This aircraft: This Zero was one of many Japanese combat planes destroyed by American bombing on Babo Airfield in New Guinea during World War II. In the early 1990s this Zero wreck was discovered and acquired by Bruce Fenstermaker and the Santa Monica Museum of Flying.

Around 1994, three recovered Zeros, including this one, were sent to Russian for restoration. The fighter's salvageable parts were retained, while missing or heavily-damaged components were created by Russian craftsmen in order to make the planes flyable again. By the late 1990s, the trio of aircraft was back in the United States. In order to operate dependably, each aircraft was fitted with a specially-modified Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine. The engines contained a mixture of components in order to be as compact as possible and fit in a standard A6M cowling.