U.S. forces then got valuable information, unknown before this, on the mainstay of the Japanese fighters. It was an extremely good fighter plane, but it did have two huge problems.
Starting on September 20, 1942, Lt.Cmdr. Eddie Sanders flew 24 flights in it over a period of 25 days. It performed tremendously but did have a glaring Achilles heel. It could not perform rolls at moderate speed. If it could be forced into a roll, the advantage would be to the Allied pilot.
The second problem with the Zero was that it had a poorly-designed carburetor which caused the engine to sputter badly when in a dive at a high rate of speed. Force one to do that and it was an easy target.
Koga's Zero was later hit by a Curtis SB2C Helldiver while taxiing out for a training run. Not much was left of these very important plane.
Stuff You Didn't Know. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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