Why an aircraft's first reception can dominate its history

Many popular histories give detailed attention to Coral Sea and Midway, then take large chronological steps through the period when the Helldiver entered service and improved. An early quotation can consequently carry more weight than the later operational experience. The Albacore provides a warning: quotations from its introduction and from a year later could produce opposite impressions of the same aircraft. New types also faced pilots accustomed to mature versions of their predecessors. Few of those pilots necessarily remembered the earliest Dauntless faults, since survivors of that introduction had often moved into senior positions or instruction. The Dauntless itself subsequently served as a training aircraft. Dating testimony and following changes in aircraft and personnel are therefore necessary parts of the comparison.