FHC A6M Zero

[Lightning]

Howdy All

Just saw this on Legend Flyers Face Book page

As usual Steve Hinton was the Pilot


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Legend-Fl ... =3&theater


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Legend-Fl ... 131&type=1

Lightning

[Jesse C.]

Very cool! Glad to see it take flight!

Congrats to FHC for another great one taking to the air.

[spookythecat]

Gonna be some great Fly Days this summer. Hopefully I can rearrange my Saturday work schedule enough to catch a good portion of them. Currently June 16th is a conflict day out here with it being the IL-2 debut, Olympia Airshow and now the Super Guppy bringing the first of the Space Shuttle full fuselage trainer into Boeing Field for the Museum of Flight.

NEED CLONES!!!!

[gary1954]

Wonnerful Wonnerful
I give pause to ponder, think if you will, just how many of these airframes complete and partical exist and where are they.
Please no replicas.

[JohnTerrell]

This is indeed wonderful news! Seems it's due for paint now, before its official debut on June 9.

Another photo from this weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintage_ra ... otostream/

This, at least in my view, is one of the few examples where the addition of a second cockpit/canopy actually added to the good looks of the aircraft - but of course to each their own. I really like the looks of it!

I don't know the where-abouts/activity with the Mojave example (if it is still there or not, or if it as been flying in recent years?), but besides the FHC example, there are three other regular flyers, the most original/true survivor of course being the Planes of Fame example, as well as the example owned and operated by the Southern California Wing of the CAF, and the example owned and operated by the Texas Flying Legends Museum (former Blayd/Beck example)...all of which are no hangar queens during the flying season.

Looking at the other photo albums, it would seem that Legend Flyers has a A6M3-32 Zero under restoration themselves?

[Warbird Kid]

Looking at the other photo albums, it would seem that Legend Flyers has a A6M3-32 Zero under restoration themselves?

Don't get too excited. I believe this airframe will be going to Evergreen, so static only.

On this topic, with the Blayd/Beck example, this aircraft was essentially a complete new-built aircraft with some small original components, no? If so then the information / tooling exists to start producing a small batch of Zeros for clients / customers, no? Similar to either the Me-262's, FW-190's, or Beck P-51A's. Would be nice to see some more full size reproduction Zeros out there. Simply put we don't have enough bad guys on the airshow circut. American engine or not, their definitely more appealing than the Tora Zero. Don't get me wrong I like the Tora aircraft too. If I could I'd have a fleet of no less than six of them.

[C VEICH]

Judging by the spinner and cowl flaps she is going to be green. Bummer, I was hoping for a bright orange trainer scheme!

[corsair166b]

Yeah, the Evergreen A6M3 left these parts (Colorado) last summer headed I thought for the museum, but maybe it needed some other parts or fine tuning at another shop or by the Evergreen folks themselves....had hoped it would fly out of here like the Lone Star Hurricane restored by Middleton a few years ago but some developer got the airport closed so it got trucked out and I never got to see the plane all in one piece, missed that by a few days before they got it ready to be shipped. But I guess it will unfortunately never be a flyer.

Mark

[Mike]

...........maybe it needed some other parts or fine tuning at another shop or by the Evergreen folks themselves....

It's at Legends Flyers at Paine, and they are building a new airframe from scratch using the old parts as patterns. As it is being done to airworthy (supposedly) I doubt they will be able to re-use much of the existing airframe.

As for the whole new-build/replica thing, the FHC Zero was built from new in Russia in the '90s. Three airframes were built, based on wreckage recovered from PNG. One is now with CAF SoCal at Camarillo (this one, the first built used the highest proportion of original parts - I was told that it "used up all the good bits"), another (also currently at Camarillo) is owned I believe by a Japanese businessman, and this, the third, was pretty much all new-build. All 3 have a DC-3 QEC bolted on to the firewall inn place of the original Sakae.

[Dan Jones]

What's this one got under the hood? An -1830 or a real Sakae?

[JohnTerrell]

As Mike mentions, it has an R-1830, though with the authentic cowling, it still looks the part.

[Mike]

Whatever happened to the authentic Zero (ex-Planes of Fame) that FHC have?

[alang]

FHC Zero will debut on June 9th and fly again on June 30th.

[Lynn Allen]

That looks like a really sweet ride...

[mrp]

FHC actually have two original Zero's as well as this flying one. They have the ex-Planes of Fame aircraft( Which wings were cut off and reattached ) as well as the Zero which laid in the yard of an antique store in Atlanta after the US Navy got rid of it. I think this airframe went from the Whittington Brothers to FHC.

mrp