A6M2 Zero For Sale

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MIflyer

1st Lieutenant
6,889
13,960
May 30, 2011
Cape Canaveral
One of a handful of flying Nakajima A6M-2 Zero fighters is on the block for $5 million. The Zero, offered by Platinum Fighter Sales, was pulled from the jungle of the Solomon Islands in 1965. It was built in 1941 and shot down on Feb. 4, 1943. The rebuild took decades and involved 60,000 man hours including the manufacture of 14,000 parts. Everything is faithfully restored except the engine, which was swapped for a more reliable and serviceable Pratt & Whitney 1830 radial. It has 362.6 flight hours on it.

NOTE: Or if you'd rather have something newer, there is a CF-104 in flying condition available for only $3.8 Million.

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How unreliable were the original engines?
Not unreliable at all. The same Zero flown at the Pax River Fighter Conference in 1944 is still flying with its original engine. Koga's A6M2 flew fine with its original engine despite being crashed, actually showing better reliability than some of the USAAF aircraft evaluated against it, and that Zero was destroyed in a ground collision.

But crash an airplane, leave it there for 32 years, and you could expect some serious reliability problems, especially given the utter lack of spare parts. After WW2 some Japanese aircraft continued to be flown by the new owners.

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One of a handful of flying Nakajima A6M-2 Zero fighters is on the block for $5 million. The Zero, offered by Platinum Fighter Sales, was pulled from the jungle of the Solomon Islands in 1965. It was built in 1941 and shot down on Feb. 4, 1943. The rebuild took decades and involved 60,000 man hours including the manufacture of 14,000 parts. Everything is faithfully restored except the engine, which was swapped for a more reliable and serviceable Pratt & Whitney 1830 radial. It has 362.6 flight hours on it.

NOTE: Or if you'd rather have something newer, there is a CF-104 in flying condition available for only $3.8 Million.

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I'd buy it, except I'm about $4,990,000 short. Can I put down a deposit and pay it off? NB: Don't mention this to my wife.
 
Set up financing like what is done with expensive art. Get a loan from a bank, make reasonable payments. The bank makes their money when the plane is sold years later at a huge profit. Everyone gets a cut. Owner, bank, auction house all gets a percentage of the sell price. Let's flip warbirds.
 

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