Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: wesf@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Wes From)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: CAF Zero
Keywords: Zero CAF restoration
Message-ID: <1990Aug21.024408.474@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 21 Aug 90 02:44:08 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Lines: 42
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: wesf@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Wes From)

I've noticed some mention of the Confederate Air Force Zero, and
some speculation on whether or not it was a real Zero or not.  Well,
a few years back, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 
documentary on the restoration of this particular airplane.  At the
time (and maybe still today) it was the only functional and flyable
authentic Zero still existing.

The fellow who did the restoration (I forget his name) lives in
Carmen, Manitoba (Canada) and has done several other restorations.
I've visited the site while the Zero was being restored.  It's a 
Mom and Pop operation (literally) with a small hangar (the doors
had to be notched to accomodate the Zero).  The premises are piled
high with old plane parts and fuselages.  He has a wind tunnel     
constructed of sheets of plywood, and airplane engine and propeller,
and a bathroom scale to measure lift.  He also has an old pickup       
truck with similar "instumention".  He designed a tank-buster 
airplane that he wanted to sell to the Canadian military, but the
prototype refused to fly.  In spite of all that, he was quite 
adept at restorations.
          
The Confederate Air Force contracted him (with considerable up-
front money) to restore a Zero, which he claimed he could do.
He retrieved some Zero remains through a contact in the South
Pacific and transported them home by freighter.  In addition,
he found the designer of the Zero still living in Japan (this was
the early eighties) and managed to get an original set of blueprints.
A lot of the aircraft had to be reconstructed from scratch, and   
instead of the original two years, the project took over five (?).

The Canadian government wouldn't give him an airworthiness 
certificate, so he then had to disassemble it and transport it to
the U.S. on a flatbed trailer.  Upon reassembly, water was discovered
in the engine.  Since this was right before a CAF show, a very quick
strip-down of the engine and reassembly took place.  They managed
to get the plane in the air (some time later) with the only         
malfunction being that part of the landing gear wouldn't retract.

					Wes From