No one is shooting at them now," Mr. Odegaard said.
Dick Phillips, a warbird historian in Minnesota, said airworthy warbirds are important pieces of history.
"The youth of today don't know beans about World War II," Mr. Phillips said. "By having these airplanes around and flying them, it draws a certain amount of interest in the importance of that war."
Mr. Beck, 54, and Mr. Odegaard, 57, met about 30 years ago while skydiving. Mr. Odegaard ran a crop-spraying business, and helped Mr. Beck get into it.
"I got him back," Mr. Beck said. "I got him into warbirds."
Mr. Beck's first warbird was a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber — the same model former President George Bush flew in World War II — that he began restoring in the 1980s in his spare time.
The airplane was missing bomb-bay doors, and Mr. Beck couldn't find replacement parts.
"I decided we'd have to rebuild them," Mr. Beck said.
Word spread of his work, and orders for parts for other vintage planes started coming in. These days, Mr. Beck's company, Tri-State Aviation in Wahpeton, which employs about a dozen people, specializes in warbird fuselages. Mr. Odegaard and his crew at Odegaard Aviation, about 40 miles away in Kindred, concentrate mainly on building wings. The men build airplanes collaboratively and on their own.
Mr. Beck recently completed a P-51 that took more than 12 years to finish. The airplane's Canadian owner scrounged the world for parts. Some pieces came from a plane that had been at the bottom of a lake in Uruguay.
Mr. Odegaard spent four years and thousands of dollars restoring a derelict Super Corsair that he found in a Kansas barn where it had been stored for years.
The Super Corsair was designed to intercept Japanese kamikaze fighters before they started their dive, but the war ended before they could be put into service, and only a dozen were ever made. But with a top speed of 450 mph, the Corsair was capable of outclimbing early jets. Some of the planes — including the one Mr. Odegaard restored — were used in air races.
"I was the seventh guy who tried to rebuild it," Mr. Odegaard said. In 1999, 50 years after the airplane last flew, Mr. Odegaard won the Rolls Royce award in Reno, Nev., for excellence in aircraft restoration.
Just three Corsairs are known to exist today. Mr. Odegaard's working on one of them in addition to the one he finished already.
Not to be outdone, Mr. Beck is nearing completion on a Japanese Zero, a carrier-based fighter that is nearly as rare as the Super Corsair.
Most of the Zeros were used on suicide missions against Allied warships.
"It's one of only five Zeros in the world capable of flight," Mr. Beck said.
The Zero was found in the Solomon Islands. Mr. Beck and his crew have spent about four years restoring it. "It wouldn't surprise me if it ended up in Japan," Mr. Beck said.
Mr. Phillips said about 13,000 P-51s were built in factories in Texas and California. After the war, they could be had for as little as $10,000. Many were scrapped. Today, seven-figure price tags are the norm. Mr. Beck's Zero could bring $2 million; the asking price for Mr. Odegaard's Millie G is $1.5 million.
Four of Mr. Beck and Mr. Odegaard's restored warbirds are on display at the Fargo Air Museum. Jim Buzick, a museum volunteer, says the duo's airplanes are among the museum's most popular exhibits.
Mr. Buzick flew 30 missions over Europe in World War II as a crew member of a B-24 bomber. P-51 Mustang fighters often flew alongside them for protection against the German Luftwaffe, escorting the bombers deep into enemy territory and home again.
Standing near a P-51 that Mr. Odegaard restored with parts from 20 different fighters, Mr. Buzick said, "This is the airplane that is responsible for saving my life. It looks just as good as it looked 60 years ago."

[jetmex]

Here's a list of surviving Zeros, it's about three years old, so there may have been a few additions or deletions since then:

www.zero-fighter.com/bilingual/genzon.htm

[faif2d]

I remember from somewhere? that there were several Zeros being built from scratch in Russia or one of the new states from the USSR. Any Info on those??

[GFReid]

For many years, there was a Zero right in the middle of downtown Atlanta. It was lying on it's belly inside a chainlink fence with kudzu growing all over it. It appeared to have suffered some bullet holes, the original paint was faded and the hinoramu were barely visible.
I used to stop and look at it often, amid the winos and the almost overpowering stench of urine.
A local newspaper clipping from the 1970s that was on the front door of the establishment in front of the chainlink fence which contained this airplane claimed that it was the original pancaked Zero captured by the allies in...What was it, 1942?
I've often wondered what ever happened to the plane. It dissappeared, I would guess, about 15 years ago along with some other WWII equipment that was inside the same fence.
Just about anyone that's been in the Atlanta area for more than 20 years or so would remember this plane.

[Galvin]

The Zero rebuilt in Russia is the one owned by Alan Preston and formerly on display at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, CA. It was one of those South Pacific wrecks someone had brought back and was an airplane in name only, most parts being only good for patterns to make new ones. Every square inch of it was either corroded, dented, or bullet-holed. The new rear fuselage they were building sat in their restoration hangar for over a year until everyhting was shipped to Russia and a brand new Zero was shipped back several years later. I got a pretty good look at it when my friend Pete Regina had it in his shop. He repaired it after Alan Preston retracted the gear on the ground taxiing back from filming a scene during the production of the movie "Pearl Harbor".

As to the Atlanta Zero being the original one captured by the U.S., it wasn't. That was a very early Model 11 that had been flipped in a swamp on Akatan Island after geting a round through the fuel tanks. It was recovered and flown for several years until some Ensign taxiied a Helldiver through it at North Island NAS and reduced it to a pile of tin foil.

There were several Model 52s captured at Saipan in various states of disrepair in 1944 and sent back to the U.S. on the deck of an escort carrier. Most of the surviving Zeros in the U.S. came from that batch.

[Wayne]

I wondered what happened to Alan Preston's zero... there was a TV show on the considerable effort required to locate the plane, plans, and someone that could still read "techincal Japanese".....

[GFReid]

Thanks for the clarification Galvin.
I've often wondered about the history of that plane and was skeptical of the story about it being the original captured Zero...Now I know. I also wondered why it looked slightly "different" than the typical Zero drawings and plastic models I had seen. You've explained that too in that it was a Model 11, a version I'm unfamiliar with.
As for a "pile of tinfoil" ....Maybe it was just my untrained eye or my faded memory but it looked to be in fairly solid condition, although I seem to recall that the entire wing was not with the plane.
Been a long time though....

[jetmex]

Greg, if you click on that link that I posted, there are pics of the Atlanta Zero there. It wasn't in real good shape, but the airframe appeared to be complete. There are notes that the ship was vandalized while it sat, and that the wing guns were missing.

No one seems to know what happened to it.

[GFReid]

Jaime, how do I find it? I looked but I didn't see any reference to it on that page. Been a long time and I'd really enjoy looking at some photos of it.
I'd be willing to bet that it was sold for scrap.

[GFReid]

Aha...I looked a little deeper and I'm sure this is it. Plane and background looks right and script says that it was behind a little "curio shop" in Atlanta and that fits the location. Says that it is believed to be in Florida now-
www.zero-fighter.com/bilingual/5350.htm

[GFReid]

Thanks Jaime

[jetmex]

You're welcome Greg! Too bad it's gone, the word that I'm getting is that the airplane is now somewhere in Florida.