Hobby Master Captured US Army Air Corps Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Fighter - Tadayoshi Koga's "Akutan Zero", September 1942 (1:48 Scale)

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Captured US Army Air Corps Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Fighter - Tadayoshi Koga's "Akutan Zero", September 1942 (1:48 Scale)

Hobby Master Captured US Army Air Corps Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Fighter - Tadayoshi Koga's "Akutan Zero", September 1942

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Product Code: HA8804

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Hobby Master HA8804 Captured US Army Air Corps Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Fighter - Tadayoshi Koga's "Akutan Zero", September 1942 (1:48 Scale) "The three Zeros flew to Akutan Island, 25 miles east of Dutch Harbor, which had been designated for emergency landings. Waiting near the island was a Japanese submarine assigned to pick up downed pilots. At Akutan, the three Zeros circled a grassy flat half a mile inland from Broad Bight. Shikada thought the ground was firm beneath the grass, but in his second pass he noticed water glistening. He suddenly realized Koga should make a belly landing. But by then Koga had lowered his landing gear and was almost down."
- US intelligence report explaining the fate of Tadayoshi Koga's "Akutan" Zero

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a light-weight carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945.

It is universally known as Zero from its Japanese Navy designation, Type 0 Carrier Fighter (Rei shiki Kanjo sentoki), taken from the last digit of the Imperial year 2600 (1940), when it entered service. In Japan it was unofficially referred to as both Rei-sen and Zero-sen. The official Allied code name was Zeke (Hamp for the A6M3 model 32 variant); while this was in keeping with standard practice of giving boys' names to fighters, it is not definitively known if this was chosen for its similarity to "Zero".

Pictured here is a 1:48 scale replica of a captured Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2B "Zero" fighter that crash landed and was subsequently used by the USAAC to form an intelligence estimate of the plane. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 9-inches
Length: 7-1/4-inches

Release Date: August 2018

Historical Account: "Aleutian Zero" - The Akutan Zero, also known as Koga's Zero and the Aleutian Zero, was a type 0 model 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese fighter aircraft that crash-landed on Akutan Island, Alaska Territory, during World War II. It was found intact by the Americans in July 1942 and became the first flyable Zero acquired by the United States during the war. It was repaired and flown by American test pilots. As a result of information gained from these tests, American tacticians were able to devise ways to defeat the Zero, which was the Imperial Japanese Navy's primary fighter plane throughout the war.

The Akutan Zero has been described as "a prize almost beyond value to the United States", and "probably one of the greatest prizes of the Pacific War". Japanese historian Masatake Okumiya stated that the acquisition of the Akutan Zero "was no less serious" than the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway, and that it "did much to hasten Japan's final defeat". On the other hand, John Lundstrom is among those who challenge "the contention that it took dissection of Koga's Zero to create tactics that beat the fabled airplane".

The Akutan Zero was destroyed in a training accident in 1945. Parts of it are preserved in several museums in the United States.