A well known player in this game told me one time that the plane he fly's in the game, he would fly that plane even if it was the worst plane in the game. And in his opinion, it just so happens that the plane he fly's is superior to all other plane's in the game hands down.
Pretty close... What I actually said/meant is that IMO it's the "best" plane in the game... It's not necessarily "superior" to any, or all, but it's definately the best.
It can't do some things that other planes can do, but it does everything pretty dang good. It has some weaknesses, but I can deal with those.
I simply have very little or no interest in any of the other planes. I'm not interested in very many of them from a historical standpoint, and I find most of them rather ugly... When I see a spit, 109, 190, Lanc, etc.. I just think "man, someone sure gave that thing a severe beatin' with the ugly stick..." Mustangs look OK, B17's and B25's look pretty good, B24's are ugly.
I primarily judge aircraft by how they look. That's the most important aspect in my mind. The F4U just plain looks the best. It's as close to "perfection" as I can imagine a plane being.
From a performance standpoint, I'd fly it regardless of how it compared to anything else. I don't really care about that aspect so much. When I started flying in AH, it was my main ride, er "coffin". I still flew it. I died and died and died. Sometimes I even thought it was because of what the other guys flew. I flew other stuff too, but felt goofy doing it, mainly because it's hard to not feel goofy when you're flying something goofy-lookin'. I got past the urge to fly the goofy-lookin' stuff just because I wanted to get some kills or survive longer, or whatever. I don't fly the goofy-lookin' planes anymore. I fly the F4U instead.
I'm interested in F4U history, because it's F4U related. I'm not really all that interested in WWII history overall, or in the history of any of the other WWII planes... In general, WWII is too modern and high-tech to interest me... I'm more interested in flint-knapping, fur-trade history, birds of prey, and falconry.
I play AH to fly corsairs. I don't fly corsairs to do well in AH...
I don't fly the spits for the same reasons that I don't do lots of things. The don't interest me in the least. Plus, they're goofy-lookin. Fighting them doesn't bother me at all. A few holes can actually make them look better, or at least less goofy-lookin. Simply because there's less of it to look at. Less is definately more in that instance.
My main exception is when I'm teaching someone in the TA, and they want me to fly one of the goofy-lookin planes. I'll do that without complaint, because that's just how I am...
I'm also very confidant that I can get kills in any plane I decide to fly. It's harder for me to stomach the idea of flying a goofy-lookin' plane than it is to get a kill in it...