Santa Monica Museum of Flying (Closed)
2772 Donald Douglas Loop
North Santa Monica, California 90405
Edwards AFB, CA 93524-1850
Tel 310-392-8822
Founder by David Price

The museum has closed (according to their official website, temporarily closed).

The Museum of Flying formally housed collection of World War II fighter aircraft. The majority of the aircraft within the collection were sold to other museums. In its collection was following:

A6M Zeros Built in Russia
Based on wreckage salvaged by Bruce Fenstermaker from Babo Airfield in 1991, Santa Monica Museum of Flying commissioned a Russian restoration facility to build three Zeros between 1994 - 1997. Each restoration had a budget of approximately $300,000 USD.

Originally, the plan was to build one example of each model: A6M2, A6M3 and A6M5. Instead, the Zeros built used primarily new materials and incorporated features of A6M2 Model 21 Zero, like folding wingtips, yet all three were based on A6M3 Model 22 Manufacture Numbers.

Built for flying, all mounted P&W R-1830 engines. All three were assigned 'real' Zero identies, it is unclear if these were selected from the recovered wreckage or parts from Babo. The completed aircraft were:

1) A6M3 Model 22 Zero 3869 Tail X-133 (Replica)
2) A6M2 Model 21 Zero 3852 - Two Seat Version (Replica)
3) A6M3 Model 22 Zero 3858 (Replica)

Last Updated
September 30, 2009