Tora Tora Tora Aircraft

[Swiss Mustangs]

some shots from the early 70's...







more to follow.... (hopefully)

Martin

[Jet Mech]

One of the CAF groups still flies several of the Tora birds. They came to the Oklahoma City Air Show in June of this year. I have photos of them, 3 or 4 different types, one was green and had a torpodo under it.

Kurt

[bdk]

Is #2 at Chino?

[famvburg]

They are modified to an extent as they appear to have 3-blade props.

Paul,

Recreating the Japanese Naval Air Force

By Charles D. Angel, and copied from The Spring 1996 DISPATCH magazine of the CAF

In all, 25 replica Zeros, nine Kates and nine Vals were built in California by Stewart-Davis and Cal-Volair. Fiberglass torpedoes were added to the Vals. A few of each type had fitted three-bladed props, gear-cased engines and tail hooks for close-up scenes and carrier landings. In addition, 19 other AT-6s were modified in Japan using the "California pattern" by the Kawasaki Aircraft Co. for a second unit filming in Japan.

For further details of the aircraft used by the Tora Tora Tora team see www.toratoratora.com/we_are/our_planes.htm


Needle

Nothing major, but a small correction to the above. The fiberglas torpedos were added to the KATES, not the Vals.

In addition, if you watch the film closely, and have a chance to examine some of the productiion stills, they used some basically un-modified AT-6 in many of the deck scenes that were filmed in Japan. They are used to fill the bacground and are not featured in the camera. Also, I don't believe any of the three flyable Kates built in Japan were used on the Carrier set. All you get to see on the carrier deck are a few modified T-6/Zeroes and straight T-6's acting as Kates in the background. Theye are most prevelent in the take-off start-up sequence, and the landing sequence when Fuchida returns to the carrier near the end of the film.

Watch and you'll see them. There are records showing that upwards of 25 T-6's were used in Japan for filming.
Jerry

Here's a link to a not so good photo of actual unconverted T-6 Texans posingf as Kates in the return to carrier sequence of Tora3.

http://modelbox.free.fr/analyses/MS2002 ... ora_T6.JPG
Jerry

[Jerry O'Neill]

Is #2 at Chino?

It is at Chino.
I have a photo of it taken at the same time.
Jerry

[tora101]

It will be interesting to see Martin's whole set of early '70's pix of TORA aircraft, especially the Zeros.

Doug Jackson
TORA 101

[Ken]

Go to http://www.dixiewing.org and follow the links to "our aircraft" and "other" to see the Zero and Kate which operate in the Atlanta area.

[David_Aiken]

Jack Canary was hired by 20th Century to supply the aircraft for TORA! TORA! TORA! According to late Dick Bueschel, when Jack Canary died his secretary took Bueschel's marking research home to England. 20th Century had to hire some Japanese to finish the planes. They painted the remaining planes pistachio-green...

The Japanese knew something.

The current research from Japan continues to confirm this unique color as painted on a host of the planes over Hawaii...and that others in the strike force were -as US sailors said- 'mustard'. No, not "French's Mustard", but more of a gray-poupon!

See: http://groups.msn.com/japanesemodelairc ... snw?Page=1

Cheers,
David Aiken

some shots from the early 70's...



Martin

[Django]

Those slides are awesome! Thanks for sharing.