A7M Reppu

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For the record: completely clean (no pylons/shackles): F8F-1: 434 mph./20,000 ft. VS. F4U-4: 463 mph./20,000 ft. This information from the footnotes of military charts over on the current thread "F8F Bearcat climb rate".
 
The A7M should have went into operation in 1943, at the same time as the Hellcat. Then, by '44 something to counter Corsairs and Bearcats would be into production or in a more advanced development stage.
 
I agree that there was no use for it if there were no carriers to operate from.

The only thing Japan needed in 1945 was an interceptor. The Ki-84, J2M and Ki-61-II were the best choices there. Important to realize is the power struggle between Army and Navy. In Japan it would have been impossible to simply say, let's just focus on the Ki-61 and Ki-84 and cancel any further A6M or A7M production. They needed their part of the production. An exception there is the J8M, which was a joint service project, although again to be built with different armament and equipment.

Kris
 
In many cases the Japanese planes were one generation behind the Allied ones. The Zero was introduced in 1940, but by late 1942 a successor should already have been in advanced stage. Already in 1941 there were planes like the Bf 109F which were superior to the Zero. The distinct advange of the Zero was in it's range. It was also better than the Wildcat, but after 1940 it was not among the top fighters in the world anymore.
 
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One could argue that the Zero was nothing special. It was a great design, but technically rather common. It was made so light it had some structural deficiencies. Same goes for most of the Japanese navy aircraft.

As to war dragged on, the technological inferiority increased. Two exceptions are the superb cannons they developed, better than the Germans or Americans had, and the power output of the Homare engine, again better than BMW got out of their 801s. Though very unreliable due to a lack of special alloys...

Kris
 
Unless you ran across a well-flown example. It was a worthy opponent until the war ended if competently flown. Should have been replaced, but no slouch and if you got sloppy, you maybe got dead.
 
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