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Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German WWII fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters, with an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. The backbone of the German Luftwaffe during WWII, the BF 109 was still in service at the dawn of the jet age. An inverted Vee-piston engined fighter, the Bf 109 was supplemented, but never completely replaced in service, by the radial engined Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from the end of 1941. The Bf 109 was the most produced warplane of World War II, with 30,573 examples built during the war, and the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945.

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Added: Apr-4-2010 
By: positron
In: Other
Tags: Messerschmitt, Bf, 109,
Marked as: approved
Views: 9393 | Comments: 6 | Votes: 0 | Favorites: 0 | Shared: 1 | Updates: 0 | Times used in channels: 1
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  • Beautiful aircraft.

    Posted Apr-4-2010 By 
    lonewolf6972 (687.76)

    (2)

  • Good plane, potentially better than the Hurricane or the Spitfire apart from one serious flaw:

    Very difficult to land due to narrow undercarriage. Once all the experienced pilots were dead, the inexperienced wrecked hundreds of planes.

    Posted Apr-5-2010 By 
    lpankhurst (500.14)  

    (1)

  • That "dangerously narrow" gear was wider than a Spitfire's. What really set it apart from the Spit was it was further forward of the CG. The Spit's gear was well under the wing (until later models, but even then was further aft) which made the plane more directionally neutral on the ground but much more prone to nose over. The Me109's gear being further forward (moved even further forward with the G model) made nose-overs all but impossible but was directionally more . . . challengi More..

    Posted Apr-5-2010 By 
    rpurdey (46.84)

    (0)

  • On blacktop they are easy to handle. The aircraft is actually simpler to fly than the trainers of the day. The young German aviator had 10-15hrs of solo and would be knuckling up with Ivan on the Russian front....The 1937 German aircraft industry knew more about ergonomics than we do today. Who gives a crap about ground handling when you are in harms way?

    Posted Apr-5-2010 By 
    Libertyhound (24.52)  

    (0)

  • Actually, Hartmann's advice to modern 109 pilot's was to fly it off of grass until they became proficient. He said even old hands at the front could lose control of the plane when they flew back to rear areas and operated on pavement again. The ergonomics were the German standard of the day. Ground handling is important if it's going to claim a large percentage of your aircraft. November of 1944 more 109s were lost to non-combat causes (mostly groundloops) than to combat.

    Posted Apr-6-2010 By 
    rpurdey (46.84)

    (0)

  • wow i want one

    Posted Apr-7-2010 By 
    VikingSword (790.72)

    (0)