The original
Model was built as a clipped wing version and was painted light grey all over
To represent a carrier based early version Zero.

After flying it for some four or five years it was seriously damaged after an argument with some trees at a fly-in.
For a while the remains were stored in the back of the loft, when I eventually decided to rebuild it I added the radial wing tips and changed the colour scheme to the more common dark green and light grey scheme.

When it flew again it was something of a disappointment due to the added weight in the repair work. After a few flights I decided to retire the model before I ended up doing too much damage to it due mainly to the very fast landing speeds necessary to get it down safely.

So another spell in the storage area and OK one last attempt at getting her flying again, so what was needed was to remove as much weight from the rear end of the model as possible without weakening the structure too much.

The all-up weight of the model before the last rebuild was around 28 lbs and even though it seems like I have taken half the structure out of the tailplane and moved the radio gear forward it still came out at 26 lbs.

Oh well we tried, anyway it’s now ready to fly again and is awaiting a day with the right conditions for a test flight.

The zero on finals at the UK nationals.

The Zero in flight with the new colour scheme before the rebuild.