National Museum of Naval Aviation

About Museum Plan Your Visit Activities Exhibits & Collections IMAX Education News & Events Get Involved

Zero Returns to Display

Exhibits & Collections > History Up Close > Zero Returns to Display

After completing a period of restoration that included replacement of pop rivets with flush rivets and application of a new paint job, the museum’s popular A6M-2 Type 0 carrier fighter, known as the Zero or Zeke (wartime Allied codename), has returned to its customary place on the museum floor. For months tour guides leading visitors around the museum have missed it positioned off the atrium at the entrance to the museum’s west wing. Literally nose-to-nose with an F4F Wildcat, the aircraft formed part of a perfect backdrop for introducing the Pacific War, contrasting the ruggedness of the Grumman Iron Works fighter with the maneuverability of the Zero and sharing the story of Jimmy Thach’s weave maneuver that helped give Wildcat pilots an upper hand in air-to-air combat. Now the Zero looks factory fresh with an overall green paint scheme, yellow fuselage stripe and bright circular red hinomarus characteristic of the middle to late period of the Pacific War.

The story behind the museum’s example is largely a mystery, much like the Zero was to western observers during the 1930s when intelligence reports began surfacing from China telling of a new Japanese fighter with mystical qualities of speed, range, and maneuverability. The story of our airplane begins in the late 1960s when Robert Diemert, fresh from restoring a Hawker Hurricane and flying it in the movie The Battle of Britain, went to the South Pacific in search of Japanese war birds. His travels took him to the island of Ballale located south of Bougainville, which during World War II was the site of an airfield from which operated a host of Imperial Japanese Navy and Army units. There he found a treasure trove of aircraft wrecks and parts, which he acquired and transported to Canada in 1969. Among them was the aircraft on display in the museum, which was restored by Diemert using components from more than one aircraft recovered from Ballale.

Acquired my the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum at Quantico, Virginia, in 1976, the A6M-2 was displayed there and for a time at the Liberal Air Museum in Kansas before being placed on loan to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1991. It was transferred by the Marine Corps to the museum ten years later.

 

During its initial period of display at the museum, the Zero featured a light gray paint scheme like that on the aircraft that raided Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. In fact, when recovered, the aircraft was initially reported to have participated in the famous attack, which is untrue given the fact that the aircraft (including the components from other Zeros used in its restoration) was not constructed until late in 1942.

The Zero is one of three Japanese aircraft owned by the museum, the others being a N1K2-J Shiden Kai (Allied codename George), which is displayed on the museum floor, and a Kawanishi N1K seaplane fighter (Allied codename Rex) that is currently in storage.

For more information, visit the Pacific Wrecks website.