Japanese Army Ki-27 fighter planes were accurate

Many viewers including myself didn't know better initially and wondered why we didn't see Mitsubishi Zeroes in FLYING TIGERS. Instead we saw Japanese fighter planes with fixed landing gear. It turns out we were uninformed.

The American Volunteer Group (AVG) were deployed deep into northwestern China. That was the area of operations for the Japanese Army Air Force. At the time, the JAAF still used its successful, fixed gear, monoplane Nakajima Ki-27, codenamed, "Claude" by the Allies.. But true, at the same time, the JAAF was in the process of introducing the Ki-27's successor, the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, codenamed, "Oscar" by the Allies.

The Ki-27 was clearly obsolete against the superior Curtiss P-40B. The only advantage of the Ki-27 was its maneuverability. The Ki-27's max speed was only 292 mph, fast back in the late 30s but slow against the P-40B's max speed of 368 mph. The Ki-27 carried only two, 7.7mm machineguns versus the P-40B's two, 0.50 caliber M2 machineguns and four (4) 7.62mm machineguns. The P-40B could easily outdive the Ki-27. At the lower altitudes the Ki-27 could outclimb the heavier P-40B. The P-40B sported armor for the pilot and self-sealing fuel tanks while the unarmored Ki-27 burned and exploded upon the impact of a burst of machinegun rounds. In 1941 the only way for a Ki-27 pilot to prevail against the superior P-40B would be to climb to a higher altitude and ambush the P-40B from above and from behind.

It would be anachronistic to see Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 zeroes so far away from the ocean and coast so deep into the Asian continent.