February A6M-2 Zero Update

Texas Flying Legends Museum
by Chuck Cravens

Hunter squeezes the rivets that attach the stringers to the ribs.

Update…

In our first installment of the Zero repair updates last month we told a little of the Last Samurai’s history and showed the repair getting underway. The shop has made this repair a high priority job, so visible progress is being made daily.

The work on fuselage repairs continues as the various empennage parts are reconstructed or repaired.

Parts

As always, new parts are needed for progress on the repair, so the fabrication shop has been busy making those necessary pieces.

The fab shop has machined new elevator trim linkage parts.

They have also fabricated a new rudder horn, shown here.

The function of this part isn’t so readily apparent, but it is a rudder horn stop that limits rudder travel to 33 degrees each side of center.

The trim linkage parts, rudder horn, and the rudder horn stop are all visible on the bench.

This shelf holds parts ready for use in the reconstruction of the vertical stabilizer.

Randy is deburring a horizontal stabilizer attachment support bracket.

Randy is forming the two rudder hinge reinforcement plates. He is ensuring they are precisely the same shape by clamping them together and trimming both at the same time.

This view is the same trimming work from further away.

Empennage

Robb and Ryan discuss how to proceed with the elevator repair.

The reusable portion of the elevator is mounted in the fixture before repair begins.

Ryan is working on fitting the newly made trailing edge to the elevator.

Robb prepares the trailing edge by clecoing it in place.

Each step is carefully examined to be sure the elevator is both accurate and safe for flight.

Some good detail and insight into how the Zero’s elevator was constructed shows here.

Another view reveals the new web that reinforces the torque tube connecting the two elevator halves.

The trailing edge of the vertical fin is visible here.

Here we have the area just under the vertical stabilizer.

All the parts in this shot are replacements from Blayd Corporation.

If you look carefully in this shot and many others in this update, you can see some of the ribs are drilled for rivets and others are not. Those parts that are drilled in these images are pieces that are being reused and the ones without drilled holes are replacement parts.