"next target...Entropy": BF

8/9/06

BF - 109 THE THRILL

Unwanted at its inception, the Bf 109 became the most widely produced, the most respected, and the most varied Luftwaffe fighter. Over 30,000 of the nine major variants of Willy Messerschmitt's versatile aircraft were built. From its introduction in the Spanish Civil War, until the last Bf 109 model retired from the Spanish (!) Air Force in 1967, the 109 served for thirty years.

Background

From the late 1920's, Dr. Willy Messerchmitt antagonized Erhard Milch, eventually Hitler's Secretary of State for Aviation, and thus Messerchmitt's company, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW), could not get much support from the German government. At one point, the Gestapo even called on Messerchmitt to question him about his contracts with the Romanian government. In 1933, his luck changed, when the Luftwaffe invited BFW to design a sports plane for an upcoming international air race. Messerschmitt, under tight deadlines, based his new aircraft on the work he had done for the Romanian sports plane.
The resulting Bf 108, the forerunner to the 109, flew in February, 1934, with a top speed over 200 MPH. Its performance at the races showed real promise, but due to Milch's influence, the Luftwaffe's request that year for a fighter was given to Focke-Wulf, Arado, and Heinkel, but not to BFW. By 1935, though, Messerchmitt was granted a development contract, something of a gamble. As a development-only contract, it represented a gamble. Milch made it clear that no production contract would follow. Messerchmitt relied on the superior qualities of his design, the Bf 109, to overcome Milch's opposition.

The prototype Bf 109V-1 was ready in August, 1935, Like its predecessor, the Bf 108, it was a low wing, all metal construction monoplane, with flush rivets, leading edge slats, and retractable landing gear. Its single-seat cockpit had a fully enclosed canopy. While none of the developments were revolutionary in 1935, Messerschmitt first put them all together in the Bf 109. Powered by a 695 HP twelve cylinder Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, the Bf 109V-1 first flew in September of that year.

At first, the Luftwaffe pilots, from Ernst Udet on down, distrusted the aircraft. It seemed frail; its enclosed canopy was disconcerting; it had a very high wing loading; and its narrow track landing gear was prone to failure. (On this last point, their concerns were well founded. Landing gear troubles plagued the 109its entire career.)

But its speed and agility impressed the Luftwaffe skeptics; even Udet came around to support the plane. Even before the results of the competition were known, Messerschmitt pushed on with the second and third models. The Bf 109V-2 was powered by a 610 HP Junkers Jumo 210A but was otherwise similar to the V-1.

The V-3, the third prototype, was the first Bf 109 to be armed, carrying two 7.9mm MG17 machine guns and 1000 rounds of ammunition, as called for in the RLM spec. Otherwise similar to the first two examples, its first flight was delayed until May 1936, due to teething problems with the Jumo 210A engine.

Meanwhile, the Arado and Focke-Wulfe entries had foundered on poor performance and mechanical problems, and Heinkel’s He 112 could not match Messerschmitt’s entrant. Reports of the technologically advanced British Spitfire development added to the Bf 109's favor. Throughout the 1936 trials, the BFW fighter looked better and better, prompting the RLM to order ten Bf 109s. Udet's stunning performance in a Bf 109 at the Rechlin air show confirmed the decision. In front of Generalfeldmarschall Goering and other Luftwaffe brass, Udet intercepted four He 51s in a mock air battle, "destroyed" them, and then turned on a force of bombers and "destroyed" them as well.

In November 1936, the Bf 109V-4 flew. It mounted a third machine gun in the nose and otherwise resembled the V-3.

With production now guaranteed, BFW finished the prototyping with two more airplanes: the Bf 109V-5 and the Bf 109V-6, both equipped with an improved Jumo 210B engine.

With Nazi Germany committed to the Fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War, the Germans rushed these last three pre-production aircraft to Seville in December, 1936. Essentially, the final field-testing of the Bf 109 took place in actual combat, as the German “volunteers” of the Condor Legion immediately began flying missions.