This is fairly deep discussion of diving limitations for the P47 Thunderbolt. By the end of this video you should have an understanding of airspeed limitations and mach numbers and understand how they effect dive performance in WW2 aircraft.

The P47 is the fastest diving propeller plane of the war. However the Spitfire actually has the highest mach number limit. Sadly for the Spitfire, it never did it much good. Most of it's work was at mid and lower altitudes where the German planes could out dive it.

The answer to the question in the video is mach .745. It's tricky. If you plot the 540mph speed on the chart you will get about .785. However that's because that's the mach number for 540 at standard temperature. At 10F, the speed of sound is 724. 540/724 is about .745.

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Corrections, The Spitifires are MK 9 and MK 16. Pay no attention to the Roman numeral error. The video goes dark at one point for a few seconds, no image is missing so I am not going to remake the video for that. Just consider it a moment to rest your eyes.