Talk:F4F-4/@comment-174.111.200.191-20161120024313/@comment-99.227.13.110-20161120050128

hi, random other person here. i would like to comment and tell you that the zero would've never made a good warplane past 1940 and the only reason wildcats were 'shit' was because it was suppose to have been retired before the war even started. also the 1942 variant of the P40 used in china OUTCLASSED the zero and any japanese aircraft that was still in prototype stage simply because it could turn past 300km/hr and retain most of its speed after a movement.

the zero is also an awful machine in the sense that it was literally an acrobatic display team's dream. it was NOT made to dive, it was NOT made to fly in a straight line super fast, it was NOT made to survive hundreds of bullets and it was DEFINITELY NOT made to put up a sustained fight against anything in front of it. the ONLY REASON zeroes recieved its god tier name, is because it was fighting against buffalos. F2A buffalos that were a decade old.

the BOOM AND ZOOM tactic was and still is the safest, and the most efficient way of removing an enemy aircraft, turn fights should ALWAYS be avoided, unless you're flying a zero or F16. same reason why the F16 was the last american aircraft made to be a turn fighter. this is the reason why the british spitfires, despite having a higher TOP SPEED and BETTER TURN RADIUS failed to decisevly win the battle of britian against the few bf109s that were flying top cover. this is the same reason why the late war spitfires had clipped wings and lost a lot of turning power in favor of acceleration and diving characteristics. even a skilled japaneses pilot would avoid turn fighting, as it opens him up to become a target for a second enemy due to the massive loss of air speed.

put it this way. if you had given Thach's flight F4F-3s NOT the -4s because it was much heavier, and had the pilots attend an actual briefing. you would not have even heard of the 3 wildcats that were lost over the first carrier div because they would all be alive right now. six wildcats flew in at a lower altitude in hopes of covering a failure ridden torpedo run. three flew out, three carriers were burning with the fourth one in retreat. there was no zero left to tell the tale, because what ever pilots that survived most likely hung themselves out of shame.

the mod 21, 22 and 32 zeroes were trash planes hyped up by the americans to make themselves feel better about losing officers by making them fly buffalos and other obselete aircrafts. they just don't want to admit to the fact that during the first year, they could've verywell lost the entire war in the pacific because of how poorly prepared tehy were. and we haven't even began talking about the zero's poorly designed 20mm cannons.