The only crutch plane is an F4U.
F4Us can escort bombers at 25K, or mix it up at high or mid altitudes with other fighters, or, on the deck from a CV, or, deliver Ords on target in a precision dive bombing attack on ground targets.
The crutch part is...you have to know how to fly it fast, and slow, and a bit in between, at various altitudes, and how to put bombs and rockets on a target, and escape. To do that well you must learn how to fly an F4U under all kinds of differing conditions and above all else, you must learn that F4Us are insured by Aflack!.