Tora Tora Tora

There I was flying along and all of a sudden I was joined by a rare bird. I had been transported back in time 70 years and a Japanese Zero had joined up on me. Ok so that really didn’t happen and while this aircraft looks very much like a Mitsubishi A6M Zero or codename Zeke but it was not either.

As noted by the markings on the side of the aft fuselage it was built by the Canadian Car & Foundry company as a Harvard Mk 4 in 1952 and used by the RCAF until 1988 when it was sold to private individuals.

It was eventually purchased by 20th Century Fox and was rebuilt as a replica of a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero from World War 2. Other markings on the fuselage indicated it was used in some well known Hollywood movies and TV show including Tora, Tora, Tora, and Bah, Bah, Black Sheep.

So how did I get the picture above. Well... It’s not exactly real either. The pictures are but the composition is not. The sky came from a time when I was in Florida last year and the airplane was sitting on the ramp at the Wichita KS Mid Continent Airport. Yesterday we took some passengers form White Plains NY to Wichita and as we pulled up to the ramp I noticed the “Zero”. I broke out the XTi and 28-135 and grabbed some shots.

A little CS5 work to make a prop look mildly believable and I had a usable image.


Thats it fro now as I am working on a stuffy nose. To the point, I will probably skip tomorrow and continue on Thursday with the Process Series.


Take care as I will try to... Doug