In one of those, "who'd win, a Tiger or a Lion?" kind of a debate, I always wanted to compare the capability of the 3 best US fighters - the Mustang, the Hellcat, and the Corsair. Corsairs were beautiful and were supposed to outfly anything in the sky, while the Hellcat was supposed to be a better blend of speed, punch, and survivability. The Mustang is the classic, though, and had the escort mission. the Thunderbolt was also cool.
I think I read that Corsairs and Thunderbolts could dive faster than the speed of sound and survive.