Really? The turbine, especially the early ones required a lot of training.
Pushing the throttle too fast stalled the turbine and flamed out the engine. Acceleration was very bad but constant. Really bad when you misjudge the landing approach and the jets higher stall speed.
The Germans found out bomber pilots made the best ME-262 pilots because they had to unlearn less. Tactics were completely different in the original jet fighters because of the way a turbine worked. High angles of attack stalled the engines. That funny nose on the F-86 had a reason. Once you bleed off energy, it was a long time to get speed and altitude back. Killed a lot of early jet pilots in combat trying to play in a turning battle. Engine controls were not automated like it is today.
The original P-59 (an experiment that flew like a dog) was powered like the meteor with a Centrifugal flow turbojet. The British engine. After review of captured ME-262s axial turbojet and with the help of the scientists who made them work, GE resurrected it's origin axial turbojet program and added the fixes. The US had Hastalloy - B, and the Germans created an aluminum coating and were experts on cooling the turbine blades. (The German response to get around limited supply of high temp alloys).
Here is a quote from the P-80 Wiki page.
After the war, the USAAF compared the P-80 and
Me 262 concluding, "Despite a difference in gross weight of nearly 2,000 lb (900 kg), the Me 262 was superior to the P-80 in acceleration, speed and approximately the same in climb performance. The Me 262 apparently has a higher
critical Mach number, from a drag standpoint, than any current Army Air Force fighter."
[6]
and that's with the new GE engine. The swept wing and cleaner lines made the difference. The P-80 was a little more reliable, but killed pilots like Richard Bong just the same. (Bong didn't engage the auxiliary fuel pump, when the primary failed causing the engine to die at low altitude.
No engine in a jet and they fall like a rock. Inexperience in an early jet (P-80) killed Bong and a lot of early ME-262 pilots also)