Saburo Sakai (Highest scoring Japanese ace that survived WW2 I believe) was on his way back from a mission in his A6M2 "Zero", having no ammo left either, when he was reportedly jumped by something like 12 F6F Hellcats, he aerobaticed his way out of it too.
I think one of the reasons why he got away was exactly because he had no ammo left, had he stayed on one`s tail for too long (Flying an aircraft with no armor or self sealing tanks I`d imagine "too long" to be something like half a second in real time) he would have been cut down like weed.

The A6M2 could still turn better than any aircraft the U.S Navy could throw at it even at the very end of the war (Unless you build an aircraft for turn & burn by sacrificing armor for turning, but that has never been the U.S style), and in the hands of a capable pilot was still a deadly aircraft.

But even with a great A6 pilot, if you got it outnumbered, and with the canopy on that thing not being the bubble type, plus the pilot head position being lower than optimal (Obscured low 12 o`clock view, plus making target aquisition harder, especially in an outnumbered situation) you were almost 100% certain to be looking at one dead japanese flyboy..

I`d grab a Zero over any superior Japanese aircraft if it means getting underestimated and fooling the enemy into making the mistake of fighting my fight, I`m almost willing to bet you that over 50% of the U.S Navy Hellcat gunkill losses IN dogfights against Zero`s at the end of the war was due to the Hellcat pilot underestimating a Zero pilots skill.

aye!
Sakai's book is a good read indeed.

Interesting discussion, Patrick.

There is a statistic (that, with my terrible memory, I've forgotten ) regarding the overall distribution of aerial victories that held true in WWI and WWII.

In both wars, when the total number of planes shot down was compared to the number of pilots getting "kills", it became clear that a surprisingly small number of pilots accounted for the majority of total kills.

Good fortune, skill, and equipment certainly all played a part... but the single factor that seemed constant with the "Aces" was skill.

So for that small percentage of elite pilots, I think the "It's not the plane, it's the pilot" is actually true.

But yes you are right, for the "average" pilot, a lot of it really is the plane (assuming a competent combat pilot).

Especially when an aircraft first arrives in the theater, and the opposing pilots are not yet familiar with the new type's capabilities... such as the Hellcat Vs Zero example you gave.

Another example would be the arrival of the P-47 in England, when it went up against Bf-109 or Fw-190's flown by equal (or better) German pilots.

American P-47 ace Robert Johnson describes time after time the German fighters would attempt to use an escape tactic that had worked well against Spitfires, but was often a fatal mistake against a well-flown P-47: The split-s towards the deck to dive away and extend or escape.

The German fighters could usually out-roll and out-dive the Spitfire, and this escape maneuver worked in the BoB.

But the P-47 could both out-roll and out-dive the German fighters, and easily followed them through the maneuver, surprising the German pilots and often resulting in an "Oh Sh..." moment for the -109 or -190 pilot.

What was my point?

Oh yeah: I believe Saburo Sakai survived against "impossible" odds due to 1 part "luck", and 3 parts superior skill and experience (compared to the Hellcat drivers)... but in general, I'd bet on an average pilot in a great plane, over the reverse.

Best wishes.

To further make the point (or try to :)) - look at the stories of the great pilots in inferior planes. Great stories of survival against terrible odds. But that's not winning a war. That is a supremely talented individual barely getting out alive. His less talented (and sometimes equally talented but less lucky) compatriots are getting slaughtered in droves in their inferior machines. Sure,some of them are having some success, but for the most part they are losing.

How different would it have been if the USN did nothing more than field improved Wildcats the way the IJN fielded nothing more than improved Zeroes? Through industry and manufacture the US would still have won, but I doubt that the slaughter of the IJN would have been anywhere near as bad.

Fielding the Hellcat made the likes of Sakai far less effective and made his less talented compatriots ... toast.

Not saying that the pilot doesn't matter, just saying that the plane does matter - a lot.

Don't waste your breath. "It's the pilot blah blah blah" is so cemented in the lore of internet air-combat that you will never dislodge it. Think about why: it's a completely self-serving mantra. You pick the best aircraft available in the game, do very well with it versus opponents who are in worse aircraft, thrash them, and then get to claim that it was entirely due to skill.

Seems to me it's both - plane AND pilot.

...sure, you can paint the bleak picture of the D7F pilot proclaiming "It's the pilot" when bragging about his many DH2 kills.....

But then what about the DH2 pilot who somehow scores many D7F kills?

...of course you respond with, those must be some horrible Fokker pilots!

To which then, it IS the DH2 pilot, not the plane.

...it really can go both ways.

[EDIT:] @Pat - it is my opinion, that pilot skill and plane perfomance go hand-in-hand. Simply meaning, the less of a gap in plane performance, the more skill one pilot has to have over the other to attain victory. Conversly, the less gap in pilot skill, the more perfomance advantage one pilot needs to have over the other to attain the same victory. Disregarding Lady Luck of course.