re: #395 Eclectic Cyborg

Sounds pretty dangerous.

It was. Japanese military aircraft design going into WW2 made a trade-off decision in order to get longer range, lower weight, and maneuverability. It made for good dog fighting capability for their fighters as even float plane versions of the Zero could give Allied fighters problems.

However, this also made most of their planes somewhat fragile and *very* prone to fire if they took damage to fuel tanks. Which leads on to fairly large plane losses and associated loss of pilots and crew. Which, given the strenuous and relatively small Japanese pilot training system, led to shortages of trained pilots once their supply of veteran pilots ran low. (And the Japanese did not rotate pilots or squadrons out much - so veterans basically continued flying combat until killed or crippled.)