One of the things that folks are fond of saying is that it's not the plane, it's the pilot. No doubt true to some degree, but not always. [...]
Sometimes it is the plane .

One of the things that folks are fond of saying is that it's not the plane, it's the pilot. No doubt true to some degree, but not always.

I was watching an interview/recreation on the history channel. The subject was the introduction of the Hellcat,and the story centered around a combat between a Japanese ace and the Hellcat pilot being interviewed. The scenario goes like this:

Hellcat and Zero are fighting largely in the horizontal. The Zero has scored some hits but without great effect. At this point the Zero goes vertical. The Hellcat pilot thinks he has an absolute newbie on his hands. He goes vertical with the Zero, pulls through the arc and easily shoots the Zero down.

Turns out the Zero pilot was not a newbie at all. He was an ace with nine victories using a tried and true tactic ... against Wildcats. A Wildcat would have stalled, allowing the Zero to come over the top and hammer the now helpless airplane (remember, getting nailed by a plane with its nose pointed straight up in a full stall only happens in RoF :)).

The Zero pilot's second to last thought must have been "Where is he?". His last,of course, would be "Oh sh..!".

Sometimes it is the plane .

The Zero pilot made a mistake, however, he could not have known at that moment that he was doing so.

Regardless, it was the capabilities of the Hellcat that removed options from the Zero driver's bag of tricks.

In the case of the Ki43 I really don't call that a victory. Great flying just to survive or maybe poor gunnery on the part of the P-38 drivers, but if I am getting bounced by enemy planes with no options other than to dodge for my life, I don't think that I'm feeling particularly victorious. Reverse the situation - the outnumbered P-38 driver just flies away. Much better option IMHO.