This poll is a sham and an abomination. There is no Spitefire. The Spitfire was great in its day, that summer, but the mark produced in great quantity was to prove inadequate before the guns of the FW-190, until many months later, a balance was redressed and overcome by the Mk IX and Mk XII. The superior FW190D9 was faced with the superior Mk XIV. The Mustang, with Merlin engine, did it all, with greater stamina, but only from 1944. The Sun set on the Zero fighter when faced with P-38s and Corsairs, and the Fiat G-50 didn't seem to have its day at any particular time. The Yak-1's greatest feature was being the first try that became some great fighters, but was, in itself, rather mediocre. The fighter flown to the most individual victories doesn't rate a mention. Harrumph!
The problem is the OP was too vague. His poll isn't "most impact", "most kills", "longest service", "longest air supremacy", and so on. If you go by a combination of most impact PLUS best fighter by the end of WWII AND best variant that is on that list, it has to be the P-51D.
Oh, and don't forget oh prouder Britons: The P-51 was a complete POS without its British Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, making it a true "Anglo-American fighter", so there!
Maybe a list of eighteen and pick three or four?
US - F6F, P-38, P-51
UK - Hurricane, Spitfire, Tempest
Russia - Il-2, LaGG-3, Yak-3
Italy - C-202, G-50, MC-200
Japan - A6M "Zero", Ki-61, N1K-J
Germany - Bf 109, Fw 190, Me 262
I've voted the P-51, (1) but:
1) Of course the Corsair and F6F together won the air war in the Pacific, but "best fighter" STILL is the P-51D, despite its limited service in theater. For the Japanese, the P-51 was an "Ace-of-Aces Killer", coming in so fast (nearly 100 MPH faster than a Zero
) that a Zero pilot often didn't even know the Mustang was there before being being shot out of the sky. And if the Mustang missed he'd be gone before the Zero could react, with a much better air superiority performance than the Corsair (despite its own incredible dive speed) so it was safer for the Mustang to attack at any altitude.
The Tempest deserves honorable mention in the same sentence. She just wasn't in nearly the same numbers to represent the impact of the P-51D. As a V-1 killer and for tactical support in NW Europe, she was superb.
Air superiority, which is IMO the real measure of a true fighter, wasn't Russia's thing.
Italy never had a true first class fighter to match what the British had in the air at the same time.
The Zero had its day, but between Japan's inability to seriously replace it and the lack of any real numbers of aircraft built to replace it, the aircraft was a death bucket by 1945.
The Me-109 was numerous, but never superior to the Spitfire, while the FW-190 definitely was, with the various Marks of 190s in the position to stay one step ahead of newer Marks of Spitfires, until the arrival of the magnificent Spitfire Mark XIV.
The Me-262 was an interceptor, not a true fighter. She might have scythed the Red Air Force (2) from the skies, save that her Jumo 004 engines prevented her from ever seeing the service she would have needed for the job. As a hanger queen, she was worse than the Japanese Hein, their copy of the Me-109.
Oh, and the German night fighter
Uhu deserves honorable mention here too.
2) Not that she would ever have been sent East, what with the USAAF reducing the cities of Germany to rubble, which is why I mentioned the
Uhu as well.
