A fascinating piece of aviation history this is a set of official photographs from the crash of "the Akutan Zero" in 1942. The Japanese launched an attack on the Alaskan islands coinciding with the Battle of Midway. During a bombing run on Dutch Harbor this Japanese Zero suffered damage from small arms fire. The pilot attempted to make an emergency landing on Atukan Island, hoping to be recovered by a waiting Japanese submarine, however, the landing gear bogged down in the soft tundra flipping the plane and killing the pilot.
It took over a month for US forces to locate the plane, but despite the crash the aircraft was in relatively good condition. The plane was eventually salvaged and restored to flying condition, and was an invaluable find for the United States as they were able to conduct performance tests on the Zero, learning precious intelligence on it's capabilities. The tests unearthed weaknesses in the Zero design that were later exploited by US pilots, making the difference in life or death dogfights over the Pacific Theatre.
The set contains 5 photos, they each have varying levels of damage from age and the photos are curved from storage, however they could be easily flattened in a frame. We have omitted close ups of two photos since they depict the deceased pilot but all 5 photos will be included with your purchase.
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