How about the Polikarpov I-16? Though tricky to fly, any pilot who mastered that plane in latter half of the 1930's flew a fighter that could for its day compete against any foreign competition--and that included the Messerschmitt Bf 109 B/C models, the Mitsubishi A5M, and Nakajima Ki-27! Mind you, when the Bf 109E and Mitsubishi A6M arrived on the scene, the I-16 became obsolete....