Was the Japanese planes the best plane in the world during the WW2 ?
This is largely a matter of opinion. The three front runners for “best plane” at the beginning of the war were the Japanese Zero, the British Spitfire and the German Me109. By the end of the war the honor might well go to the US Mustang, Corsair or Lightning. Other people will have other opinions, of course 😉 It’s hard to answer a question like this decisively because a pilot’s skill played a HUGE part in how well an aircraft fought. A truly skilled pilot would be able to outfight an unskilled pilot even in a vastly inferior airplane. It’s easy to say the Japanese pilots at the beginning of the war were the best in the world… but the expensive and time-consuming training program could not be kept up during wartime and their skill quickly eroded. For American pilots it was exactly the opposite. As the Japanese skill level dropped the Americans found their feet and really started fighting well.
