![]() ![]() The first A6M prototypes were turned over to the IJN in September 1939 and production orders followed in July 1940. Researchers at the Sumitomo Metal Company created Extra Super Duralumin alloy, which was stronger, lighter and easier to fabricate than what was being produced in the rest of the world. Japanese aeronautical engineers went to great lengths to ensure the new airplane was as light as possible, yet strong enough to survive carrier operations. Development of what became the Zero began in 1936 with an emphasis on maneuverability, long range and rate of climb. On the other side of the Pacific, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was in the market for a fast, modern fighter to replace its fixed gear, open cockpit Type 96 fighters (Allied code name Claude). Navy was placing orders for Wildcats to replace its Buffalo squadrons, which were already proving to be obsolete. Grumman continued to improve the F4F and by 1941 the U.S. One of these airplanes scored the first Wildcat/Martlet kill when on Christmas Day, 1940, a Martlet I shot down a German Ju-88 over Scapa Flow. Deliveries were halted when the country fell to the Nazis in May of 1940 Great Britain took over the contracts, designating the plane the Martlet Mk. In the meantime, France had expressed interest in the new Grumman monoplane and ordered 81 in 1940. Problems with the plane’s Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine plagued prototypes and the Navy instead opted for the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Grumman entered the competition with the F4F-2, an aircraft that had originally been conceived as a biplane with retractable landing gear. Navy requirement for a new monoplane fighter. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) Origins So, if the F4F Wildcat lagged behind the Zero in performance, why did it enjoy such success? A Wildcat prototype in 1939. That ratio would eventually grow to 6.9:1. 3, 1943 – records show that Navy and Marine Corps aviators flying F4Fs shot down 5.9 Zeros for every one Wildcat lost. By the end of the Battle for Guadalcanal – Feb. The numbers kept improving in the Grumman fighter’s favor. carrier battles during the same period, 43 Zeros were bagged at a cost of 31 Wildcats. 15 – Wildcats shot down 72 Zeros while losing 70. Navy Wildcats shot down 14 A6Ms for a loss of just 10 aircraft. During the May 4 to 8, 1942 clash off the Solomons, U.S. Unable to beat the Zero’s top speed of 330 mph and less maneuverable than its Japanese counterpart, the stubby, ungainly Wildcat managed to prevail in the face of the superior enemy fighters it went up against in the war’s first months.Ĭonsider the Battle of the Coral Sea. The actual numbers tell a different story. WHEN THE UNITED States Navy entered the war with Japan, it did so with the Grumman F4F Wildcat as its principle frontline carrier-based fighter – a warplane that, at least on paper, was greatly outclassed by Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) “If the Wildcat lagged behind the Zero in performance, why did it enjoy such success?” The evidence shows the opposite to be the case. The Grumman Wildcat is remembered as an inferior warplane to the Mitsubishi Zero.
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