How many US planes were destroyed in air to air combat in the Pacific during WW?

Answer 1

Because the PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations) was a naval war, warships predominated the conflict...with airplanes being a part of those warships (aircraft carriers). Consequently, one source stated over 5,000 US aircraft were lost in the PTO during WWII; With about half that figure lost in aerial combat.

Using the ocean as a battlefield has it's drawbacks; airplanes must pack their own airfields.

In the ETO (European Theater of Operations) airfields were readily available; thus, thousands of aircraft at one time could be airborne.

For example: Germany was bombed from day one; as was Britain. Other than the morale boosting Doolittle Raid, Japan couldn't be bombed until airfields (Islands) and a Superfortress could be built and fielded. And that didn't occur until 1944. Therefore, aerial battles in the Pacific were small...four IJN Aircraft Carriers could only carry about 264 airplanes. If the USN countered with the same, that would entail an air battle of a little over 500 aircraft for the whole battle. With twenty such battles, that would equate to roughly 10,000 aircraft fighting in those twenty air battles. Thus, naval aerial combat was on a smaller scale than land based aerial combat. An artificial "airfield" (aircraft carrier) was extremely difficult to build and put sea...when compared to landing on a dirt air strip.