The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) is world renowned for their advocacy of warbird aircraft. When the CAF reenacts scenes from the 1970 Twentieth Century Fox film “Tora Tora Tora!” using some of the same aircraft used in the filming of the movie, it’s always a feast for the eyes and ears. The aircraft are of course not the actual Nakajima B5N Kates, Aichi D3A Vals, and Mitsubishi A6M Zeros used to attack Pearl Harbor on that infamous day, but they do provide plenty of smoky noisy fun when they perform their act. This video was uploaded to YouTube by AirshowStuffVideos. Enjoy!
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The performance was shot during at the 2018 Terra Haute Airshow from a unique perspective. The sharper-eyed Avgeeks among you will notice that some of the replica Zeros have modified wingtips to make their appearance truer to the actual Zeros flown by Imperial Japanese navy pilots during the actual attack on Pearl Harbor. The majority of the aircraft used in the making of the film and the reenactments today are based on the North American T-6/SNJ/Harvard trainer. Some of the others are modified Vultee BT-13 Valiants. All are fun to watch.
The CAF began performing their Tora Tora Tora! reenactments in 1972 at Galveston’s Scholes Field. Back in those days Texas Raiders would approach the field with smoke trailing from the number 3 engine and with only one wheel down to “simulate” one of the eleven B-17Es that arrived in Hawaii during the Japanese attack. For many years, CAF “Colonel” Van Skiles would actually touch the one extended wheel down on the runway and fly the length of the runway as had been done in the movie. For many years the CAF reenacted that one-wheel approach.
