Thu, Sep 02, 2004
The embodiment of Japanese air power
and kamikaze suicide attacks during World War II, a restored
Japanese Zero, returned to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton,
OH.
Commercial workers recently completed a one-year restoration of
the aircraft for the museum. They disassembled the aircraft to move
it to the museum and reassembled the plane for permanent display
after its arrival.
The A6M2 Zero bolsters an already formidable cast of World War
II aircraft on display in the museum's Air Power Gallery. Widely
regarded as the most famous of Japanese military aircraft, the Zero
performed as the arch nemesis of Allied aircraft in the Pacific
theater during the first half of the war.
"The Zero is the ultimate symbol of Japanese air power in the
Pacific in World War II," said retired Maj. Gen. Charles D.
Metcalf, museum director. "It participated in the attack on Pearl
Harbor and was later used on kamikaze raids against Allied ships.
The addition of the Zero adds a key element to the World War II
storyline we present to our visitors."
The Japanese abandoned the museum's Zero in Kavieng, New
Ireland, during World War II. The aircraft is marked to appear as a
section leader's Zero from the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Zuiho
during the Battle of Bismarck Sea in spring 1943.
The U.S. Army Air Force's use of superior armament, innovative
tactics and more capable fighters later in the war ended the Zero's
dominance, officials said. With 10,815 built, the Zero was produced
in larger numbers than any other Japanese aircraft during the war.
[ANN Thanks Chris McGee, USAF Museum Public Affairs]
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