Warbird Information Exchange

According to Facebook, A6M3 c/n 3858 N553TT has finished it's annual/maintenance at Fighter Rebuilders. They predict it will be flying to it's new home in Granite Falls, Minnesota within the next week or so. That makes it incredibly likely that it'll participate in the Ray Fagen Memorial Airshow this coming June.

What about Oshkosh...

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it there. They usually bring new aircraft to Oshkosh, so it would make sense that this would be no different. Just an assumption.

Bernie Vasquez shared some photos of him flying the Zero last week. Some people have cool jobs!

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

Back from test flight 26 March 2022

Yes last Saturday he was up in it for a long time on the final test flight. I’m glad I hung out in my car a bit after lunch , because I saw it come over for the final , then also got some pics like BDK as it taxied in.

Last I saw on Facebook it was in Vacaville, Ca.

Which airplane is this? One of the former Flight Magic Zeros? Is this the one that went to Alaska a few years ago after a Japanese businessman bought it?

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

https://wings-on-film.fandom.com/wiki/N553TT

Key words here are "Retaining only the landing gear from the wreck, and now powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830,".

This takes us back to the real-vs-reproduction issue. This airplane would be, hands-down in my book, a "reproduction using some original parts". This should not be confused with a "real" Zero, such as the one Planes of Fame that has the original engine and would I think be fairly substantially original.

I think it important that we make these distinctions. The plane here is valuable as an educational, recreational, and air-show vehicle, but this should not be sold to the public as the real thing. That would be, in my opinion, dishonest and self-serving.

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Kevin McCartney

Seeing very very few original drawings exist at all for the zero having "anything" in the air is an achievement.

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If the CO ask,s you to be Tail End Charlie...Just Shoot Him..A Piece of Cake

What "issue"? Most of the P-51's flying around nowadays are a long, long ways from original by that definition. It's a Zero, just not an original one. It's got a different engine, but a Sea Fury is still a Sea Fury even if it has a -2800 in it, right? If it's true to the original in it's design (and I assume it largely is) then it's a Zero, just not a Mitsubishi built one. I used to fly a Twin Otter built from twenty-six different airplanes (including one I'd flown previously) and with a scratch built forward fuselage and cockpit, but nobody ever called it a replica, it was just "-IZD" (and she was a hell of a good airplane). Rest assured that anyone who's gonna lay down the kind of coin it would take to buy it is going to be very well versed in it's provenance.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

Not meaning to sound negative but have you ever seen the Film Board of Canada documentary "The Defender"? In the part of the video where an A6M2 was being "reconstructed" for the CAF, you will see that some sort of blueprint/plans were available. I have a history with that plane. You can find the video on YouTube. Don't laugh too hard! All the best.

Randy

"A rose by any other name is still a rose." I think the buyers of these Zeros, F3f's, Oscars, ME-262's, wooden Spitfires, Flug Werk 190's and Yaks understand for what they're paying. There is a price difference and it's understood. It's nice seeing example3s once extinct or almost extinct from the air , flying once again to be enjoyed by all.

What was the official reason given to the membership for retiring the Zero? I can well imagine the unofficial ones.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.