The 'Zekes' (Zeros) in the Tora film were heavily modified Harvard IVs with changes to wing, fuselage, canopy and tail profiles which achieved a reasonable reproduction of the shape of the original. These replicas were actually slightly larger than the original overall but, obviously, had much reduced performance. They maintained the original Harvard engine but had a three-bladed propeller from an Otter, run through a 2:1 reduction gearing. This gave them a significantly different sound to a standard Harvard but also more power. In a display you could enter a loop from only 150 KIAS and maintain looping energy throughout. However, rolling at low speeds in a half-Cuban 8 would generate very large sideslip angles for rolls in one direction (I cannot remember which). I know of one of the airframes that, at the time, was based at Kalamazoo which had the fin offset by a few degrees to improve the directional stability characteristics. On the ground, propeller tip clearance was not great so you had to always fly a three-point landing. In addition, the mainwheel oleo pressures were increased to give more prop tip clearance although the increased nose-up pitch attitude on the ground meant that you could not fill the fuel tanks quite so full.
The Harvard Formation Team at North Weald operated one, N15798, in 1988 and 1989. Gary Numan's aircraft was a standard Harvard IIB, G-AZSC, painted in a Japanese colour scheme (white with red roundels) and was often flown as a pair with the 'Zeke' replica. That Zeke was a very reliable airframe which, 18 years after the film, said a lot for the standard of the modification. At the end of the 1989 season this Zeke replica went to New Zealand. Very happy memories of 'The Squadron' at North Weald in the 1989 season!
Rgds
'Harvard 5'
Last edited by LOMCEVAK; 29th Dec 2018 at 14:57.