[Note 1]At Friendship Field, Carman, Manitoba, aircraft restorer and self-taught engineer Bob Diemert and his friend Chris Ball are working on an unusual project which had its origins in the late 1970s.

Christened the "Defender", the unusual design is a throwback to the heavily armoured Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik close air support aircraft of the Second World War.

In order to raise the funds for the Defender, Diemert began to restore one of the rare Japanese aircraft he retrieved from Balalae, Solomon Islands, a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter, one of very few of the type still in existence.

Trying to ensure that the aerodynamics are properly established leads to a curious use of a bathroom scale mounted on the back of a pickup truck, an example of the unorthodox engineering that is employed in the project.

The result was a six-year-long period of acquiring footage, along with producer/cameraman Charles Kenowal, at a variety of locations including Diemert's home base of Carman, Winnipeg's Transport Canada offices and Texas.