Among the community its widely stated that US teams are the worst in the game especially in Air RB. However, i think this is a gross simplification that leaves no room for nuance.
The meta heavily favors props that have a high climb rate. Yak3s, Spitfires, 109s etc. do exceedingly well in this regard. There’s only a few US planes that climb well such as P51H, Bearcats, P38s (I’ll get to the P38 here in a minute).
The way Gaijin has Air RB set up naturally kneecaps the US line for the majority of its popular aircraft. P51C&D models, P47s etc. were never meant to climb to reach the enemy over short 30 mile distances. Planes used in CAP would take off from bases in southern England and travel hundreds of miles on escort missions even after German lines were pushed back in France. So why are P47s and P51s forced to play an interceptors game? These planes need to have an air spawn. They’re inherently harder to play than any other nations main iconic planes in the game such as yaks, spits, A6Ms and 109s. They require a player to spend 5 minutes of climbing, to then find most of the team is dead and there’s still enemy planes above them.
I’m sure many of you are thinking that all is needed is an just an adequate amount of altitude and high speed, not necessarily to be above someone to which i agree, BUT only if its one or two planes. If the whole enemy team is still above you after 5 minutes of climbing, you’re basically screwed and forced to either dive to your death or run to your airfield.
A great example of US teams doing well is when there are more P38s on the team. Due to them getting an air spawn, they can get above the enemy and actually be useful. when its planes other than P38s, like P47s, they’ll often go ground pound which everyone seems to have issue with but if you had to put up with what’s mentioned above, I would do the same. At least they’ll have a higher chance of getting some RP before they are shot down.
So its not that US teams are bad, Its that US planes are often stuck fighting a losing fight because their role isn’t taken into account when making the game. I also don’t think it should be a high air spawn but perhaps at about 2k feet (like A model FW190s) to enable them to get the altitude advantage the US planes are best at. Which is superb performance at high altitude. its been 11 years of US team getting shit on because of this, and I feel like its because German mains cry when when an Allied plane finally gets above them.