Posted on 01/29/2014 7:58:18 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
The Zero was an unarmored, frail POS. Once we had fighters that could maneuver reasonably well, it was shot down like a Sopwith Camel would’ve been.
Didn’t the US have an aircraft like this one (but chose the F35 instead), called the “Black Widow” or something?
I trust that thug Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin [Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин] like I trusted Josef Stalin.
My grandpa used his pocket knife to cut off a piece of a zero that had been shot down over Guam. I saw the scrap. Not sure what ever happened to it.
To this set of untrained eyes, that plane nevertheless, looks formidable.
Just saying.
The Zero was excellent and performed superbly. The problem with it was that the Japanese did not rapidly seek a successor.
That airplane is not a Japanese Zero.
Yep. The Zero’s rep was built on it being incredibly light for the engine it had, so it had decent performance. However, again as you note, once the US got planes with good performance into the Pacific, the Zero was badly overmatched.
It’s laughable that the article cites the Zero’s performance over Pearl Harbor, since there wasn’t any effective US air cover for them to encounter seeing as how it was a sneak attack against a force that didn’t know it was even part of the war.
Pilot training and attrition had something to do with it as well.
Is that not a J-20.
Maybe I misinterpreted your comment.
I do not have a military background, but it seems to me, we are very, very slow to recognize we are building China into an awesome opponent.
Just saying.
Some of the same planes that would've fought the Zeros at Pearl Harbor had there been warning did well against the Zeros in China.
Zeros offered zero protection to the pilot, so certainly not “excellent” as fighters. US planes had armor in critical areas of the cockpit. Japan eventually ran out of experienced pilots because of the Zero. They even ran out of instructors with experience in combat.
Two words: Barack Obama.
Also lack of self sealing fuel tanks caused the planes to blow up after being hit in the tank.
Bill Clinton and Loral Corp. Missles, airplanes whose plans came from stolen laptops by agents of the Red Menace.
Very true. The Japanese entered the war with outstanding pilots.
Traitors in the U.S. built up both the Russians and Chinese..
They stole the A-Bomb from US.. and probably any/most other decent mechanical device(s)..
Yep. Good, nimble platform to shoot from when no one was shooting back at you. But that obviously wasn’t reality.
General Chennault taught his pilots to attack the zero then dive away from them. Never dog fight them.
If the zero dove which for some reason they often did, the old P-40 had them.
They also eventually learned that the zero could only turn well in one direction. If he was on your tail, just dive and turn the way the zero couldn’t.
It did have a tremendous range which was valuable in the Pacific.
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