Apropos of Japanese fighters....what springs to my mind is the Ki-27 Nate and the A5M Claude, followed by the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa and the Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero-sen. Then you have in fairly rapid succession the Ki-44 Shoki, the Ki-61 Hien, and the Ki-84 Hayate, and the Ki-100 Goshikisen. On the Navy side we also have the Mitsubishi Raiden and the Kawanishi Shiden and Shiden-Kai. At the tail end we have the mighty Kyushu Shinden, which only reached prototype stage in 1945. And that's only the single-engined fighters.

Aren't you glad you mentioned it? ;-)

As for Einstein's essay (which is wonderful) I think the most interesting thing to come out of it is something I have known for a long time, but had not yet articulated as well as he did. Modern science arose directly out of man's most basic religious impulses...which are the search for knowledge and perfection. Science is founded on the most noble emotions and intentions. It seeks to unravel and explain the greatest mysteries and unanswered questions of life, and this is exactly what motivates the religious quest at its highest level.

It should not be surprising that many of the great scientists were also religious people, because the one does not argue against the other, it arises directly from it.

Both science and a more enlightened approach to religion will find themselves very much at odds with cruder forms of traditional religion which do not seek answers to great questions, but merely lay down a plethora of rules and rituals from ancient books for people who do not wish to seek deeper meanings in life, but merely want to feel "safe" in some kind of organized group.

The traditional notion of a war between science and religion is, as Einstein suggests, foolish. The real war is not between science and religion at all...it's between a natural alliance of science and a more enlightened approach TO religion VERSUS the old fundamentalist religions which still attempt to maintain insupportable mythologies in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.

Science and advanced religion are natural allies. They ask the same great questions: What is life? Where did it come from? Where did we come from? What is our nature and the nature of other things around us? Why do things function as they do? How can we improve what we see around us? How can we achieve greater things? How can we be happy?