The National Air and Space Museum presumes that this A6M5 Zero Model 52 came from a group of Japanese aircraft captured on Saipan Island in April 1944. NASM technicians restored the Zero from August 1974 to July 1975.
Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero
The A6M was given the Allied code name "Zeke," but was generally called Zero. Allied pilots referred to all Japanese fighters as Zeros, but the term is correctly applied only to the Mitsubishi A6M. The marking on this Zero are of the 261st Naval Air Corps, which operated in Saipan.