I have to go with the "sports car" of fighters: the F-86.
I nearly got to fly them. For the Fighter Ground Attack School I attended, they strongly considered using de-mothballed F-86s for the course, but went with hybrid F-80/T-33s instead, mostly because the hybrid AT-33 was a two-seater. Still, I did get 40 hours in a Korean War fighter of sorts. It was a revelation, I assure you.
I was never an air-to-air fighter pilot kind of guy. Ground attack was my thing. The two planes I wanted to fly - but never did - were the A-7 and the A-10. My years fell right in the slot when neither one was active, the A-7 in the process of being phased out and the A-10 phased in. Damn.
