ON THE COVER:
Kodachrome view of an early Douglas Havoc having its Wright R-2600 engines run up at the Douglas factory at Clover Field in Santa Monica, California. (USAAF)

FEATURES:

MYSTERY OF THE SASEBO RAIDER
How did the wreck of this Doolittle B-25B raider wind up at a major Japanese naval base? / by Steve Whitby

PEARL HARBOR ZEROS
The use of the Mitsubishi Zero in the attack on Pearl Harbor caught America by surprise. Nine Zeros were shot down and the wreckage was carefully recovered so it could be studied / by Howard Carter

AKUTAN ZERO
The discovery of a crash-landed Zero on a remote Aleutian island started the US Navy on a rush mission to recover the damaged warplane and ship it to NAS San Diego so it could be rebuilt to flying condition / by C.E. Colby

UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER
Fighting between Soviet Yak-9Ts and USAAF P-38 Lightnings was a foretaste of the coming Cold War / by Steve Blake

COST OF WAR
In this month’s feature, we examine how Germany’s lightning invasion of France during 1940 quickly destroyed French and British aerial assets / by Michael O’Leary

DUCK DISCOVERY
How the MAPS Air Museum came across an ultimate “barn find” — a stash of Goodyear Duck airframes and parts that had been thought scrapped decades earlier / by David Pawski, Peg Deibel, and Debbie Bussinger

DEPARTMENTS:

MESSAGE FROM PUBLISHER

WARBIRD & CLASSIC REPORT
Lots of news this month including first engine runs for a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and Grumman F6F-3 plus Stuka restoration progress / by Doug Fisher

LOG ENTRIES
Movie crash pilot Dick Grace was a well-known aviation
personality during the 1920s/1930s. We examine his attempt at flying the unusual Waterhouse Cruzair from Hawaii to California and discuss if this was an actual attempt or a publicity scam / by Mark Bingham

FRIDAY NIGHT OLDIES
More Kodachromes of surplus ex-military aircraft before they become million dollar-plus collector items /
by Doug Fisher

DOWN MEMORY’S RUNWAY
American aircraft from aviation’s glorious history / by Norm Taylor

AIRLINES
News and views from the readers of Air Classics