Pilot experience had a lot to do with the balance between the Zero and its American rivals. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese naval pilots had more flying time than their American counterparts. For reasons that I don’t understand, the Japanese were not successful at replacing the pilots lost at Midway. The Japanese filled the cockpits, but their pilots were lacking in flying time. The Marianas Turkey Shoot was more a context between veteran Americans and freshman Japanese than a referendum on airframes.
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“We’re not innovating. We’re selectively imitating.” June Bernstein, Acting President of the University of Arizona in Tucson, November 15, 1998.
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