Hi Ralph,
>How well did this fighter perform against the Hellcat, Mustang Hellcat?
Here some interesting comments by Mustang pilot 'Ax' Hiltgen of the 530th Fighter Squadron (from Roger Freeman's "Combat Profile: Mustang"):
"Altitude was important to get over the bad weather in combat and when we encountered 'Tonys' and 'Tojos' - particularly the latter."
"Fortunately for us, as the Japanese planes got better - with the 'Tojo' the best - their fighter pilot quality plummeted."
"As mentioned earlier, the only Japanese plane that came close to the characteristics of the P-51 was the 'Tojo'. With the 'Oscar' and 'Zero', if you stayed out of tight, slow manoeuvres and used the advantages of the Mustang you would win."
(He might not have encountered the Nakajima Ki-84 before he was rotated out of the theatre. However, from aviation enthusiasts familiar with the Japanese perspective, I've heard that the Ki-84 gave a lot of trouble initially and did not develop full engine power, so that many pilots still preferred the mature Ki-44 which gave comparable performance.)
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)