MESSERSCHMITT BF 109 – GERMANY’S FINEST

 

                                                  

 

The fighter jet Messerschmitt Bf-109 needed an every ounce of the performance it had to take on the British fighters, especially the Hawker Hurricane and Spitfire during the Battle of Britain.

During the World War II the narrative of fighter operations is dominated by the super marine Spitfire, the North American Aviation P-15 Mustang, and the darling of Royal Air Force, the United States Army Air Force fly.  That is the Less celebrated, probably because the history is written by the victors, is German fighter Aircraft is the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Luftwaffe’s fighter force’s the fighter jet Bf 109 was the backbone and during the War accounted for as much as 57 per cent of all German fighter aircraft produced. That is the highest scoring fighter ace all the time. Bf 109 was flown by the Major Erich and with was credited with 352 aerial victories. Actually, this deadly fighter was the one of the three favorite top scoring German’s aces of World War II, who claimed among them the 928 kills. And it also held the record for the fighter that brought down the most Allied planes during the War.

In the History the fighter jet Bf 109 was the first true mass production fighter aircraft and probably the most produced fighter aircraft on higher scale in the history, with the almost 35000 built in all. While working at Bayersche Flugziugweke It was designed by Willy Messerschmitt, Hence the designation of the Bf. In July 1938, it was reconstituted by the firm as Messerschmitt AG with Willy Messerschmitt as Chairman. In September 1935 the first Bf 109 prototype fighter jet was flown, ironically that is powered by a 695 hp British Rolls Royce Kestrel engine, as the development of the German of lightweight military aero engines was prohibited under the Treaty of the Versailles. However side by side, secretly a German engine was developed. During the Spanish Civil War the propeller driven fighter was blooded in the operations in 1937 and till the end of the World War II was extensively used by the Luftwaffe. That was initially as a fighter interceptor fighter jet designed, in Berlin Olympic game its superlative performance was demonstrated in public at the 1936. The following of the year, in Zurich exhibited outstanding speed the professional aviation world marveled as five Bf 109’s participating in an international flying meet, diving, Climbing and maneuvering performance. On 26 April, 1939, a modified special version, the Me209, set a new high speed record that was of 756KMph, that was unbroken record and remained unbroken until August 1969.

The engineers of the Messerschmitt kept their design simple, aiming to minimize the number of the separate parts in the fighter aircraft and to concentrate most loads in the firewall. They choose the most powerful engine and decided to mount the most powerful engine they could on the smallest and lightest possible airframe and make the resulting aircraft easy to repair and build. And in this, they succeeded in the great measure. Yet, the despite its lightweight construction, the BF 109 was one of the most advanced fighter of the period on account of its all metal monocoque construction, , closed retractable landing gear and gear. And it was powered by a single Daimler Benz DB 605A1 liquid cooled inverted V12, 1,455 hp aero engine which gave it a maximum speed of 640kmph and cruise speed of 590kmph. For variety of combat missions It was ultimately produced in over 100 variants.

The fighter jet Messerschmitt Bf 109 really needed an every ounce of performance it had to take on the British fighters, especially the Hawker Hurricane and Spitfire that formed the bulk of the fighter fleet during the Battle of the Britain. It was always claimed by the British that the Spitfire was superior and the ratio of the kill would seem to bear this out. However, mostly the dog fights took place over the London where the Bf 109s were near their range of maximum and could remain in the combat for just ten to twenty minutes before having to withdraw. In fact, in the icy English Channel a number of Bf 109s ended up, and their hapless pilots having run out of the fuel.

The fighter jet Bf 109E that entered in to the production in 1938 was the standard Luftwaffe day fighter. Its 20mm cannons and two machine guns gave it the firepower greater than the RAF fighter jets. Apart from the limited fuel capacity of it, the main disadvantage of the fighter jet Bf 109 was that it was very tricky to land and to take off. Because of the landing and takeoff by some estimates as many as 10%t of all accidents happened of the fighter jet Bf 109 and it’s a big loss that’s why needed expert pilots for it. In the later stages of the war It was also outgunned by the Spitfire. Nevertheless, with the engineer continuously coming out with the new improved variants.

Although with the World War II the production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter jet ended in Germany. it continued for some years in Spain. And the twist of the final in the epic of the fighter jet Bf 109 tale happened when the Israelis, totally disappointed and unable to get the fighter aircraft from the other sources, they get the fighter jet Bf 109s and to used them in the combat in 1948.