Originally posted by David Burke
Elliot – to the best of my knowledge there are two ‘Zero’s’ in the U.K . A cockpit section in the IWM Lambeth and the very sorry remains of one at Duxford. The Zero is massively more significant than the Ki100 . The Zero represents Japan’s Imperial ambitions whilst the Ki100 represents the fight against the B-29’s . I imagine that far more British pilots entered combat against the Zero than ever did the Ki100. The Zero is distinctly an icon of the era – the Ki100 never will be.
Whilst many might appreciate the Ki100 – it belongs back home in Japan with a Zero in it’s place. It’s not a matter of rarity-
it’s a matter of significance . I would dearly like to see a complete pristine Zero at Hendon – the British and Commonwealth pilots
fought in many cases an uneven battle against her. I think the Zero which was a nemisis to so many deserves our attention -the Ki100 belongs home.

Hi David

Actually, there are at least three ‘zeros’ in the UK now if you count the Hunt’s one, and there are unconfirmed rumours of a fourth wreck from Russia.

I think it would be great to have a decent zero in the UK – it is without doubt the most significant Japanese aircarft of WWII, but actually a Ki 43 would be far more relavent as by far the bulk of our encounters with the Japs in WWII were against the army and not the navy.

An intact Ki 43 wreck (not any old rubbish out of the Kuriles either) was put under Hendons nose a few years ago and they were not really interested.

As far as the Ki 100 goes, they were not solely used against B-29s and were encountered by FAA pilots off the coast of Japan.

The NASM have such a fine collection of Japanese aircraft – many of these are sole survivors – the only museum quality Imperial aircraft in the UK are the Ki 100 and the Ki 46. I would like our aviation museums to be the best in the world and would be very sad if the Ki 100 left these shores – something that is thankfully very unlikely to ever happen.

Don’t worry – they will get their Zero one day, and we won’t have to lose the precious Ki 100.

Nice!!

Thanks nermal

Poor old spirfire!

Do you have any detail on the american defector? Is that really true? I’ve never heard that story before.

Wonder if any Whitley’s were captured and tested by the Germans…….

Originally posted by David Burke
The RAFM could of course have sold the Liberator to Duxford which would have been far simpler than the exercise they had to do to acquire the Lackland example. The loot in the RAFM’s palms could then have been used to acquire the Lincoln G-APRJ to join the experimental collection at Cosford with the other Lincoln moving to Hendon.
Using the rest of the loose change I would then get hold of the ex Sidney Cotton Electra Junior for display in Milestones.
If I hadn’t got bored by then I would then see if any group in Japan would be interested in the Ki100 in exchange for a genuine restored Zero to put on display at Hendon.

David! That’s the only Ki 100 in existance! There may not be many zeros in the UK, but they are ten a penny as far as wrecks go – if they wanted one, they could easily get one. It would be a very sad day if we got rid of the Ki 100.

Does anyone know under what circumstances the spit ended up in the hands of the boche?