This morning, we witnessed the culmination of a decades-long dream, with the first post-restoration flight of the Military Aviation Museum’s Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero, likely the first Model 32 variant to fly since 1945, and one of just a handful of the type still capable of flight. The Museum’s chief pilot, Mike Spalding, was at the controls as the former Imperial Japanese Navy fighter lifted into the air from Paine Field in Everett, Washington. A small contingent of Museum personnel and the restoration team at Legend Flyers cheered him on from the ground; it was a magical moment for all who witnessed it!
As the sound of the Zero’s engine echoed off the hangar walls, it was hard to fully comprehend the winding journey of survival this aircraft represents. The gulf of time which has passed between today’s flight and early 1990, when the Sterling brothers recovered the two hulks forming the basis of this Zero from Taroa Island, is almost as large as the gap between their original manufacture in 1942 and eventual salvage!
Legend Flyers used the forward fuselage and wings from A6M3 s/n 3148 and the rear fuselage of s/n 3145 to resurrect this Zero, as covered in a previous article describing the airframe’s history. Several different restoration shops played a role in the rebuild prior to Legend Flyers’ acquisition of the project in 2011, so a few interruptions have occurred along the way. When the Military Aviation Museum first became involved with the project in late 2020, the airframe - visually at least - seemed just weeks away from flying. But there is an old phrase in the warbird world which many of us have come to know; the aircraft was 90% done… with 90% left to go!
Legend Flyers has worked hard in the interim, with freelance Warbird expert Brad Pilgrim providing some additional expertise to the restoration team as the aircraft neared completion. It was a productive collaboration, which saw the Zero completed towards the end of last year. However, our previous attempt at a first flight came too late in the season, and before we knew it, the suitable flying weather in the Pacific North West had all but vanished. With 70 days of rain, broken up only by low overcast, everyone has been waiting patiently for the weather to improve enough to conduct the flights. Well, the opportune moment finally arrived this morning, when Brad Pilgrim and Museum Chief Pilot Mike Spalding flew out to Everett to join Legend Flyers technicians Bennett Johnson and Dan Hammer as they pulled most panels from the airframe to check the functionality of the aircraft systems one final time before the first flight - all under the watchful eye of hangar dog, Herman, perched atop a mobile gantry.
At 8am on Monday Morning (5/5/2025) Legend Flyers turned over the aircraft to Mike Spalding for its first flight. Spalding, as readers may remember, last taxied the fighter back in August 2024. While we had hoped to fly the aircraft on that occasion, prop governor and temperature sensor issues prevented us from doing so. Even though the Legend Flyers’ team was able to rectify those problems in relatively short order, but as previously mentioned, the notorious Seattle weather gets to have its say!
Despite his many years flying a significant variety of vintage military aircraft, Spalding had not previously had the opportunity to fly an A6M until today. He has proven himself a cool hand on more than one occasion in such aircraft, and has significant experience conducting test flights, the most recent being the post-restoration flight of the Museum’s Messerschmitt Me 262 replica (another Legend Flyers project) in late March. Furthermore, his many hours flying behind an R-1830 engine (which this Zero has been tailored to operate with in place of the original Sakae 12) will have provided additional comfort as well.
With the gear swings completed, a solid test run conducted, and all of the requisite paperwork signed off over the course of Sunday’s preparations, all that remained was to fly the Zero and see how she performed! Mike strapped in and soon had the fighter ready for engine start. The whine of the electric starter motor soon pierced the air, with the propeller blades rotating haltingly during the pre-oil process until they suddenly spun with a rush as Spalding initiated ignition. A puff of white smoke belched briefly from the exhaust as residual oil burned off. Mike then got the engine up to temperature, and ran his cockpit checks before waving for the team to pull the chocks. He then taxied out to the runway for takeoff, with Mark Darrow following in his T-34C chase plane. Darrow’s roll in the Chase Plane is to afford safety to the process, as he may be able to see issues external to the Zero that Spalding could not from the Cockpit.
Paine Field is a massive facility, so it took some time for the Zero to reach the threshold of runway 34L. The faint clatter of its engine still reached the onlookers standing outside the Legend Flyers hangars as the former Imperial Japanese fighter sped down the runway and gently lifted into the sky. Mike then flew out to a designated flight test area partially overlapping Possession Sound immediately to the west of the runway for a dozen or so orbits before returning home for a successful landing. The first flight was short by design, as Spalding noted, “just to give the Zero a chance to get its first flow of air beneath its wings and cycle the gear, flaps, general operations checks and a return for a post flight inspection. If all is ok, we will put as many flights and as much time on it as we can in the coming days.”
Remarking on the first flight, Chief Pilot Mike Spalding noted: "It handled very nicely and light on the controls. With only a couple small tweaks to the control trims and a couple other very minor adjustments, which are to be expected after a first flight, we will be ready for another flight (me and the plane)."
Adding to this, Legend Flyers' Bob Hammer stated: “It’s been a long time coming. We are all super pleased here today!”
Keegan Chetwynd, Director and CEO of the Military Aviation Museum had this to say: "This first flight represents a major milestone for the museum. The Zero was perhaps the most significant Japanese aircraft type in WWII, and was America’s principal adversary in the air war over the Pacific. Having one represented in our flying collection helps us recognize, and honor those US naval and marine corps aviators who fought for the freedoms we all enjoy today."
He concluded by saying: "We still have a long road ahead, with plenty of test flying to do before the airplane is ready to fly home to Virginia Beach for public display, so stay tuned!"
Many thanks to Brad Pilgrim, Gordon Page, Dan Hammer, Jordan Arens and Simon Buttler for the images of today's first flight provided for this article. Many thanks must also go to Moreno Aguiari, publisher of Vintage Aviation News, for sourcing and coordinating our two photographers, Jordan Arens and Simon Butler.