marine air wrote:Does anyone know thedetails about the three Zeroes that were restored in Russia with P&W 1830's? Are they new builds or what? Any chance more could be built?
What kind of details are you looking for? As for what they are considered, that is a matter of semantics. I talked to Bruce Lockwood in the early 90's, I think about '92, just after the huge Japanese coup landed at Santa Monica. At that time, the first Zero fuselage was just in the jig and had some formers and stringers attached, prior to the forming of the skins. I asked him how much of the original Zero's were being used in the rebuild. He said that most of the parts were newly manufactured from patterns off of the original planes. He estimated that only about 10% of the original parts were going to be used in the final rebuild. This was before the Zero's were shipped off to Russia to be finished. So, I guess it all depends on what your definition of replica, rebuild, or restored is. As far as whether anymore can be built, the answer is definitely yes! Bruce told me that they obtained a complete set of Zero blueprints to make most of the parts on it. These blueprints came from an elderly gentleman from Japan who saved them and hid them away from the Allies. At the end of the war, orders were given from the Japanese high command to destroy the Zero blueprints. Fortunately, someone didn't follow orders very well. Take it for what it's worth.
For more info, look at some Air Classics from the early 90's. I remember at least 2 articles that had some detailed info on the Zero rebuilds.
As an aside, the Tony that was part of the same group recovered from Babo was sent to Russia as well to be replicated in the same manner as the Zeros. According to Steve Hinton, the Tony has "disappeared", never to be heard from again. I think there is a LOT more to this story than has been made public. It sounds like the Tony might have been "stolen" or part of some kind of shady business deal. Anybody have any more info on this?