WWII carrier fighter ·First flight 1939 · In service 1940
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero dominated the skies over the Pacific in the war's early years, its light weight giving it astonishing range and turning agility that Allied pilots learned never to match in a low-speed turn.
That lightness came at a price — minimal armour and no self-sealing tanks — and as Allied tactics and heavier fighters arrived, the Zero's early supremacy faded.
