Nothing currently in the game NOW handles like it ever did in AH1 THEN.
Trust me on this. It took us all some time to cope/deal with the changes. Essentially the entire way that the code computed how forces acted on the planes changed, and changed overnight (for those not in beta testing).
Night and day my friend.
Hell after AH2 I still had AH1 (wanted all the screenshots, the internal film viewer, etc, so I kept it for a while before deleting it). So I go back in and up a 109E on the nice sweet BOB map (with the cliffs of Dover in it). And MY GOD that 109E was a total pig. I'm glad that the 109E (and all 109s, for that matter) got a boost in roll. Now they can actually compete in turns at all. But sometimes I think the Emil got too much of an advantage. If anybody has AH1 still, check it out offline. It's like you're compressed at all speeds (Lol).
So to answer the question again: No plane in AH2 is at all like it was in AH1. Totally different.
The standard they're converting to NOW is about graphics and new details (drag, fine tuning, balance, angle of attack, etc)