Saturday, January 23, 2021
Subscriber Login
SpotlightNews
  • Home
  • News
    • Business
      • Spotlight On Business
      • Spotlight on Finance
    • Community
    • Covid-19 Updates
    • Crime
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Milestones
    • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • The Spot 518
  • Hot Spots Calendar
    • Calendar Listings
    • Submit Your Event
  • Opinion
    • Blogs
    • Our Opinion
    • Point of View
    • Your Opinion
  • Family Now
  • Classifieds
    • Classified Listings
    • Advertiser Login
  • Subscribe
    • Subscriber LogIn
    • Join us – Subscribe Today
    • Renew Subscription
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Business
      • Spotlight On Business
      • Spotlight on Finance
    • Community
    • Covid-19 Updates
    • Crime
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Milestones
    • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • The Spot 518
  • Hot Spots Calendar
    • Calendar Listings
    • Submit Your Event
  • Opinion
    • Blogs
    • Our Opinion
    • Point of View
    • Your Opinion
  • Family Now
  • Classifieds
    • Classified Listings
    • Advertiser Login
  • Subscribe
    • Subscriber LogIn
    • Join us – Subscribe Today
    • Renew Subscription
No Result
View All Result
Spotlight News
No Result
View All Result
Home News Business

Famous plane lands at Integra Optics in Colonie

Jim Franco by Jim Franco
December 12, 2018
in Business, Community, Entertainment, News, The Spot
0
Famous plane lands at Integra Optics in Colonie

Integra Optics CEO David Prescott stands on the wing of a Japanese Zero replica in his hangar at the Albany International Airport.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

COLONIE — While he was growing up in Minnesota, Integra Optics founder and CEO David Prescott watched the plane get shot down countless times in movies like “Tora! Tora! Tora!,” “Midway” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”

The 1952 Harvard Mk. IV, better known as TORA I, was built by the Canadian military and transformed into a replica of the Japanese Zero by 20th Century Fox. It was filmed for the big screen fighting American planes during WWII, and was more often than not on the losing end of those Hollywood battles. It is also, more specifically, a replica of a Japanese plane that flew in the second wave of attack on Pearl Harbor. More than 2,400 Americans died at the Hawaiian naval base on Dec. 7, 1941.

“As a kid, I grew up watching the Black Sheep Squadron and I watched this plane get shot down every week,” Prescott said of the late 1970s television series featuring a group of misfit fighter pilots under the command of Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington.

The meticulously kept plane was owned by Douglas Jackson, of Jackson and Associates, and for 22 years he flew it in airshows across the country. Jackson also encouraged people to get a close up look at plane to get a bit of its story, and by extension learn a little about our country’s entry into WWII — one of the most significant events in our history.

Prescott, a licensed pilot, a historic aviation enthusiast and U.S. Navy vet, now houses the plane at the Integra Optics hangar at Albany International Airport and plans to use it in much the same fashion as Jackson, who recently died of an aggressive form of cancer.

“I’ve always been into historic aviation and people reached out to me from the estate knowing that I would likely keep the plane going,” he said while sitting in an Integra Optical conference room next to the hangar and the company’s manufacturing plant. “My reasoning for keeping the plane going is it serves as an ability for us to reenact major battles and major events in American history. This aircraft is a replica of a plane used in the surprise attack of Pearl Harbor and that is a significant event we don’t want to forget.”

The plane is currently getting a new 600-horsepower Pratt & Whitney motor and should be airborne again by next spring. The motor will, of course, have a shiny 2018 penny wired it. It is more for tradition today, when information is readily available online, than the original purpose served decades ago of telling mechanics at remote airfields when the engine was installed.

But the plane is all about tradition. This summer it will be on the airshow circuit reenacting the storied dogfights between American and Japanese pilots that have captured imaginations for decades.

“To have Tora 101 in the air and available to the public is what Doug would have wanted,” said Sherry Henderson, Jackson’s widow. “Flying was his passion and his life, he would be so pleased and honored to have the Tora 101 legacy continued. My hope is that her story will be told for generations to come.”

When he owned the plane, Jackson corresponded with descendants of Japanese fighter pilots who flew the real Toras in WWII. He passed on that research to Prescott to help tell the story of the plane, and educate the next generation on the lessons of WWII.

While other pilots will fly the airshows, they won’t fly all of them. Prescott, will have some fun too.

“It’s a light, aerobatic plane and it’s fun to fly,” he said.

Asked how it compares to newer, sleeker models he said with a shrug: “An airplane is an airplane.”

But, the former Navy nuclear engineer last based at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit in Ballston Spa, said owning the plane is not all fun and games. It also serves significant practical and symbolic purposes.

“Integra Optics is a veteran owned company and a large percentage of our employees — up to 25 percent — are veterans and this plane is a tribute to all our veterans and the sacrifices they made to protect our country,” he said. “To me, it’s about history. It’s about keeping alive the history of our nation.”

When not flying in airshows, it will sometimes be on display at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville so people can get a close up look at it and learn a bit about its history.

It fits in nicely there, Prescott said, and it’s by coincidence. The Japanese Zero this airplane is modeled after flew off the storied aircraft carrier Akagi to bomb Pearl Harbor. The museum has a 33-foot model of that ship on display, so with the plane there, visitors will see a plane with the same markings of the ship it flew off on the day we got pulled into WWII.

Basically, Integra Optics, a company Prescott founded in 2007, “helps network engineers, designers and managers around the world build out new fiber optic networks, extend the value of their existing networks and maintain uptime with the most reliable transceivers and fiber optic components available,” according to its website.

More basically, it provides the ability of fiber optic technology to bring usable data to televisions, phones and computers around the globe with reliable, fast hookups to the internet.

So, what does a high-tech company working with fiber optics have to do with old airplanes.

At the beginning of WWII, the U.S. did not have an aircraft that could compete with the likes of the Japanese Zero, so U.S. aviation engineers had to work double time to produce an aircraft that could outmaneuver and outperform the Zeros.

“Integra Optics is all about attention to detail, so our tie to aviation is a natural fit,” Prescott said. “We expect quality and reliability when we are flying, and it is the same our customers receive when they buy a product from us.”

Click on a photo below to view a slideshow of the rest.

old airplane web-5960
old airplane web-5921
old airplane web-5916
old airplane web-5958
old airplane web-5946
old airplane web-5964
old airplane web-5955
old airplane web-5911
old airplane web-5922
old airplane web-5940
old airplane web-5929
old airplane web-5945
old airplane web-5920
old airplane web-5962
old airplane web-5934
old airplane web-5944
old airplane web-5950
Tags: 20th Century FoxAlbany International AirportIntegra Optics
Previous Post

Seuss’ big grouch pulls the audience in with unique charm

Next Post

Spotlight on Finance: Your financial plan should be about you

Next Post
Mahoney

Spotlight on Finance: Your financial plan should be about you

Leave Comment

Stay Connected with Us

  • 7k Fans
  • 4.6k Fans
  • 607 Fans
  • 357 Subscribers

Recent News

SPOTTED: Colonie boys roll past Burnt Hills on Senior Day

SPOTTED: Colonie boys roll past Burnt Hills on Senior Day

January 23, 2021
SPOTTED: Colonie girls bowling team loses nail biter to Schenectady

SPOTTED: Colonie girls bowling team loses nail biter to Schenectady

January 23, 2021
Albany man seen at BLM and Back the Blue protests arrested on weapon charges

Albany man seen at BLM and Back the Blue protests arrested on weapon charges

January 22, 2021
Albany County breaks hospitalization record; three more deaths

January on track to being the deadliest month in Albany County

January 22, 2021

Hot Stories This Week

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
POLL: 75 percent plan to get vaccinated; nearly half say Sen. Schumer will have a positive impact as majority leader

POLL: 75 percent plan to get vaccinated; nearly half say Sen. Schumer will have a positive impact as majority leader

January 20, 2021
Moriah Formica debuts new all-female band, Plush

Moriah Formica debuts new all-female band, Plush

January 22, 2021
Albany County vaccinates 375 at TU center

Albany County vaccinates 375 at TU center

January 8, 2021
Demolition of Tobin’s First Prize to start soon

Demolition of Tobin’s First Prize to start soon

January 21, 2021
SPOTTED: Colonie boys roll past Burnt Hills on Senior Day

SPOTTED: Colonie boys roll past Burnt Hills on Senior Day

January 23, 2021
SPOTTED: Colonie girls bowling team loses nail biter to Schenectady

SPOTTED: Colonie girls bowling team loses nail biter to Schenectady

January 23, 2021
Albany man seen at BLM and Back the Blue protests arrested on weapon charges

Albany man seen at BLM and Back the Blue protests arrested on weapon charges

January 22, 2021
Albany County breaks hospitalization record; three more deaths

January on track to being the deadliest month in Albany County

January 22, 2021
Spotlight News

Spotlight News, The Spot 518 and Capital District Family Now are divisions of Community Media Group, LLC. Our local offices are located at 341 Delaware Ave, Delmar, NY 12054. You can contact us at 518.439.4949.

Browse

Follow Us

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact the Editor
  • Employment
  • Our Team
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2021 Community Media Group, LLC - 341 Delaware Ave. Delmar, NY 12054. 518.439.4949

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Spotlight On Business
    • Spotlight on Finance
  • Sports
  • The Spot 518
  • Hot Spots Calendar
  • Opinion
  • Subscribe
  • Log In
  • Classifieds
    • Advertiser Login

© 2021 Community Media Group, LLC - 341 Delaware Ave. Delmar, NY 12054. 518.439.4949