Quote:Logan Darklighter wrote:Maybe, but the Hellcat earned the moniker "The Zero killer" for a reason:
Actually the P-38 WAS better in many ways than the Corsair or Hellcat. In fact - according to the Wikipedia article -
"The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF fighter."
I think the main reason you didn't see it more often is that it wasn't a Navy airplane and wasn't fitted with any kind of tail hook for carrier operations.
Until the introduction of the P-51 Mustang, it was the primary escort for bombers in the Pacific theater. Had a REALLY long range.
It was a squadron of P-38s that shot down Admiral Yamamoto.
And it was the primary airplane used by the two top American aces - Richard Bong (40 victories) and Thomas McGuire (38 victories).
So yeah - I can see it being considered worth more in a game than a Corsair or Hellcat, sure.
Quote:U.S. Navy and Marine F6F pilots flew 66,530 combat sorties and claimedNow how many P-38 aces are there in the PTO?
5,163 kills (56% of all U.S. Navy/Marine air victories of the war) at a
recorded cost of 270 Hellcats in aerial combat (an overall kill-to-loss
ratio of 19:1 based on claimed but not confirmed kills).[39]
The aircraft performed well against the best Japanese opponents with a
claimed 13:1 kill ratio against the A6M Zero, 9.5:1 against the Nakajima Ki-84, and 3.7:1 against the Mitsubishi J2M during the last year of the war.[40]
The F6F became the prime ace-maker aircraft in the American inventory,
with 305 Hellcat aces. The U.S. successes were not only attributed to
superior aircraft, but also from 1942 onwards, they faced increasingly
inexperienced Japanese aviators as well as having the advantage of
increasing numerical superiority.
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