The Military Aviation Museum, located in Virginia Beach, VA,\nhas announced its acquisition of a rare Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero, formerly of the\nImperial Japanese Navy, which has undergone a meticulous restoration at Legend\nFlyers in Everett, Washington. Members\nof the Museum team and the Fighter Factory are headed to the West Coast, to\nwork with the Legend Flyers team and put the aircraft through its pre-flight\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The principal American adversary in the Pacific Theatre of\nOperations during WWII, and the Imperial Japanese Navy\u2019s (IJN) premier\ncarrier-based fighter, the A6M was perhaps better known as the \u2018Zero\u2019.\nMitsubishi Heavy Industries completed A6M3 c\/n 3148, the specific aircraft\nwhich the Museum has obtained, during September 1942. Although the Allies\nofficially referred to the A6M by their code word for the type, \u2018Zeke\u2019, the\nA6M3 variant received its own code name of \u2018Hamp\u2019. Even so, Allied pilots often\nsimply referred to them as Zeros. This name derives from the IJN\u2019s designation\nfor the aircraft as a Type \u20180\u2019 Carrier Fighter (for the last digit in Imperial\nYear 2600, when the aircraft was first designed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A6M3 c\/n 3148 is painted in its original wartime markings,\nreplicated from the vestigial remains of an unusual set of markings detected on\nthe original fuselage skins which indicate that middle schoolers in\nJapanese-occupied Manchuria had donated the funds necessary for the aircraft\u2019s\nmanufacture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like many aircraft in the Museum\u2019s collection, the newest\naddition features an interesting combat history, having been stationed at bases\nacross the South Pacific. Research conducted by Legend Flyers, the aircraft\u2019s\nrestorers, suggests that 3148 deployed to the Pacific as part of the 252nd\nKokutai (Naval Air Group). Later it would fight from bases at Rabaul, as well\nas Ballale and Munda, in the Solomon Islands, before being ordered to Taroa in\nthe Marshall Islands in March 1943. During its career, 3148 would see combat\nagainst the US Army Air Forces and US Navy aircraft, although it would be\nshrapnel damage from a bomb blast and not a fiery conflagration in the air,\nwhich would end 3148\u2019s career. Damaged beyond the repair capabilities of the\nJapanese mechanics on the island, 3148 would sit adjacent to the runway on\nTaroa until 1991, when an American named John Sterling recovered the wreck and\nbrought it to the United States with the hopes of restoring the fighter to\nflight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With several changes of ownership, the aircraft eventually\nfound its way to Legend Flyers of Everett Washington in the Spring of 2011.\nWork on the aircraft began in earnest a decade ago, and the aircraft is\nexpecting its first post-restoration flight imminently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Museum Director, Keegan Chetwynd, in describing the process\nbehind the aircraft\u2019s purchase noted: \u201cAircraft acquisitions by the Museum are\nalways a carefully thought-out endeavor. Restorations represent a significant\ninvestment of time, and of funding, requiring that they be planned out long in\nadvance.\u201d Chetwynd went on to say, \u201cThe Museum has a collection plan that has\nidentified airplanes that are key to sharing the narrative of World War II with\na modern audience, and the Zero was one of the Museum\u2019s highest priority\ntargets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, an airplane that defined the American experience\nof the air war in the Pacific from the very moment it appeared overhead at\nPearl Harbor, the Zero has also lived on in movies and video games, making it\nsomething of a pop culture icon. Museum Curator Zack Baughman explained: \u201cIt is\nan aircraft our visitors are always asking about. As one of our chief\nadversaries in World War II, there is a fascination with the Zero that is hard\nto explain.\u201d Baughman then remarked: \u201cIt really is amazing to see a restored\naircraft from World War II in person, knowing that it has been rescued from a\nbattlefield, it brings history to life in an important way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joining just a handful of other preserved examples, the Military Aviation Museum\u2019s Zero will shortly be taking its first flight since the final year of WWII, as a necessary step forward in a flight program which will see the aircraft returned to the Museum, located in Virginia Beach. For those interested in following the journey, the Museum will be providing updates to its members and followers on Facebook. If you have any questions, please call (757) 721-7767 or visit https:\/\/militaryaviationmuseum.org\/<\/a>. The Military Aviation Museum is located at 1341 Princess Anne Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23457.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Military Aviation Museum, located in Virginia Beach, VA, has announced its acquisition of a rare Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which has undergone a meticulous restoration at Legend Flyers in Everett, Washington. Members of the Museum team and the Fighter Factory are headed to the West Coast, to work with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-virginia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mitsubishi-A6M3-Zero.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24105,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24103\/revisions\/24105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}