Indonesia in WWII - History (Japanese A6M Zero Flies Again)

The history of Indonesia in World War II will take to the air on Saturday June 9, 2012 when a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft, which was recovered from Babo Airfield in Irian Jaya Indonesia, and subsequently restored and rebuilt to flying condition by the Flying Heritage Collection will fly in an air show demonstration at their facility located at Paine Field Airport in Everett, Washington (state) in America.


A6M3 c/n 3852, recovered from Babo Island, Indonesia, restored to airworthy in Russia 1994-97 with a P&W R1830. Flown as N385HF, N3852 for Flying Heritage Collection, Chino, USA. Under conversion to two-seater at Chino.

This aircraft: This Zero was one of many Japanese combat planes destroyed by American bombing on Babo Airfield in New Guinea during World War II. In the early 1990s this Zero wreck was discovered and acquired by Bruce Fenstermaker and the Santa Monica Museum of Flying.

Around 1994, three recovered Zeros, including this one, were sent to Russian for restoration. The fighter's salvageable parts were retained, while missing or heavily-damaged components were created by Russian craftsmen in order to make the planes flyable again. By the late 1990s, the trio of aircraft was back in the United States. In order to operate dependably, each aircraft was fitted with a specially-modified Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine. The engines contained a mixture of components in order to be as compact as possible and fit in a standard A6M cowling.

(seen here on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC satellite museum, Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Chantilly, Virginia)

The plane’s scheme represents a Zero of the 251st Kokutai based in the Rabaul area. At the time, the fighters came from the Mitsubishi factory in overall “olive gray.” For security reasons, in the field, fighting units were ordered to camouflage the planes with darker green. The style of application was left up to the flyers and their ground crews. While some Zeroes got overall coats of green, splotches, and dots, other received a tiger stripe look, as represented here.

After receiving some final touches to make it fully flight worthy, the Flying Heritage Collection’s Mitsubishi A6M3-22 “Zero” has returned to the FHC’s Everett display hangar. The rare Japanese fighter will fly publicly for the first time on Saturday, June 9th at one of the FHC’s Free Fly Days.