[sharktrager]

I seemed to recall that the Zero was a superior aircraft, but our pilots were just much better. I particularly seem to recall Boyington training his pilots how to overcome the Corsair's weaknesses.

[reagandemo]

The Zero was more maneuverable but the Corsair had a higher dive rate.

[jscd3]

I seemed to recall that the Zero was a superior aircraft

No. The Corsair was far faster and had a much greater rate of dive and climb. It was the first fighter in the Pacific to exceed 400mph in level flight, and the first to make use of water injection for power boosts. It could literally leave a Zero in a cloud (the Zero experianced very heavy aerolon resistance above 300mph, limiting its top speed and its ability to perform high speed manuevers).

Because of its speed and exceptional dive and acceleration performance, Corsair pilots always had the luxury of meeting the Zeros on terms most favorable to the Corsair.

The Japs hated the Corsair - the Japanese navy nickname for the plane was "whistling death"

The Corsair is alo the only WWII fighter to ever be the subject of a lyrical poem - "Ode to an F4U"

[Strategerist]

The Zero was a desperately overrated aircraft. The idea that it was some sort of superweapon has somehow made it into a lot of crappy History Channel documentaries.

The only occassions the Zero racked up high kill totals were against very badly trained Dutch, British, and Chinese pilots, flying things like Brewster Buffalos. The Japanese pilots at the beginning of the war were very, very, very, very, very good.

At no time in the entire war did Zeros have a positive kill ratio against US Navy pilots; even when they were flying F4F Wildcats; the F4F Wildcat killed more Zeros than Zeros killed Wildcats.

How tightly an aircraft can turn basically turned out to be irrelevant in World War II; Durability, Speed, ability to roll at high speeds, firepower were all more important.

Thing about the Zero was that there had been so much mythology about Japanese being nearsighted and unable to fly well, and unable to build decent machinery, that it was incredibly shocking when they turned out to have anything that was even remotely competitive.

[RSmithOpt]

FYI: Basically, the Zero could out turn all our fighters but the Mustang and the Hellcat which could hang very well with the Zero. The Zero could not out climb or out dive the P-51 Mustang, the F4U Corsair or the Hellcat, nor was the Zero's speed close to those US aircraft. The Navy F6F Hellcat has the WWII record for downed enemy aircraft in the Pacific. Japanese pilots were terrified of the Corsair because of its speed and durability.

http://www.aviation-central.com/1940-1945/aen60.htm

In production longer than any other U.S. fighter in World War II (1942-1952) with 12,582 built, the Vought F4U "Corsair" had several claims to fame. It was credited with an 11:1 ratio of kills to losses in action against Japanese aircraft and was the last piston-engine fighter in production for any of the U.S. services.

All in all, the "Hellcat" was credited with destroying 5,156 enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat (75% of all Navy aerial kills) with a kill ratio of 19:1. Combat stories of F6F encounters with enemy aircraft during World War II are legendary.

[FreedomPoster]

There's a great show about Boyington running on the Military Channel right now. I saw it yesterday or the day before.

Lots of training of his pilots on how to conduct air combat. A true leader. They shot down something like 126 Japanese planes in 12 weeks immediately after moving to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.