Doug Jackson's Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (Replica) "TORA 101"

Doug Jackson is the owner and operator of this Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (Replica) "TORA 101" which is available for airshows, flybys and film throughout the USA.

"TORA 101", the Wichita based Japanese Zero Fighter Replica, was actually built in 1952 by the Canadian Car & Foundry Company. The Royal Canadian Air Force accepted it as a Harvard MKIV advanced trainer on 1/14/53 as aircraft 20473.

20473 was the seventh from the last Harvard made for the RCAF, and was first based with the First Flight Training Squadron in Penhold, Alberta, Canada, then at Centralia, Ontario. After 6000 flying hours, on 2/2/68 it was released through the Crown Asset Disposition Center.

"TORA 101" was built up by Twentieth Century Fox Studios in 1969 as an IJN A6M2 Model 21 Zero Fighter Replica patterned after a real Zero used in the Japanese Pearl Harbor raid of December 7, 1941. Along with 50 other Harvards, AT6 Texans, and Consolidated BT13's, they were highly modified and transformed into Zero fighters, Val dive bombers, and Kate torpedo bomber replicas for their movie, TORA! TORA! TORA! This movie accurately recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. No expense was spared: in fact, the studio spent more than the Japanese did on the actual raid! "TORA 101" was also in the movie Midway and in the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep.

So "TORA 101" and its other "costars" were transformed into the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy, "TORA 101" was used extensively, painted with various tail markings, such as AI-127, and then with no tail markings. It flew at the El Toro Naval Air Station, off of the American aircraft carrier "Yorktown," and at Barbers Point and Ford Island in Hawaii.

After the movie, "TORA 101" was purchased in 1972 by Challenge Publications. "TORA 101" tail markings were repainted to what at that time was thought to be Lt. Cdr. Shigeru Itaya's aircraft "AI-101" (carrier: AKAGI, Zero 101). Itaya was Hikotaicho, overall Fighter Group Lead, heading the first wave of Zeros in the Pearl Harbor attack. More recent research uncovered that Itaya actually flew Zero AI-159. Photographs taken by the Japanese show that on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, AI-101 was flown by P01C Tadao Kimura, wingman for Lt. Saburo Shindo, second wave Buntaicho, Zero Group Lead.

Kimura and Shindo were of the few Japanese who took part at Pearl Harbor to survive the war, while Itaya was killed in 1944. Kimura passed away in the early '90's in Osaka Japan, while Shindo lived in Hiroshima City until he passed away a few years ago now.

After three more owners, "TORA 101" was donated in 1979 to the Experimental Aircraft Association, with Gus Limbach as the primary pilot. At the EAA, they swapped the existing nongeared engine and two bladed propeller to a geared engine with three bladed propeller. The more realistic looking engine and propeller combination came from the other TORA Zero that the EAA had at the time, tail number -147.

"TORA 101" has been owned since 1982 by Doug Jackson of Wichita, Kansas. Since then, Doug has flown "TORA 101" some 1500 hours in over 500 airshow performances throughout the United States. The most popular routine done by Doug in "TORA 101" is the Zero Dogfight with long time Dogfight partner, the CAF P51D "Gunfighter" of Omaha, NE. For 2007, additional Zero Dogfight partners now include the Lone Star Flight Museum's F6F, F4U, and P47, as well as Dacy Airshow's Vlado Lenoch in his P51 "Moonbeam McSwine". Other routines available from "TORA 101" are a solo "Surprise Airfield Attack" routine (day or night), flying with other airshow warbirds, and static display before/after flying. Doug also flies "TORA 101" with the CAF TORA! TORA! TORA! group, and is a member of most warbird and professional airshow organizations.

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