re: #398 Dark_Falcon

The Japanese did reverse course later in the war with better protected fighters such as the Ki-84 Hayate (Gale, the Allied codename was ‘Frank’), but by that time those better planes had less-trained pilots and were facing a flood tide of American aircraft.

I remember reading about the Mitsubishi G4M “Betty”, referred to by both American and Japanese pilots as “the flying cigarette lighter” among disparaging nicknames.