[ballistic aka [OF]edkjr]

"agracier"]This happens with other planes in the game as well, not only with jets.

I don't know how many times I've been at 110% and then have a wingman seemingly effortlessly pass me by, often climbing higher as well, to engage the enemy ahead.

I think it's a sort of in-built advantage the game assigns to itself where it concerns AI planes.

Depending on the plane you might have to adjust engine parameters such as "Prop Pitch" and "Mixture".
The Prop Pitch adjusts the angle of the propeller enabling it to "bite" the air more efficiently. The lower the prop percent the more the "bite" at lower RPM. Meaning your speed should increase and RPM's should decrease proportionately. Just be careful not to pitch too much or the RPM's will be insufficient to move the prop. There are links in this forum with some good info about complex engine management. The Aircraft Guide located in your game folder has information for each plane such as "combat" rpms and economy rpm's. The idea is to find the prop pitch that allows full throttle at the recommended Combat RPM or Combat Engine Setting.
The AI of course is always set at optimum everything so there will be times when they pull away no matter what you do but proper engine management does help.