"old hoodoo" wrote in message
...


IMO, aggressive US pilots would have preferred performance to
protection? There has been some data that US pilots would have preferred
F2A2's over the F4F3. By producting heavily "armored" fighters did we
severely limited the opportunity of our early WWII pilots to inflict
heavy
fighter loses on the enemy?



No we saved their lives. Once the weakness of the Zero was identified
they were seen to be rather vulnerable. With no self sealing tanks
even minor damage could see them going down in flames or not
making it back to the carrier. The most precious commodity in
any air war are experienced pilots, something the IJN didnt seem
to fully understand.

Keith