MESSERSCHMITT Bf 109 (ME-109)

The legendary story of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 began in 933 when the German Air Ministry announced a competition for a new fighter. Very reluctantly they allowed Willy Messerscchmitt to take part. They thought his entry would come last, The prototype Bf 109 flew in late May 1935, powered by a British Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine because the jumo 2 0 was not ready. Having seen it, the officials almost laughed. The rakish small-wing monoplane looked more like a racer, Luftwaffe procurement chief Ernst Udet proclaimed: 'That thing will never make a fighter! That was before he flew it.

Subsequently the 109 so turned the tables on its detractors that by the start of World War II was the standard single-seat fighter of the Luftwaffe. It swept opposition from the sky all over Europe, was built in larger numbers than any other single type of fighter, and shot down approximately twice as many aircraft as any other aircraft in history.

The Bf 109 cut its fighting teeth several years previously, during the Spanish Civil War, The He 5I biplanes of the German Kondor Legion were being severely mauled by the faster and much more deadly Polikarpov I- 6s supplied to the Republicans by the Soviet Union. However, when in 1937 the Kondor Legion was re-equipped with some of the first production Bf 109s, the tables were turned with a vengeance.

Only a handful of Bf 109s saw service in Spain, but they were so superior to anything then in the sky that their effect was tremendous. Meantime, back in Germany, a totally unrelated Messerschmitt racer, with a specially boosted engine, set a world speed record which stood unchallenged for 30 years. The Nazi propaganda machine called the racer the 'Messerschmitt 109R' to give the impression that it was a version of the fighter.

Following the Spanish conflict, the next serious test for the Bf 109 came when 200 of them formed the spearhead of Germany's attack on Poland on 1 September 1939. The Poles had around 160 fighters, mostly their own PZL P. 11c gull-winged monoplanes, and something like the same number of modern bombers. When the smoke cleared, Germany had lost fewer than 80 fighters, while Polands casualties totalled some 350 aircraft, although around 120 of these (both fighters and bombers) had been interned in neutral Rumania.

So Messerschmitts new fighter was flying high, but a little under one year later, when the Battle of Britain began in earnest in August 1940, the hitherto victorious Sf 109 finally met with some real opposition. One of its problems was that it had an operational endurance over southern England of only 20 to 30 minutes, and the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the Royal Air Force proved to be formidable adversaries.

On the day planned for the Luftwaffe's major assault in the Battle of Britain, code-named Adlertag(Eagle Day), 30 Messerschmitt Bf 1O9Es, headed by Major Gunther von Maltzahn, took off from Dinan and set a course for the sky high over Dorset, One of the pilots in the second wave of fighters, Leutnant Heinz Pfannschmidt, very quickly found himself in the worst kind of trouble.

The Spitfires of 609 Squadron had scrambled from Warmwell to intercept the raiders and were already airborne and waiting. Pfannschmidt was caught in the gunsight of a Spitfire flown by Pilot Officer 0. M. Crook, and a two-second burst from eight O.303in Browning machine guns sent the German machine spiralling crazily down to crash in the waters of Poole harbor,

This was the first recorded shooting-down on Adlertag of a Bf 109: but it proved, as the Battle of Britain progressed, to be the first of hundreds. The Luftwaffe was forced to accept the simple truth that the Bf 109 was not at all suitable as a bomber escort. Its range was far too limited.

So its role was switched to that of defensive fighter and fighter-bomber. With the introduction of the improved Bf 109G, the type took on a whole new lease of life, It was in a Bf 109G- 14 that Major Erich Bubi Hartmann scored most of his unrivalled total of 352 confirmed 'kills', and Bf l09Gs and Ks remained largely unchanged right to the end of hostilities in May 945.

From the start of development, the 109 excelled in most flight manoeuvres, its climb and dive capability was unrivalled and general handling at low speeds exceptional. Spinning trials showed behaviour better than any existing German biplane fighter, and even the much-criticised narrow landing gear was a deliberate design feature with many advantages. At high speeds the control forces increased dramatically, until at speeds near 644km/h in a dive, the rate of roll was almost zero, unless the pilot was very strong. Oddly, trivial deficiencies such as the lack of a rudder trimmer - which made flight very tiring when trying to fly straight at high speed - lasted almost to the end of production in 1944. Many experts on the 109 considered the 1941 version, the 109F, the nicest to fly. Many stuck to it in preference to the more powerful, heavier and much more heavily armed Gustav', the 109G. which was far more numerous than all the other versions added together.

A little-known fact about the Bf 109 is that in I 939 the German High Command, worried by Britain's naval superiority, ordered a sea-borne version of the fighter for operation from the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. The main structural difference, apart from the fitting of an arrester hook and catapult spools, was an increase in wing span of 08cm, folding down for hangar storage to an overall width of 4.95m, This naval version was designated the Bf 109T.

Though it was on the losing side, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 was probably the most important fighter of World War II, Not only did it shoot down far more aircraft than any other type in history, but it also, initially backed up by no other fighter except the big twin-engined Bf110, took on the air forces of Spain, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Greece and eliminated them as fighting forces,

It is calculated that some 30,500 were produced, and this figure does not include those which were built in Czechoslovakia for service with the' Czech Air Force and Israel, or those built by Hispano in Spain. Many of these Spanish post-war productions, known as Ha-1109s and Ha-1112s. were still on active service as late as the mid-I 950s, and one curious aspect of this longevity is that the wheel had turned full circle. The final Iberian version, the Ha-1112 was powered, as was the original prototype, by a British Rolls-Royce engine, in this instance a Merlin. These in fact acted the part of Daimler-Benz powered Bf 1O9Es in the film Battle of Britain.
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At the outbreak of World War 2 the Luftwaffe had a strength of 1,056 BE 109s. Many of these were Bf lO9Ds, but this series was already being replaced in increasing numbers by the BE 105E. This had first appeared (as the V14) in mid-1938, and the E-l was produced both as a fighter (with four MG I 7s) and as a fighter-bomber (carrying one 250kg or four 50kg bombs). Later E-ls standardized on 20mm MG FF cannon in place of the two wing-mounted MG l7s. Against all types of opposing fighter throughout Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Holland and southern England, with the exception of the Spitfire (which it greatly outnumbered), the Hf I 09E proved itself superior in both performance and manoeuvrability; only its range let it down. Production accelerated to the extent that Germany could afford to export substantial numbers of the Hf I 09E-3 (which appeared at the end of 1939 and was the principal version to be used in the Battle of Britain) to Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan, Romania, Slovalda, Switzerland, the USSR and Yugoslavia. In addition, a small batch was built during 1941-43 by Dornier's Altenrhein factory in Switzerland. In July 1940 the Gerhard Fieseler-Werke began to convert 10 Bf 109E-ls to Bf lOST (for Tratger: carrier) extended-span configuration. These were to have been development aircraft for the Bf l09 l,intended for use aboard the proposed aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, but after the carrier programme was terminated the 60 T-ls ordered were completed instead as land-based T-2s.

Various other E models, up to E-9, were produced for fighter and/or reconnaissance duties, with powerplant or equipment variations. Meanwhile, Messerschmitt had been developing what was to become the finest of all the many versions, the Bf 109F. Powered by either a l,200hp DB 601N or a l,3SOhp DB 601E engine, the Bf 109F represented a considerable advance over earlier series in terms of both performance and cleanliness of line, and at last gave the Luftwaffe a fighter that could outmanoeuvre the Spitfire V. The entire fuselage was cleaner aerodynamically, culminating in a more rounded rudder, an unbraced tailplane and a retractable tailwheel: the wings, of slightly increased span, were rounded off at the tips; and performance at all altitudes was better than that of earlier models. Production series ran from F-I to F-6, with various sub-types. Several F-series aircraft were used as testbeds, the items evaluated including BMW 801 (radial) and Jumo 213 engines, a V-type tail unit, rocket weapons, and a nosewheel landing gear. A prototype never flown, but none the less of interest, was the Bf I 09Z of 1943, in which two Bf I O9Fs were twinned' by connecting them by a new, common wing centre-section and tailplane, the sole pilot being intended to occupy a cockpit in the port fuselage. By 1942 the Bf 109F had been supplanted in production and service by the most numerous version, the Bf 109G. Heavier and less manoeuvrable than the Fs, with DB 605 engines and additional equipment, the 'Gustavs' were individually less successful.

An exact total for production of all variants of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 is virtually impossible to determine, but it was approximately equal to the combined output of its great wartime opponents, the Hurricane and Spitfire, and thereby one of the most extensively produced aircraft of all time. Its final version, the Bf 1090, was alone built in numbers comparable to those of the Hurricane. Moreover the Hf 109, unlike its British contemporaries, remained basically a tighter or fighter-bomber all its operational life, apart from a few unprofitable excursions into other potential roles. First operational experience was gained in 1937 with Jagdgruppe 8S of the Condor Legion in Spain, and in the same year the Bf109B entered service at home with the celebrated Richthofen' Geschwader.

The Bf 105E series, which began to reach Luftwaffe fighter units at the beginning of 1939, formed the substantive service version right through the Battle of Britain. Superior in speed to the Hurricane at all altitudes, and faster in both climb and dive, the Bf 105E could, moreover, approximately match the Spitfire I in these areas, though it could be out-turned by both British fighters. But its very short tactical radius, leaving it fuel for only about 20 minutes combat once arriving over southern England, put it at a considerable disadvantage, and in the tour months July-October 1940 the number of Hf 109s lost or damaged - not all due to combat - reached some 877. Best of all variants was the Bf 109F, which was the first version able to out-climb the Spitfire V. In the late summer of 1942, it was supplanted by the Bf 109G; but this version, despite its more powerful engine, was so much heavier that its performance was in fact poorer than the F. Post-war production of the Messerschmitt 109 took place in Czechoslovakia and Spain, and the type continued in service for some years after the end of hostilities in Europe.

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This was an interesting touch on the Evergreen Museum's ME-109. I wonder if the Luftwaffe actually took the time to be so careful..
	The Evergreen Air Museum, located at McMinnville, Oregon, has quite a few pretty neat airplanes.. Most special is the actual "Spruce Goose"..the one that Howard Hughes acidently flew..

The basic specifications of the Bf 109E

Wingspan: 32ft 6in Length: 28ft 9in Height: 8 ft. 1 in. Wing area: 176.5 sq. ft Engine: DB 601A, 12 cyl. Vee, 1,100 h.p. Max speed: 354.2 mph at 16,400 ft Best climb: 2,990 ft/min at 13,150 ft Climb to: 9,840 ft., 3 min.; 19,865 ft., 6.3 min. Service ceiling: 30,100 ft Combat range: 412 miles at 16,400 ft Endurance: 1.1 hours Empty weight: 4,431 lb.. Loaded weight: 5,600 lb.. Armament: 2-7.9mm fuselage guns, 2-20mm wing cannon (1/wing).

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