Zero Down

VAN NUYS — In a hangar at Van Nuys Airport sits a once-airborne connection to World War II. The war bird conjures up images of machine-gun fire, shot up planes dueling in the skies and kamikazes crashing into the sea.

Aviation experts say only half a dozen Japanese-made Mitsubishi Zeros are left and one of them, a 1943 model, is being repaired by airplane mechanic Peter Regina. With 900 horsepower and speeds of up to 300 mph, the lightweight and highly maneuverable Zero was a force to reckon with in the Pacific skies.

“It was hard to stop. Until the U.S. Hellcat [fighter plane] came out, nothing could really compete with them,” Regina said Tuesday. “They were a real scourge in the Pacific.”

The F6F Hellcat, which was manufactured by Grumman and went into service in 1943, was faster and had more firepower than the Zero, Regina added.

Regina, who is repairing the plane for the museum that owns it, expects the $3-million plane to be flying in three months after completion of $85,000 in repairs, which are covered by insurance.

“I’m going to fly it when it’s done,” said the mechanic, who specializes in restoring and repairing planes from the 1940s and ‘50s. “It’s going to be more like a sports car than a fighter plane.”

The green plane was damaged during a crash landing in April while on location for a movie shoot on Ford Island in Hawaii. The Touchstone film, tentatively titled “Pearl Harbor,” is scheduled to be released next year.

After repairs, the Zero will be returned to the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica.

Zeros, the main Japanese fighter plane during World War II, took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and fought in the Battle of Midway, said Tony Beres, curator at the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

The museum has a Zero with a original Japanese engine, but it’s not flyable.

Japan built more than 10,000 Zeros, starting in 1939, Beres said. Most were destroyed or dismantled for scrap metal after the war, Regina said.

American pilots were discouraged from tailing the single-engine planes because they could easily turn on the pursuers, he said.

“The Japanese just about beat us in the Pacific with this airplane,” Beres said. “You didn’t get into a turn with them because they could out-turn you.”

“Old-timers used to say, ‘Try not to dogfight with a Zero,’ ” Regina added.

The single-engine aluminum planes could fly long distances, up to 620 nautical miles, before refueling.

“It sacrificed armor and self-sealing [fuel] tanks for the long range,” Beres said.

Unlike American and British planes, the Zero had no rubber coating on its tanks to seal punctures. The unprotected tanks and the magnesium in the plane’s construction made the aircraft very susceptible to going up in flames after being hit by gunfire, Beres said.

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But if the Zeros were not hit first, they could do serious damage with two 7.7-millimeter machine guns that shot through the nose propeller and two 20-millimeter wing guns.

“They were pretty devastating,” said the 53-year-old Regina, who lives in Granada Hills. “They could shoot down other planes and sink small ships.”

The Zero at Van Nuys is decorated with “dummy” guns, but the cockpit instruments are the Japanese originals.

The plane, full of corrosion and bullet holes, was found in overgrown jungle on an abandoned Japanese airfield in New Guinea in 1985, Regina said.

“It was definitely in the war,” he said.

The plane, which weighs about 5,800 pounds, was restored but has an American engine, which will also be inspected for damage.

Last week, Regina picked it up at North Island Naval Station in San Diego and brought it to his hangar/shop at Van Nuys Airport.

Three mechanics, including Regina, will fix the plane’s bent propeller, rebuild its wing flaps, replace the left wingtip and touch up its paint.

“It will look nice when it’s done,” Regina said. “One [mechanic] said it’s going right back to zero.”