The Banshee, for the simple reason that it replaced the Panther in American service, iirc.

Just because a plane is replaced doesn't mean it was bad. I reckon the Panther would hold its own as they are both evenly matched. Having said that, I'd pick the Banshee.

If they were both evenly matched, then America would not have wasted the money to bring the banshee into service.

If that was the case, you could say that about most aircraft.

"If that was the case, you could say that about most aircraft" You can say that about most aircraft. Or am I missing something? Can you name me any aircraft which are clearly superior to the one which replaced them?

MkI spits and MkIB. I reckon the Tomcat could have been superior to the Super bug in fleet air defence, if they had updated the avionics a bit.

On paper, the F9F should be a slightly better dogfighter -- faster, better climb and slightly lower wing loading. The F2H should have been a better attack a/c, same bombload with a larger wing so less handling trouble loaded. By the way, for anyone who has seen the old movie THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI, the spectacular F9F deck crash in the movie was an actual flight deck film, and the pilot lived through it. The a/c was totally destroyed flying belly first into the rear edge of the flight deck. The forward fuselage tumbled onto the deck. In the movie, the pilot was supposed to have been killed.

No, no, the Panther was replaced by the Cougar. The Banshee was a concurrent aircraft to the Panther, which was intended as all-weather fighter. It was larger and twin engined, to carry around the radar unit in the nose. As to who would win... it depends on the fight: Night or other low-visibility intercept goes to the Banshee. Dogfight goes to the Panther. The Banshee served for about ten years and was soon replaced by MUCH more capable aircraft. It had superior high altitude performance for its day, but it was a bit bulky to be truly nimble. -- Shaken - out --

Shaken. No yourself. The F2H-2 did NOT have night fighter radar as standard except for a few F2H-2N's. The plane was only slightly larger than the F9F-5. Its two engines were in the 3200lb/thrust range, the one engine in the Grummen was in the 6200lb/thrust range. Only starting in the F2H-3 did it become an all weather fighter.