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Description
IJA Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa chased by a USAF Curtiss P-40. A tangle that the American fighter should NEVER take under NO circumstances, knowing how nimble Japanese WWII fighters used to be.

The confrontations between these two planes were very common over China in 1942-45, and statistics have it that the P-40 would beat the Hayabusa (Japanese for "peregrine falcon") in a 2-1 ratio; occasionally even 3-1 (2 and even 3 Hayabusas down for every P-40 down).

The P-40 was safer and way more robust and resistant than the Ki-43, more streamlined, with a way more powerful engine, somehow faster, more reliable... but no way that nimble (in spite of the fact that it was amongst the most nimble allied fighters).

Pilots said that in dogfights against Japanese fighters, the P-40 handled almost like a truck The fact that she was heavier but more streamlined than Japanese fighters made it that the P-40 dived like a rocket, a rate that Japanese fighters, with longer wings and the not-so aerodynamic radial engines, could not match.

Description
IJA Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa chased by a USAF Curtiss P-40. A tangle that the American fighter should NEVER take under NO circumstances, knowing how nimble Japanese WWII fighters used to be.

The confrontations between these two planes were very common over China in 1942-45, and statistics have it that the P-40 would beat the Hayabusa (Japanese for "peregrine falcon") in a 2-1 ratio; occasionally even 3-1 (2 and even 3 Hayabusas down for every P-40 down).

The P-40 was safer and way more robust and resistant than the Ki-43, more streamlined, with a way more powerful engine, somehow faster, more reliable... but no way that nimble (in spite of the fact that it was amongst the most nimble allied fighters).

Pilots said that in dogfights against Japanese fighters, the P-40 handled almost like a truck The fact that she was heavier but more streamlined than Japanese fighters made it that the P-40 dived like a rocket, a rate that Japanese fighters, with longer wings and the not-so aerodynamic radial engines, could not match.