Spitfire vs Zero: Which WWII Fighter Was Better?

Spitfire vs Zero at a glance

Neither was simply better. The Zero was the more agile and longer-ranged fighter, while the Spitfire was faster, sturdier and could be upgraded for far longer.

The specs above compare the two aircraft side by side. This table covers what the spec widget does not.

Turning and range: where the Zero won

Designer Jiro Horikoshi built the Zero as light as possible, in a new aluminum alloy, with no armor and no self-sealing tanks. That made it one of the longest-ranged single-engine fighters of the war.

Its wing loading was very low, which gave it a stalling speed well below 60 knots (69 mph). Lt. Gen. Claire Chennault noted that the Zero could out-turn the Spitfire with ease, sustain a very steep climb and stay in the air for three times as long.

The range gap shows on paper too. The A6M2 had a ferry range of 1,900 miles (3,100 km), against 1,100 miles (1,800 km) for a Spitfire Vb with a fuel tank.

Speed, dive and toughness: where the Spitfire won

The Spitfire Vb topped out at 370 mph (600 km/h), against 331 mph (533 km/h) for the A6M2. It could also dive faster. The Zero’s never-exceed speed was 370 mph, and American test pilots found its controls stiffened above 216 mph (348 km/h).

Tests of a captured Zero also showed it rolled more slowly to the right than to the left, which Allied pilots could exploit.

The Zero’s light build had a cost. A captured example weighed about 5,200 pounds (2,360 kg) loaded, some 2,780 pounds (1,260 kg) less than the F4F Wildcat, and without self-sealing tanks, a short burst that ruptured its fuel tanks was often enough to destroy it.

Guns and firepower

Both carried two 20 mm cannon. The Zero added two 7.7 mm machine guns in the cowling, and each wing cannon held only 60 rounds in the early A6M2.

The Spitfire’s B wing paired two 20 mm Hispanos with four .303 inch Brownings, and the C wing could carry four cannon. The original eight-Browning layout had been judged too weak to bring down larger aircraft, which is why cannon arrived.

For more on the British fighter, see the Supermarine Spitfire page.

What happened when they met

The two types met in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, where the Allies had too few modern fighters. Over Darwin, RAAF and RAF Spitfires of No. 1 Wing suffered heavy losses, largely because of the type’s limited fuel capacity.

To counter the Zero, Spitfire pilots adopted a slash-and-run policy. They used their speed and diving advantage to fight and avoided turning dogfights.

The Allies achieved air superiority once the Mk VIII replaced the earlier Mk V in the theater.

The Zero’s early record, and how it faded

The Zero’s first combat came on September 13, 1940, when 13 A6M2s escorting bombers over Chongqing claimed 27 Chinese fighters. At the time of Pearl Harbor, 521 Zeros were active in the Pacific, 328 of them in first-line units.

Early on the Zero achieved a kill ratio of about 12 to 1. By mid-1942 new Allied tactics and better equipment let pilots meet it on roughly equal terms.

One tactic was the Thach Weave, in which two fighters flew about 200 feet (60 m) apart and turned toward each other when a Zero closed on one of them. Another was to dive on a Zero, fire a short burst and climb away.

Pilot training then slipped. By mid-1943 the decline in Japanese pilot quality made the Zero less effective against newer Allied fighters.

The Spitfire’s long career

The Spitfire served as an interceptor, a photo-reconnaissance aircraft, a fighter-bomber and a trainer. A carrier version, the Seafire, served with the Fleet Air Arm from 1942 until the mid-1950s.

Seafire IIs outperformed the A6M5 Zero at low altitude in wartime mock combat, though the Hellcat and Corsair were more robust carrier fighters. The last operational RAF Spitfire sortie was flown on April 1, 1954.

The Zero stayed in front-line service to the end of the war and was adapted for kamikaze attacks in its final phase.

Which versions are being compared?

Neither name is one aircraft. The early Zero, the A6M2 Model 21, was the version Allied pilots met in 1941 and 1942. Later models such as the Model 52 traded range for speed and dive performance.

The Spitfire spans even more. A fair 1942 matchup is the Spitfire Vb against the A6M2 or A6M3, the Mk VIII against the later Zeros. The Mk VIII is the version that replaced the Mk V in the Pacific theater.

By 1944 the Zero had fallen behind Allied fighters in speed, and it could not be upgraded to keep pace with the Hellcat and Corsair. Japan still produced more Zeros than any other combat aircraft of the war. See the Mitsubishi A6M Zero page for its full specs.

Spitfire vs Zero: who wins?

In a turning fight at low speed, the Zero wins. Royal Navy test pilot Eric Brown said he had never flown a fighter that matched the Zero’s rate of turn.

Everywhere else the Spitfire has the edge: speed, dive, structural strength and a design that kept improving until 1948. The Zero could not be upgraded the same way, and it faded once the Allies stopped turning with it.

For other WWII matchups, try the most produced aircraft of WWII ranking.