The Top Ten Fighters: 1946

[+MigBuster]

Well according to these guys:

 

1946 was the zenith of piston-engined fighters. The bloody lessons learnt from the hundreds of thousands of dogfights fought in the War had been carefully noted by designers. This knowledge had been distilled into the creation of a generation of aeroplanes wildly superior to their peers from the recent past, but these perfected killing machines faced fierce competition from immature upstarts with an unfair advantage: the first generation of fighter jets. To make this list, aircraft had to have been in operational service during the year in 1946 – hence no Sea Fury, La-9, Twin Mustang or MiG-9 (likewise, also no Me 262 or Ki-84 for example). 

 

https://hushkit.net/2016/04/09/the-top-ten-fighters-1946/

 

 

[+Gepard]

Its difficult to compare fighters which were made for different roles. One plane that fits perfectly in one role may have been an desater under different conditions.

As example: The Mustang was the perfect long range escort fighter, but was not really fit for the rough conditions of the eastern front and it was also not able to operate from carriers and for night combat it was nearly useless.

 

So i may give my own ranking:

 

The best frontline dogfighter: Yak-3

The best escort fighter: P-51H Mustang

The best Navy Fighter: F4U-4 Corsair

The best day interceptor: Meteor

[Slant6]

I'd put P-80A as best day interceptor