"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
09/01/2015 at 19:29 • Filed to: Messerschmitt, Me 109, Bf 109, Planelopnik
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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
09/01/2015 at 19:29 • Filed to: Messerschmitt, Me 109, Bf 109, Planelopnik | 3
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Time to take to the air again, courtesy of the Messerschmitt Me 109. Or the Bf 109. Two bitterly opposed camps have sprung up to contest which designation is correct. For what it’s worth the builders were called Bayerische Flugzeugwerke at the time and later became Messerschmitt and designs post dating the change are unequivocally Mes.
The 109 (the number was supplied by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium and mercifully isn’t open to dispute) won a competition to decide on the Reich’s new single engine fighter. What the Reich got was a modern all-metal plane designed according to Willy Messerschmitt’s idea of “lightweight construction” which involved as few parts as possible. Two large brackets therefore supported both the engine and undercarriage which necessitated the latter folding outwards and so having a narrow track which led to the 109 being notoriously easy to crash on landing or takeoff.
You might expect a product of the Bavarian Plane Works to have an engine by the Bavarian Engine Works, but BMW didn’t get the job, powering the rival Fw 190 instead. Instead Messerschmitt used a DB 605 which had the distinction of being an inverted V12, something that allowed the widest part of the engine to be lower and the cowling to have a rounded shape.
It was built throughout the war and in huge numbers - nearly 34,000 Messerschmitts and a further 800 odd by Avia and Hispano who continued building after the war. The last 109 was retired as late as 1965. Out of all those about a dozen are still flying, most of which are the Spanish built Ha 1112.
Have a Ha 1112 painted to look like a 109 and equipped with a period DB engine, in place of the Merlin it originally had.
Interestingly Messerschmitt became, after various mergers, MBB who built helicopters and were then subsumed into the company now called Airbus Helicopters. Daimler no longer make aircraft engines.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Cé hé sin
09/01/2015 at 19:45 |
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If it’s clearly an old model, I go with Bf, if it’s clearly a later model, I go with ME, anything in between I choose rather randomly.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> Cé hé sin
09/01/2015 at 19:54 |
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jovimon7
> Cé hé sin
09/01/2015 at 20:30 |
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Barn find!
facw
> Cé hé sin
09/01/2015 at 23:22 |
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Or for those who aren’t fans of the Nazis:
Technically the Avia S-199, a Czechoslovakian-built copy of the 109 (with a different engine). It was flown by the Czechoslovakians and, as pictured, formed Israel’s first fighter squadron.
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Cé hé sin
> jovimon7
09/02/2015 at 04:36 |
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Those aren’t as they seem though. Look like Merlin engines.