impossible

[IceFire]

This sounds like a comment from a P-38 pilot in World War II. The most interesting statement I read about Zero pilots was that they had great confidence (the veteran ones) at lower speeds managing very extremely tight turns...however, even veteran pilots felt that the Zero was not a competent turn fighter at higher speeds. The stick forces and maybe even the seat of the pants feel of the aircraft at that speed caused many of them to turn less than the maximum for the aircraft at that speed.

Compare and contrast to the P-38 which, although it has its flaws, was a solid airframe and pilots often felt confident in being able to turn the plane with no fears of overstressing the airframe. This is seat of the pants feel rather than true ultimate abilities of each.

So its possible and even likely that pilots flying the Zero at high speed felt more restricted in their turn rates than P-38 pilots and that closes the gap on how fast each could turn. Also keeping in mind were probably talking about a break turn... 90 degrees turn at most before breaking off. P-38 pilots were trained and most knew well enough not to engage in an actual turning battle.