Ignoring souless' blatant personal attack (highly uncalled for, by any standard) I thank those that stood up for me against him.
Fork: I haven't neglected the historic setup aspect of it. Even as-is, it's very fast compared to contemporary craft. It already pretty much matches the top speed of the 190a5 and 109g6 below 10k. Most setups it can get through no problems as-is. Souless has been harping about top speed thinking it's the end-all, be-all answer. Now he attacks me for saying "it's not!"
Why it's not the end-all, be-all, cry for the mossie:
Well you'd only GET that top speed for 5 minutes (vs. 10 for LW planes)...
You can almost never GET to top speed unless you're in a dive, and if you're in a dive you're going over top speed anyways (so it doesn't matter +/-15mph, you're still doing +50 over your normal top speed)
You can't get away because all it takes is a dive from the enemy to get you while you're trying to get to your top speed (or you dive away, see the point above). Otherwise if it's a stalemate you pull ahead for 3 minutes, run out of wep, then get overtaken for 7 more minutes.
So yes Souless, top speed changes the speed a plane flies at in level flight. Duhhhh.. Have an "Obvious" award!
It doesn't change the combat of that craft. It's either diving, or being dove upon, in both cases top speed is negated by dive speed. If you're not going to get away at N, you're not going to get away at N+15.