Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Cole Center's Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie Centennial


In 2005, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park celebrated the 100th anniversary of Wilbur Wright's 39-minute flight over Huffman Prairie in the Wright Flyer III. The flight marked the culmination of the Wright brothers' flying experiments and the beginning of the age of practical flight. The centennial celebration featured a reenactment flight by Mark Dusenberry in his reproduction Wright Flyer III and an address by Historian Tom D. Crouch.

On Memorial Day, May 27, 2024, Ron Cole and Erin Cole, representing their non-profit collection, Cole Center Zanesville, acquired this remarkable - and now very famous historic - aircraft for public display and demonstration in Downtown Zanesville, Ohio.


Our Flyer returned to Huffman Prairie in 2007

Saturday, April 27, 2024

The Last Letter Home


This work of art and poetry was created on fragile rice paper by a young Japanese named Yasuto Nitta on November 3, 1944. He was an experienced pilot in the Navy; the wingman of his unit's commander - the 321st Kokutai, equipped with the 'Gekko' night fighter. It was sent from his base to his parents in Japan the day before his final Shimpu (Kamikaze) flight against the American carrier fleet. All of the writing and imagery was drawn using the tiny characters for 'Namu Ami Da Butsu' (May my spirit be accepted into heaven). His thumbprints and handprints signify the importance and reverence he was bestowing upon the document - the last correspondence of his life.
Of particular significance is his poem (far right), which reads:
"To my parents far away in the homeland, I leave this final message: The cherry blossoms that fall, and those that do not fall - are all cherry blossoms."
It was a somewhat rebellious thing for the young airman to leave as his last words. He was saying that, in a war where one's duty was to die for his country (to fall like a cherry blossom), one did not have to fall to be of equal value and beauty. One did not have to die in order to be a hero.
Yasuto Nitta was killed in action on November 4, 1944. The results of the mission remain unknown.





Sunday, December 31, 2023

2023: Our Year in Review

 

This year has been a huge one for Erin and me, and for our business, Cole's Aircraft. The business grew by exactly 50% over last year (2022), which is about exactly where we wanted to be - not too drastic, not too flat. We sold exactly 3,293 pieces of my art and grossed 1.28 million dollars. These figures certainly give me pause as an artist, reminding myself that while my days are filled with the necessary 'grunt work' of boxing orders, pairing labels, and ordering supplies - I'm still selling my own artwork to people who collect it. We're not investing in ever greater things based upon an inheritance, managing somebody else's invention, or outsourcing products to China. I create art, print it, sign it, and sell it. It's that simple, and that's pretty amazing to me. Anyone who is familiar with where I was thirty years ago, I'm frankly just happy to still be alive. In light of all of that, it's been a very good year. Our Cole's Aircraft Online Store

This year saw us commit to our largest project in the twelve-year history of our company. We purchased a 27,000-square foot commercial building in downtown Zanesville, Ohio. Built in 1926, this four-story historic structure was occupied by Montgomery Ward until 1974. We established a new 501(c)(3) non-profit company and donated the entire building to it, thus creating Cole Center Zanesville (CCZ) directly across from the Muskingum County Courthouse. While Cole's Aircraft will lease about 2000-square feet from the Center (which will in turn help its operating costs), the vast majority of CCZ will be renovated to support local education and increase tourism into our downtown through promoting the arts, history, aviation, aerospace, engineering and design. If I bordered upon the tacky by revealing our for-profit numbers for 2023, it's because we will soon be launching a massive capital funding campaign to help bring the Center to full fruition. Our own personal pledge will be significant, but the CCZ will ultimately cost 3.8 million dollars to complete. We donated the building, and the City of Zanesville has already approved a $23,000 grant. All of this within ninety days! We're off to a fabulous start, but this is only the beginning. 

For more information about Cole Center Zanesville:  Cole Center Zanesville: Executive Summery and Cole Center Zanesville, Our Vision

Within the local art scene, Erin and I committed to be officers in the Artist Colony of Zanesville (ArtCOZ), Erin as President and myself as Secretary. The Colony has enjoyed a very successful year, with a membership drive that took us past the 100-member mark for the first time since 2006. We led a great team that hosted the 2023 Y-Bridge Arts Festival, our region's largest outdoor annual event, and Holiday Arts Fest at our Welcome Center in December to end the year. We're both still on the hook as ArtCOZ officers through 2024.     

Our son, Ronnie Cole, graduated from Xavier University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Engineering. This past July he started his career with Boeing in St. Louis, writing code for their military flight simulators - and other 'need to know' projects. So utterly proud of him!

Barnes & Noble is picking up Ron Cole's Warbirds of World War Two wall calendar for the nineth year in a row. Royalties are not life-changing, but it's a great way to get my art in front of new people. 

Our main Zanesville gallery, at 616 Main Street, has evolved a lot in 2023. We've had our original Japanese A6M2 Model 21 Zero Fighter (built in 1943 and recovered from the island of Ballalae in 2019) for eighteen months and has become essentially complete this year, with the addition of original components such as one Type 87 aircraft machine gun (inoperable), original Type 96 ku radio receiver (the world's only known example), and a pilot's seat that was built to exact specs (the original seats were made of a nickel/magnesium alloy that exfoliated very quickly). Thus, we almost have one of the rarest original warbirds in the world that you can sit in, right here in Zanesville, Ohio on public display. Cole's Downtown Gallery 

Erin and I hosted the WHIZ/Marquee Broadcasting Christmas Party again this year, then hosted what was supposed to have been a surprise retirement party a few days later for WHIZ General Manager Doug Pickrell (congrats, Doug and Star)!  We never designed our 616 Main Street space as an event center, but that so many people are drawn to the atmosphere of this place and regularly ask to join us there - it's rewarding to share a place with friends that we created with our own eccentricities in mind (we have a table made out of a real zebra, after all). 

I created an especially unique piece for this year's Festival of Trees, an annual tradition I've undertaken in support of the Zanesville Muskingum County Chamber of Commerce for seven years running. My painting depicts the USS Airship Shenandoah carrying Santa Clause to Zanesville over the Muskingum County Courthouse. It raised a record $2,700 for the Chamber at auction. Erin and I worked on the WHIZ submission this year; a Christmas event table with a nutcracker built into it, and a nutcracker theme. It raised in excess of $7000 for the cause and included a marketing package from the station. A terrific event overall, made all the more festive as it always takes place during the November First Friday Art Walk downtown, and our gallery is open the following day as well. Perhaps I'm confusing 'festive' with 'chaotic' - but it all came together in the end. 

In 2024 Cole's Aircraft will be expanding its product line into aerospace to include displays featuring Apollo and space shuttle programs, but we will not ignore new aviation subjects in the new year. We will be supercharging our collection of important artifacts and artwork for display in the new building. 

Above all, Erin and I wish to thank everyone, near and far, for their support of our projects, products, and of course friendship. 

Happy New Year!   

Ron & Erin Cole

Friday, December 15, 2023

 

The Cole Center Zanesville


Executive Summary

The Cole Center Zanesville (CCZ) will be a transformational project in historic downtown Zanesville and elevate what has been a growing art tourism niche in Zanesville to a premiere destination that will draw thousands of aviation and art enthusiasts. CCZ will also serve as a center for educational events and programming to educate visitors on aviation history and expose youth to art, aviation, science, technology and industrial design.  

The CCZ is the vision of Ron and Erin Cole. Ron Cole’s nationally renowned works of aviation art have already proven to be a tourist attraction at his gallery on Main Street in Zanesville. CCZ will be nearly 7-times larger and dedicated to entertaining and inspiring visitors young and old. 

In mid-2023 Ron Cole and his wife, Erin Cole, purchased the formerly condemned 26,000-square-feet historic Montgomery Ward Building in downtown Zanesville, Ohio, and established Cole Center Zanesville, Inc., as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (CCZ). CCZ will transform the historic structure into a museum and interactive collection of historic aviation and automotive displays, all in the interests of art, education, tourism, and local economic development.

The CCZ project has the support of the City of Zanesville, which as has awarded a $23,000 grant to the project. The Zanesville-Muskingum County Conventions and Visitors Bureau also supports the project as it can be a center piece of the community’s arts and culture tourism strategy that will complement the Zanesville Art Museum, the Alan Cottrill Sculpture Studio, Yan Sun Art Museum & Gallery and downtown First Friday’s Events.  

The Coles have and will continue to personally invest in the project. However, state and private foundation grant requests and a planned capital campaign will help offset the high cost of rehabilitating the downtown building. Once renovated, fee revenues will allow the sustained operation of the Cole Art Center. 




Background

Ron and Erin Cole have a successful aviation art business, Cole’s Aircraft Aviation Art, with an existing 4,000-square-feet gallery and studio at 616 Main Street, Zanesville, Ohio. Cole’s Aircraft Aviation Art offers over 600 different products.  From the studio they produce prints of historic aircraft and ship them around the world. Many of Ron Cole’s high-end works include actual pieces of the historic aircrafts in the art. Learn more at https://roncole.net.

Ron is a product development engineer, artist, and designer who has worked for Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Boeing, NASA and other renowned companies. His passion has always been aviation, and 12 years ago, he made his aviation art business his full-time job. The Cole Aviation Art Gallery is a showcase and has helped to reinvigorate Main Street in Zanesville.     

The Coles both serve as officers for the Artist Colony of Zanesville (ArtCOZ), which hosts the community's First Friday Art Walks, Y-Bridge Arts Festival, and Holiday Art Fest, among other area art activities and shows. The Coles recognize how tourism art can drive economic revitalization. 

Ron Cole is a collector of historic aircrafts and aircraft elements. The center piece of his existing gallery on Main Street is the cockpit and front fuselage of a WWII A6M2 Model 21 Zero fighter. 

Most of his collection has remained in storage due to lack of display space, but the collection includes significant pieces of aviation and aerospace history, such as a girder from the airship Hindenburg, original material from the Wright Brother's 1903 Flyer and Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, sections of titanium from an SR-71 Blackbird, Space Shuttle Atlantis, Apollo 1, and hundreds of other important pieces of history and technology covering the dawn of flight to the present day. 

The exhibit space at the CCZ will allow for more displays of aviation and automotive history and art on a much larger scale than the current gallery.

CCZ is being modeled after the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine. That facility has been operational for almost 50 years and draws over 30,000 visitors a year. The Owls Head Transportation Museum was established as a non-profit collection of historic transportation-themed displays in 1974. The collection has grown to include over 150 historic aircraft, automobiles, and related artifacts. The facility is constantly booked for related events, conventions, auctions, reunions, and lectures, all of which bring thousands of visitors into the small community of Owls Head. Focusing upon education and inspiring young people, the organization plays a vital role in exposing young minds to technology, history, mechanics, and other subject matter. Learn more at https://owlshead.org.

Owls Head is a small town far removed from other cities. Conversely, CCZ is four blocks from heavily traveled I-70 between Columbus and Pittsburgh. The CCZ will be a draw for aviation enthusiasts and augment Ohio’s aviation strengths and history as home of the Wright brothers, WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker, record-setting astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Museum, GE Aircraft Engines, NASA Glenn and the burgeoning eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) industry.


Cole Center Zanesville

Text Box: Exterior RenderingThe Coles acquired the four-story former Montgomery Ward, 35 S. 4th Street, Zanesville, during the summer of 2023. The building had been largely vacant for over 20 years and decaying with time. The 26,000-square-feet building was condemned by the City of Zanesville before the Coles bought it. The roof has been repaired, and the property has been sealed. Plans have been made for a $3.8-million complete renovation of the building. 

A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization the Cole COZ, Inc., will own the building. CCZ will operate the facility as “an event and program venue which collects, preserves, and promotes artifacts, relics, and artwork for the benefit of the people of Zanesville, Ohio, and the surrounding communities by facilitating collaboration, tourism, and education of art history and technology.” The Coles will donate their vast collection of art, displays, and rare artifacts to CCZ.

The CCZ mission has two parts, neither of which will ever be at the expense of the other: Help recognize, preserve, and display Ohio's preeminent role in aerospace development in the United States, and to utilize our displays, our building, our events and our location, to help educate and inspire our young people in the areas of aerospace, technology, history, design, and art.

The CCZ will feature two floors of exhibit space as well as event space and classroom space. Learn more at: https://colesaircraft.world/cole-art-center




Project Economic Impacts

CCZ will become key component of the Zanesville community’s arts and culture tourism strategy that will complement the Zanesville Art Museum, the Alan Cottrill Sculpture Studio, Yan Sun Art Museum & Gallery and downtown First Friday’s Events.  

Based upon the Owls Head museum in Maine visitors and visitors to the Alan Cottrill Sculpture Studio in Zanesville, thousands of art and aviation enthusiasts can be expected to visit CCZ. 

A study by Tourism Economics calculated that visitors spent $155.4 million in Muskingum County in 2019. The Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study found that a typical Southeastern Ohio arts and culture visitor from outside of the county spends an average of $48 in a community they visit. While The Wilds is the biggest attraction in the county, visitors often seek add-on events to turn a day-trip into a weekend trip. CCZ will provide the over 110,000 annual visitors to The Wilds a reason to turn a day trip into a weekend trip. Adding an overnight stay, greatly increases the visitor expenditures through lodging, meals and bed taxes. The Convention and Visitor Bureau (CVB) estimates adding an overnight stay increases per person expenditures by $120 per person. Even modest assumptions about visitors and overnight stays could generate a half a million dollars a year in visitor spending in Muskingum County. 




Project Educational Impacts

The Coles intend to significantly expand upon the community’s efforts to help young people of our region determine how they wish to proceed with their education. Through CCZ, the Coles will significantly expand upon their partnership with leaders of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) programs in the area by offering career exploration, dual enrollment credit opportunities, and apprenticeships. The Coles are meeting regularly with leaders from Foxfire public charter school for at-risk youth to establish joint programs for their students at CCZ.


Project Budget










Project Sustainability

CCZ has employed a CPA with non-profit experience to prepare five-year operating financial projections. Revenues will include memberships dues, admission fees, tour fees, rent and gift shop sales. Expenses include payroll, utilities, advertising, insurance, and other related operating expenses.  The Owls Head Aviation and Transportation Museum in the small town of Owls Head, Maine, serves as the model.  The Owls Head facility has been operational for nearly 50 years in a more isolated location, yet it draws over 30,000 visitors a year. The projections show CCZ opening in year two after completing renovations. Year two revenues are projected at $125,985. Projections reflect a ramp up of visitors and revenue each year, reaching positive cash flow by the fourth year of operations.

Approximately 4,500 SF of space in the basement of the building will be leased to Cole’s business, Cole’s Aircraft Aviation Art for production and warehouse space. The business will pay a market rent to CCZ, which will help sustain its operations. 

 

Project Timeline

CCZ is proceeding with project design and permitting. The Coles hope to receive approval for the Ohio’s Strategic One-Time Community Investment Fund grant in the summer of 2024 and begin construction in the fall of 2024. Construction will take an estimated 14 months. CCZ should be open and operational in early 2026.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

The Amazing Journey of a Zero Fighter

 by Ron Cole

It was the world's first Honda Civic. Japan's automobile industry, as we know it today, evolved directly from its pre-Pacific War aviation industry. The A6M Zero Fighter, the Honda T360, Civic, Nissan GTR, they all share the same history, DNA, and design philosophies.

Japan was keenly aware of its own weaknesses in the 1930s and invested heavily in making the most of its strengths. Japan had to import nearly all of its steel and petroleum, which made the country dependent upon foreign powers such as the United States. 

This reality shaped both Japanese industry and its foreign policy. By 1941 the latter had given birth to Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War. By the same time the former had given birth to the Zero Fighter.

The Zero was the brainchild of Mitsubishi's Jiro Horikoshi (1903 - 1982). At that time the world's air forces were flying relatively heavy fighters powered by large displacement engines. They were, to take a metaphor one step further, the muscle cars of the skies. Fast and powerful machines, the idea of facing such aircraft in deadly combat was unsettling to Japanese designers whose job it was to make something better. 

As it is today, there is nothing like extreme pressure to force the best out of innovative and creative people.

What Horikoshi and others (the engine of the Zero was a product of Nakajima Aircraft Company) created will sound familiar to Japanese automobile owners. The Zero was astonishingly light weight, incorporating a Japanese-formulated aluminum alloy that other nations did not equal until many years later. Its engine was small and possessed a decent power to weight ratio but was incredibly fuel efficient for the time. The front-line American fighter of the time, the P-40 Warhawk, had a maximum range of around 600 miles. The Zero Fighter had a maximum range of about 1,600 miles. Its light weight combined with other innovations made the Zero wickedly maneuverable in combat, an advantage that was never really bested by any Allied aircraft throughout the Pacific War. 

Like all assembly lines in Japan at the time, every Zero Fighter was built by men in tabi socks and sandals (zori) by hand. Build quality was extremely high and workers were very skilled in their specialties, a combination in keeping with quality over quantity - a practice that was to Japan's determent as the war escalated. Every Zero was finished in high gloss paint and polished to a show car-like sheen.  

When Allied pilots first faced Zeros in combat during the first phase of the Pacific War through 1942, they were completely outfought, and losses were high. Allied propaganda attempted to counter the demoralizing impact of the Zero by insisting that it was a copy of various American designs, falsehoods that persist to this day. The advantages that the Zero possessed in combat were eventually mitigated by newer tactics that included hit and run dives. 

By the end of 1943 the production capability of the Allies meant that for every Zero put into the air it was likely to face up to 40 opponents. Defeat in war was by then unavoidable for Japan. 


Our A6M2 Model 21 Zero Fighter, s/n 7830 


The cockpit of our Zero Fighter contains only original equipment.

Original Zero Fighters are almost extinct, today. 

After the Pacific War and beginning with the Allied occupation of Japan, all Japanese aircraft in Japan were destroyed. They were typically bulldozed into large piles, sprayed with gasoline or napalm, burned and buried. While that sounds like what bad kids did to their toys in the '70s, it was a dispassionate order handed down directly from General Douglas MacArthur, and it was a response to the wartime effectiveness of the Kamikaze. The concern remained after the war that even a single airplane with an aggrieved Japanese at its controls could inflict a lot of damage upon occupying forces. As a result, virtually everything in Japan that could fly was ordered destroyed, including early machines in museums, civil aircraft, airliners, as well as former military aircraft. Other nations after the war, including Germany, enjoyed some versatility regarding the repurposing of its wartime aircraft. All opted to scrap the majority of their inventories, which helped the world avoid the expected post-war economic recession, but the World War 2 warbirds that fly today often owe their existence due to their post-war utilization as VIP transports, firefighters, air racers, or for sport flying. But no aircraft of any type in Japan was similarly spared.    

Japanese aircraft being burned by occupation forces in Japan post-war. 

 
Our Zero Fighter rolled off of its assembly line in April of 1943. Built under license by Nakajima Aircraft Company, it was one of the last of the early-model A6M2 Model 21s ever built. The first production model of the Zero Fighter, this variant saw action over Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and remained the preferred version of the Zero Fighter among most Japanese pilots throughout the war. It was given the serial number 7830, which was deliberately misleading. The first digit was a random numeral intended to confuse Allied intelligence in the event the aircraft was ever captured, therefore it was the 830th Model 21 built by Nakajima. 

By that time the war was in the process of turning against Japan. The Japanese had finally accepted the loss of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, a defeat that was far more pivotal in the war than was Japan's loss at Midway in 1942. For the first time in its history, Japan was engaged in a prolonged war of attrition. Nothing in Japanese military doctrine, nor in the planning of its industry, existed to help guide it through what faced their nation. The pragmatism and ingenuity that was embodied in the design of its Zero Fighter had no equal within Japan's leadership. 

Zero s/n 7830 was among 74 new aircraft assigned to a newly created unit within the Japanese Naval Air Force, the 201st Kokutai, and was given the tail code 'WI-129'. The unit was tasked to seize air superiority from the Allies in the South Pacific and buy the Navy enough time to create and train a surface force capable of defeating the United States Navy. That was a great deal to expect from 74 Zero Fighters, even though they were sent to the front piloted by some of the best men the Japanese had, including many who had survived both Pearl Harbor and Midway. The tragedy of the 201st, as it smashed itself to pieces down to the last plane and pilot in combat over the ensuing year, was that it attained an incredible record against its enemy and created more 'Aces' in its ranks than any other unit in the Navy, but its accomplishments remain lost to history due to the fact nearly everyone who witnessed its accomplishments died in action. Zero WI-129, and its brethren of the 201st, tallied an impressive 450 confirmed 'victories' against Allied aircraft during its short-lived existence. 

WI-129 was based near Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, at an airfield at the base of an active volcano named Tavurvur. The Japanese had turned the area into one of its most powerful bastions by 1942, though virtually no one enjoyed the experience of the place. While the drama of the war gave rise to a nostalgic song sung by the Japanese entitled, Farewell Rabaul, I shall See You Again Soon, it was remembered by veterans who survived the war as a daily hell of constant air raids, the belching volcano, dreadful heat, humidity, and death.      



The Allies invaded the island of Bougainville, only 275 miles to the southeast of Rabaul, in November of 1943. The invasion was a bold move that threatened Japan's position in the South Pacific, bypassed and cut off their advanced airbase on the tiny island of Ballalae, and put a knife to the throat of Rabaul and the 201st Kokutai. The latter's intended mission was thus subverted, while it and all of Japan's air power in the region were thrown onto the defensive. Often the 201st flew up to three missions a day against Bougainville and their losses were both catastrophic and irreplaceable. These actions created many gallant aces, then as quickly killed them. Since Japanese fighter pilots were rarely assigned to specific aircraft, surely a great many of these pilots flew Zero WI-129. The wear and tear within its cockpit, that is still evident today, shows how hard this airplane was flown during its short career in constant battle. The aluminum pads on the rudder pedals are nearly worn through. The guiderails of the throttle and weapon's trigger system shows the dents and rugged wear caused by a pilot constantly demanding overboost and as quickly cutting back power to whip the aircraft into a tight maneuver, then slamming the lever to the firewall again. At least one of its pilots smoked Chinese cigarettes in flight, as the wrapping paper was found 80 years later under the fuselage fuel tank. He should be forgiven the vice. Another Zero pilot of the time, Saburo Sakai (who I befriended back in the 1980s), once explained, "Many talk about those air battles as though they were times of excitement. It was never such an experience for me. After a typical hard battle, I would return to Rabaul with all ammunition depleted, holes in my fighter, and soaked in my own sweat. More than once my ground crew had to physically carry me out of the airplane, I was so exhausted I could not stand on my own two feet." 


The final combat of our Zero Fighter was fought in the skies over Bougainville. A .50 caliber bullet struck WI-129 in its fuselage fuel tank, which would have caused gasoline to leak into the cockpit. Its pilot was faced with a grim decision. Rabaul was 250 miles away, but Ballalae Island was 50 miles to the south. Ballalae
had a usable airstrip but had been cut off from supplies. Its garrison had begun to seed crops on the runway. Several men attempted to swim the distance to Bougainville but were never seen again. Almost every day, and for the duration of the war, Allied bombers used the tiny island for bombing practice.

Our Zero Fighter and its pilot successfully navigated to Ballalae and accomplished a good wheels-down landing. The aircraft would have been pushed into the jungle as quickly as possible to hide it from enemy aircraft. No attempt was ever made to repair or replace the fuselage fuel tank. Its guns were soon removed for use in base defense. There is some evidence that other equipment was removed, possibly to help keep a few other Zeros flying. Over time the constant air attacks holed the airframe with bomb splinters, but WI-129 survived the war more or less intact. The surviving Japanese were repatriated between 1946 and 1947. All of their equipment was left behind, and Ballalae reentered its lonely existence as an uninhabited spot in the vastness of the South Pacific. 


A New Adventure

There might have been time, during the 1950s and 1960s, for someone with unique foresight to have come to the rescue of many historic warbirds in only one part of the world - the South Pacific. The ruggedness of the terrain, the vast distances between former island air bases, the brutality of the climate, the underdevelopment of the local economies and low human populations all conspired to make it hard for anyone to easily destroy the machines of war in the region. Unfortunately, just as some, mostly in the West, started to take notice that the once great air armadas of every nation had already been nearly wiped out, the scrapping industries in countries like China and Indonesia arrived on the scene with mechanized methods to more cheaply exploit the region's easy money. 

By the time the pioneers of warbird preservation, like the renown Charles Darby, arrived in places like Papua New Guinea with notebooks and cameras to document what might be saved, they found only the few leftovers; some aircraft too remote to have been worth melting down, and lots of hacked to pieces hulks, scant evidence of the goldmine that had awaited them if they'd only arrived a few months or years earlier. 

I came onto the scene of warbird preservation in about 1984. I was a mature 15-years-old, so to be fair, I was as quick about taking up the cause as my age permitted. My near constant companion was a book written by the aforementioned Charles Darby titled Pacific Aircraft Wrecks and Where to Find Them (Kookaburra Technical Publications, 1979). I drafted my friends into joining a club I vaingloriously named the International Aero Research Society. I did all the work. 

Early one morning I received a call from Japan, which, in those days of long-distance charges and rotary phones, was an astonishment. It was Nobuo Harada, the legendary founder of the Kawaguchiko Museum near Tokyo and one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in all of his country. He'd heard about my efforts to draw attention to the world's last known Japanese G3M 'Nell' bomber that was then resting in fair condition near Rabaul, New Britain. Besides being the last of its kind, it had flown with the famous Mihoro Kokutai that had participated in the sinking of British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales, an event that marked the end of the battleship as the primary offensive weapon on the sea. An aviation archeologist and good friend of mine, Brian Bennett, had visited the site earlier that year and had taken dozens of important photographs, which he'd mailed to me. I forwarded copies of them to Japan. It was, in retrospect, my first 'assist' within an arena that would become a lifelong passion and profession. I'd helped instigate a process that would, hopefully, prevent an important historic aircraft from going extinct.  

In 1974 the government of Papua New Guinea passed wide reaching legislation that prohibited the salvage and export of war materials including aircraft from its territories. The Soloman Islands soon followed their example, as did other infant island nations such as the Federated States of Micronesia. 

The move was initiated based upon their collective realization that their economies were based largely upon tourism, and many international tourists were beginning to take an interest in seeing the sites where World War II took place. New growth jungle and water-filled bomb craters were only so visually interesting without plenty of aircraft wrecks strewn around. The legislation also intended to appeal to the locally popular opinion that rich foreigners were removing items of value from the local people without fair compensation. A lot of the latter had in fact been happening since the war, and it mattered little weather or not war material vanished due to being scrapped by Chinese companies or due to being carried off to an American museum. 

What resulted from both culminated into multiple political footballs over who owned what and where any money went. It wasn't just between outside interests, like Western aircraft preservationists, and representatives of local governments. There were conflicts between local government jurisdictions and landowners, village elders, and local law enforcement. 

Violence was not unheard of. 

One of the world's last Japanese 'Val' dive bombers being salvaged, Ballalae 2019 

Amid all of the drama that would seriously make an interesting Hollywood film, there has been one common thread that I've personally witnessed recur over and over again. The names have changed over the years, but there has always been at least one Westerner who has managed to undeservedly win the trust of local governments by proclaiming themselves to be the anointed protectors of those government's war materials. They've often successfully torpedoed most honestly brokered salvage negotiations over the last thirty years. I've encountered this particularly the case regarding Yap, which is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, but it's happened everywhere. 

In 2012 I was working with the Wings Museum of Surrey, United Kingdom, and representatives of the state of Yap regarding the possible salvage of some very select aircraft parts on the island. The Wings Museum had recovered the substantial remains of a Japanese B5N2 'Kate' torpedo bomber from Russian-controlled Shumshu Island in the Kuriles, but they lacked wings and other parts. Yap had the remains of two 'Kates' on their territory that possessed the parts the museum needed to preserve and display what would then be the world's only complete example of the aircraft type. A rare chance to bring the 'Kate' back from the dead.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) had conducted a very objective and scientific assessment of the remaining World War II aircraft on Yap in 2006. The conclusion of that assessment (which was published online and remains available for anyone to read) asserted that the aircraft had in many cases remained well preserved, but that in recent years corrosion had rapidly accelerated. The report offered many creative suggestions regarding what could be done to help preserve the aircraft on the island in the interests of local tourism and preservation in situ, but obviously pointed out that all of those measures would merely slow down the inevitable deterioration of aluminum alloys in the salty, tropical, open environment. With that assessment in hand, I felt confident that I could appeal to reason. I offered the manpower and limited funds necessary to implement some of the measures suggested in the TIGHAR report to help preserve certain important aircraft in situ, in exchange for two Japanese B5N2 'Kate' torpedo bomber wings and an engine. There was nothing in that particular negotiation for me, personally, besides the chance to see something good happen. 

The world's last 'Kate' bomber, wasting away on
Yap Island c. 2012

At first all went well. Then, a few weeks in, I received a call from an Aussie who offered to help in the process. It was soon clear that he wasn't so much interested in helping but intended to hijack me. He became rude and hostile when I explained that, yes, indeed, I intended to see some parts removed from Yap but that we could do much to help extend the life of other aircraft on the island in fair exchange. He talked over me. Nothing would leave Yap. The end. I reconnected with everyone who'd been open minded up until then but was given the brushoff. I'd encountered Yap's Western 'minder'. The negotiations were dead. 


The Wing's Museum eventually sold off their incomplete 'Kate'. It's still incomplete all of these years later. The parts on Yap, along with all of the other rare aircraft resting there, continue to deteriorate. Nothing has ever been done on the island to implement any of the measures suggested in 2006 to extend the life of the aircraft in situ, and nothing has been allowed to leave the state for preservation elsewhere. 

That story, with variances in location, subject, and detail, is a typical example of what has happened time and again across the South Pacific, with few exceptions.

A New Life for WI-129, and Ten Other Rare Warbirds