Well, which aircraft I would be wary of in a Spit XVI is a much shorter list.
As to your La-7 experience, I said equal pilot skill. Skill being equal, the La-7 should dominate the P-47 or Mosquito, but in practice skill is usually not equal.
My point is that between the Spit and La7, a poorly managed La7 attacking a Jug tends to end up in front of 8 .50s, while a poorly managed Spit...still tends to turn well enough at low enough speeds that it gets the shot in before it goes sailing or just swaps ends and shoots you in the face if it does go sailing by. And can seemingly also bounce around like a squirrel on crystal meth during the guns defense phase without loosing all its maneuvering speed. The La7 is a monster ride in the right hands, don't get me wrong, but only the Spit seems to do so much to negate skill differences and allow many victories to be obtained despite gross mistakes.
Also, I don't follow how those aircraft are all double inferior to the Spit XVI. The La-7 is, for example, much faster and has a similar climb rate and acceleration. Certainly the F4Us don't accelerate well, but they are fast and very responsive.
Actually, I checked at Dokgonzo's site and the La7's climb rate is notably less at all altitudes than that of the SpitXVI. La7 does run away from fights much better than SpitXVIs though :-) Technically double superior/inferior refers to thrust weight/and wing loading (more properly: lift loading), not speed. These are apparently the traits considered most crucial to ACM by people who have studied it scientifically. You will note, modern fighters are actually *not* designed for the highest possible top speed at the expense of maneuverability anymore, and thrust/weight is considered *vital*.
The SpitXVI is similar to the unperked Hogs in speed, much superior in climb, accel, and turn rate. The Hog's clear one area of clear advantage is turn radius w/flaps. There is great deal of debate among skilled sticks about how these planes stack up. In a duel, I think a good XVI pilot who understands the Hog and his own ride will be able to out-angles the Hog until it begins using flaps to even out the angles fight, at which point the Spit should to use its power to switch to the vertical and gain the first shot opportunity.
