Messerschmitt Bf 109

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Les Bf 109 sur Wikipedia version anglaise :

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The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Bf 109 was a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] designed by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the early 1930s.

It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] construction, a closed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and retractable [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Having gone through its baptism of fire in the Spanish Civil War, the Bf 109 was still in service at the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II, during which it was the backbone of the German [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fighter force.

An inverted Vee-piston engined fighter, the Bf 109 was supplemented, but never completely replaced in service, by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] from the end of 1941.

Bf 109 G

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Originally conceived as an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and as reconnaissance
aircraft.

It was supplied to and operated by several minor [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] states during World War II, and served with several countries for many years after the war.

The Bf 109 was the most produced warplane during 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.

Cockpit HA 111 2

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The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring German [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of World War II, who claimed 928 victories between them while flying with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], chiefly on the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], as well as by the highest scoring German ace in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was also flown by the highest high-scoring non-German ace [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and several other successful ones, notably from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Through constant development, it remained competitive with the latest [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fighter aircraft until the end of the war, and at the same time, showed the limits of what could be achieved with piston-engined fighters.

HA 111 2

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Design and Development


During 1933, the Technisches Amt (C-Amt), the technical department of the RLM, concluded a series of
research projects into the future of air combat.

The result of the studies was four broad outlines for future aircraft :

• Rüstungsflugzeug I for a multi-seat medium bomber
  
• Rüstungsflugzeug II for a tactical bomber
  
• Rüstungsflugzeug III for a single-seat fighter
  
• Rüstungsflugzeug IV for a two-seat heavy fighter
  

Rüstungsflugzeug III was intended to be an interceptor, replacing the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] biplanes then in service.

Two months after the newly elected [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] government were sworn to power on the 30 January 1933, the RLM published the tactical requirements for a single-seat fighter in the document L.A. 1432/33.

Bf 109 E

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The fighter needed to have a top speed of 400 km/h (250 mph) at 6,000 m (19,690 ft) which it could maintain for 20 minutes, while staying in the air for a total of 90 minutes.

The critical altitude of 6,000 metres was to be reached in no more than 17 minutes, and the fighter was to have an operational ceiling of 10,000 metres.

Power was to be provided by the new[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine of about 522 kW (700 hp).

It was to be armed with either a single high-performance 20 mm MG C 30 cannon firing through the engine shaft or, alternatively, either two engine cowl-mounted 7.92 mm (.312 in) [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], or one lightweight, engine-mounted 20 mm[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with two 7.92 mm MG 17s.

One other specification was that the aircraft needed to keep [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] below 100 kg/m².

The performance was to be evaluated based on the fighter's level speed, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and manoeuvrability, in that
order.

In fact, the R-III specifications were not actually devised by the T-Amt :
in early-1933, both [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] had sent in privately funded designs for a monoplane fighter,
and the T-Amt simply collected the best features from both and sent them back out again, adding [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to the invitation to tender.

Bf 109 G

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It has been suggested that Willy Messerschmitt was originally not invited to participate in the competition due to personal animosity between Messerschmitt and RLM director Erhard Milch;

however, recent research by Willy Radinger and Walter Shick indicates that this may not have been the case, as
all three competing companies – Arado, Heinkel and the BFW – received the development contract for the L.A. 1432/33 requirements at the same time in February 1934.

A fourth company, Focke Wulf received a copy of the development contract only in September 1939.

The powerplant was to be the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but the proviso was made that it would be interchangeable with the more powerful, but less developed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] powerplant.

Each was asked to deliver three prototypes to be delivered for head-to-head testing in late 1934.

Prototypes


Design work on what was to become the Bf 109 began in March 1934, just three weeks after the development contract was awarded, under Messerschmitt Project number P.1034.

The basic mock-up was completed by May 1934, and a more detailed design mock-up was prepared by January 1935.

The design was issued with the RLM's designation of "Bf 109", with the 109 next in line from a batch of type numbers
assigned to BFW.

Bf 109 G

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The first prototype (Versuchsflugzeug 1 or V1), with the civilian registration D-IABI, was completed by May 1935, but the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines were not yet ready.

In order to get the 'RIII' designs into the air, the RLM acquired four [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] VI engines by trading Rolls-Royce a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Blitz as an engine test-bed.

Messerschmitt received two of these engines and started adapting the engine mounts of V1 to take the V-12 engine upright.

This work was completed in August, and V1 completed flight tests in September 1935.

The aircraft was then sent to the Luftwaffe test centre at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to take part in the design contest.

Bf 109 G

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By late-summer, the Jumo engines were starting to become available, and V2 was completed with the 449 kW (600 hp) Jumo 210A in October 1935.

V3 followed, being the first to actually mount guns, but another Jumo 210 was not available and it ended up delaying the flight of V3 until May 1936.

Bf 109 G

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The contest


After Luftwaffe acceptance trials were completed at Rechlin, the prototypes were moved to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the head-to-head portion of the contest.

The aircraft which participated in the trials were the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] V3, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] V3, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] V4 and the Bf 109 V2.

The He 112 arrived first, in early February 1936, and the rest of the prototypes had all arrived by the beginning of March.

Bf 109 G

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Because most of the fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe were used to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with open [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], low wing loading, light [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and easy handling, they were very critical of the Bf 109 at first.

However, it soon became one of the front runners in the contest, as the Arado and Focke-Wulf entries, which were intended as "back-up" programmes to safeguard against failure of the two favourites, proved to be completely outclassed.

The Arado Ar 80, with its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (replaced with a straight, tapered wing on the V3) and fixed, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] undercarriage was overweight and underpowered and the design was abandoned after three prototypes had been built.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Fw 159 was always considered by the Erprobungsstelle (E-Stelle) staff at Travemünde to be a compromise between the biplane and the aerodynamically more efficient low-wing monoplane.

Although it had some advanced features, it used a novel undercarriage design which was never truly reliable.