The Japanese Zero fighter plane first flew in 1939, and quickly proved to be exceedingly agile and lightweight. It also had range superior to any fighter. As early as 1940, Claire Lee Chennault reported to the U.S. military of the Zeros performance. It was ignored.
However, wih the coming of the war, we soon learned that the Zero's maneuverability outperformed any Allied fighter it encountered in the first two years of war with the United States. It was bad news to fight a Zero in a dogfight.
However, to achieve this dogfighting agility, Japanese designers had traded off durability. The Zero was lightly built and had no armor or self-sealing fuel tanks. And, they proved to be the easiest fighter to take down. The Japanese were also unable to compete with the numbers of U.S. fighters nor their increased quality.
During the course of the war, Japan built roughly 10,500 Zeros.
Is It Os or Oes? --GreGen
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