In this video, we talk about the Mitsubishi A7M Reppu, a late World War II Japanese carrier based fighter intended to serve as a replacement for one of the most iconic fighters of the Pacific War and WW2 in the Mitsubishi A6M "Zero". We first brush up on the history of the Zero and its start as a replacement for another fighter, the A5M. We look at the requested specifications for the Zero, what the designers had to do to meet them, and what about the Zero design made it an incredibly formidable fighter.

We then talk about the early superiority of the Zero and how its era of dominance began to end around mid-1942. We talk about how the Japanese Military and Navy recognized this, which led to a new design contest for a replacement, which then resulted in the A7M Reppu. We look at the initial conflict in the designing of the Reppu and how that led to significant delays. We also look at the eventual completion of a prototype, its initial poor performance, how that was remedied, and how the potential "Super-Zero", with performance much better than the Zero, was thwarted by allied attacks and mother nature.

We end by talking about the inevitability of Japan's defeat in 1945 and how no new plane would have changed that.