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combat aircraft: a strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

There will be no full comparison here., but historical parallels will be present. I do not aim to show the similarity of Yakovlev and Messerschmitt aircraft, but in the course of the article you will be surprised, how similar was the history of these aircraft.

Another question, of course, what was the final. But we'll talk about that later too., how will the story end.

Why "Messerschmitt"? Because the rest will, but after. But it was the Bf.109, in my opinion, that was the most controversial aircraft of the Second World War. It's not even the point here., how was it invented, how was it designed. By and large,, there, through the knot, everything was atypical and controversial to disgrace.

Many sources consider, that Bf.109 appeared due to the fact, that Mr. Hitler decided to spit on the Treaty of Versailles and revive the Luftwaffe. Partly so, but I am of a slightly different opinion.

In fact, progress played a role in the appearance of the Bf.109. And the Messerschmitt would have appeared anyway. But the reasons for the appearance were by no means political., and technical.

Aircraft engine designers are to blame. It's their merit, that for some time V-shaped 12-cylinder liquid-cooled aircraft engines with a capacity of 900 to 1100 HP. And yes, it happened in the 30s of the last century.

At the same time, it became possible to create a fighter with the so-called "aerodynamically clean profile". And yes, the plane would be very fast, since the drag would be many times less.

Naturally, such fighters began to not only appear in different countries, and go like a wave. The same "new wave", which was based on the use of a compact (compared to an air-cooled engine) inline engine.

It was a galaxy of planes, who played a very prominent role in that war. British Hurricane and Spitfire, American P-39s and P-40s, French MS.406, D.520 и VG-33, Soviet Yak-1, MiG-3 and LaGG-3, Italian MC.202 and Re.2001, Japanese Ki-61. Naturally, without Bf.109 anywhere.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

And generally speaking, we used to consider the Bf.109 and the firstborn, and the standard of the "new wave" fighter. but, despite the external similarity with fighters of other models, inside it is a completely different aircraft with an unusual design. And quite contradictory. Furthermore, it was this unusualness that brought the Bf.109 to the final. Not quite regular, but expected.

by the way, little known fact: the first Messerschmitt Bf 109V-1 lifted a British engine from a Rolls-Royce into the air: "Kestrel".

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

This is about the advanced German industry. Actually, no worse than Soviet designers, the Germans used everything, to which it was possible to reach. including motors..

But back to the oddities of the design. According to many experts, it is she, design, decided, like take off, and the fall of the Messerschmitt.

Of course, the designer played the most significant role in the future of the aircraft. And many of them had their own specializations. Mitchell built racing floatplanes, eg. This is partly why the Spitfire was an excellent aircraft in terms of flight characteristics., but in execution it was a nightmare, requiring incredible efforts on the part of manufacturers.

Caproni was best at multi-engine bombers. Devuatin developed aerodynamically elegant fighters. Polikarpov was called the "king of fighters". Yakovlev built elegant aviettes and training aircraft.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109 AIR-9 designed by Yakovlev

And here is the coincidence. How Yakovlev built aircraft quite far from combat use, so Willy Messerschmitt produced light sports aircraft. Very specific. They were very light and inexpensive cars., capable of taking off and landing from unsuitable areas. But which could be transported using a cart and a pair of horses and repaired using improvised means.

And these planes should be inexpensive, so that anyone can buy them.

And thanks to such schedules, Messerschmitt came up with this design: landing gear attached to the fuselage (disputed, narrow gauge, but the car was disassembled and clung to anything in tow), light wing, which easily undocked, in general - a very mobile design.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109 "Messerschmitt" M.29 in transport position. Probably, the best example of Messerschmitt products in those years. It was a good plane.

But Messerschmitt was not allowed to the fighters. In Germany, there was someone to build them. As in the USSR in relation to Yakovlev.

But Willy wanted to build fighter planes! He understood perfectly, that racing and sports aircraft are bread, but caviar would not hurt absolutely. And so he began to design something, what later became the launch pad for the Bf.109. I.e, Bf.108.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109 «Messerşmitt» Bf.108

Sports Bf 108 turned out to be a very successful aircraft. It had all of the above.: ease, simplicity and low cost of construction, landing gear on the fuselage, two detachable wings. Fast assembly and disassembly process.

And the military decided to take a chance and order a fighter based on the Bf.108 concept for Messerschmitt. Money did its job and so began the ascent to the sky Bf.109.

The plane completely repeated the idea of ​​Bf.108: the same single-spar wing, which is easily undone, same chassis system, all the same sports small weight and dimensions, manufacturability and ease of maintenance and repair without compromising flight performance.

The basis of the aircraft was a rigid "box" with the pilot's seat, fuel tank and landing gear. Behind her docked tail, front engine with armament, wing consoles docked on the sides. Due to the modularity of the Bf.109, it was very convenient to manufacture and repair.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

Very similar to the history of many Soviet aircraft, but there was no engine on the 109th either! "Daimlers" could not bring their DB to mind 601 (true, how they brought it - it went), and Junkers could not finish with Jumo 210, which was also much weaker than its competitor.

As a result, the first copies generally flew on the British Kestrel from Rolls-Royce. normal practice for those, who lagged behind. The main thing is that the 109th flew, and flew very well.. Probably, thanks to the really low weight.

The military took the new fighter with coolness. 109-i was really, as now I would say, innovative: motor is so thin, because of this, the cabin also did not differ in space, the lantern is closing...

but, not only the plane, that flew well, it was also so easy to manufacture (and - importantly - inexpensive), everyone liked it. And most of all I liked it, that Bf.109 could be streamed in absolutely fantastic quantities.

Considering, that Hitler in earnest began the revival of the Luftwaffe, the plane of such a plan was not just on time, he was needed yesterday.

Was, of course, fly in the ointment in this flying barrel of honey. it, as those in the know already understood, chassis. The chassis is the Achilles heel of the Bf.109 throughout its life and service. It was breaking. Broke on all modifications, and, the harder the 109 got, the more likely it broke. Broke down in the dirt, In the snow, due to pilot error...

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

Generally, seriously, maybe, the chassis was the only drawback of the Bf.109. And so ... incorrigible, because if the Bf.108 did not have such a problem, it is quite strange, what does the Bf.109 have, which was made on the basis of the 108th, this problem has become fatal.

But there was a whole range of problems, who just didn't get it right, more precisely, were a chain, which led here:

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

so, we have the following list of absurdities and innovations, which Messerschmitt applied in his offspring.

1. The landing gear in the narrow fuselage resulted in a very narrow track.
2. Furthermore, these racks had to be made high, because we look at item 3.
3. The engine on the Bf.109 was a V-shaped, but for that, to place machine guns on top, turned it over to 180 degrees. Respectively, the axis of rotation of the screw has become lower, than with normal engine placement, so that the screw does not cling to the ground, I had to lengthen the rack and turn up the nose.
4. From here came a very unpleasant thing.: the need to "work the nose" when landing, to see something. But since the landing is made at a minimum speed, then games with lifting and lowering the nose very often led to, that the plane often finished landing either on the "belly", or (what's worse) on the back". Landing in general has become a very dubious entertainment..

Here it would be easy to create a fifth point, to tell, that the landing gear itself did not have the necessary strength. However, one can say here, that "everything is fine", if so applied: in pursuit of the minimum weight, the racks were made as light as possible. And fragile.

And the point is to make them stronger and heavier, if it broke mostly not the rack, and its attachment to the fuselage, which, in the name of minimizing weight, was also made insufficiently strong. In this case, it was useless to strengthen the racks..

And you can find a lot of photos, confirming this. With racks completely turned out of the mounts and a broken plane.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

That is, even the aircraft had flaws, which was considered the standard. But still there were more advantages. And the virtues outweighed, and given that, that Mr. Messerschmitt began to rivet the 109th at such a pace, that they simply did not have time to beat. This situation suited the Luftwaffe quite well., Obviously, only a test by combat was not enough.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

And lo and behold, a miracle! - Spanish Civil War, where Bf.109s were sent to maintain the reputation of the Condor Legion, which was well hung by that time by Soviet pilots on Soviet fighters.

helped, and in Spain Bf.109 proved to be quite such a fighter, capable of a lot. Everyone noticed it, and just then the designers rushed to build fighters with water-cooled engines.

Yes, about engines ... I said above, what was wrong with the engines. Almost like ours. The first full-time engine for the Bf.109 was the Junkers Jumo 210. engine gave out 700 hp, as Spain has shown, this was enough to fight the I-15 and even the I-16, but ... "Hurricane" was more than competitive, despite its terrifying aerodynamics, and the Spitfire was already being tested and was generally, on the way.

Was, true, the above DB-601 from Daimler-Benz. AND, generally, it was just a great engine for that time. 1000 "horses", Mercedes reliability ... But here's the problem: it was a completely DIFFERENT engine. In every way.

The DB-601 was not only more powerful, than the engine from Junkers, but also more difficult, heavier, and a completely different cooling system was supposed for him.

But even that, that the 601st was heavier, enough for that, to light aircraft, built according to the principles of sports aircraft construction, had to redraw. Messerschmitt was not alone, Yakovlev encountered approximately the same thing when trying to put the VK-107 engine into fighters.

Understand, that a heavier engine changes the alignment of the aircraft. And you need to do something about it.. What can you do with an airplane?, who already has a power set rather a set?

Can, eg, move weapons to wings, How did the British and Americans do it?, who did not bother with the problem of balance in this regard at all, with the exception of, perhaps, "Cobra". It could be, How did the Soviets do it?, Japanese, Italian designers, place a huge contraption - a cooling radiator - actually hanging it under the center section, unloading the bow.

Do something many have done, but it was not the way for the 109th. Again, the lightweight initial sports design and the absence of the usual power set played a role.. But there are no power elements - what do you order to fasten?

And besides, in the forward and middle parts of the fuselage, and so there was no more space. Pilot, management, gas tanks, oil tank...

Of course, the Germans dodged. And placed radiators (there were two of them) under the roots of the wing. Aerodynamics, of course, worsened, but the speed increased, because the 300 HP. - It's not a joke. clear, what a quick release idea, light and empty wing was sentenced, but when you take off your head, you don’t cry through your hair. And in addition to the radiators, two more guns were installed in the wings..

properly, here he is, Bf.109E, or "Emil", with which the Germans actually entered World War II.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

there is an opinion (support him), what would be smarter to spit on the sporting past and create a new aircraft for the DB-601. And upgrade the plane along with the engine. Not the worst option, Yakovlev succeeded. Yak and VK-105 went through the whole war, very successfully resisting the same "Messerschmitts".

But Willy Messerschmitt decided to continue with the tenacity of a Teuton. And then there was Bf.109F, "Friedrich", which is considered by some to be the best aircraft of its class. Well, or at least, the best messer. Disputed, very debatable, because the original defects have not gone away.

Yes, work done, Bf.109F has become more streamlined, not "chopped ax". But in the future, everything began to resemble "Trishkin's caftan", when one problem starts another. And Messerschmitt fought with problems until the very end of the war., and ended up losing.

The further things went, the heavier the Bf.109 became, the worse managed and so on. Yes, his weapons became more and more impressive, but a flying log, even if it was spewing fire from several trunks, it still remained a log. What Soviet pilots used quite normally in the second half of the war, fighting, albeit not on such armored and fancy, but more maneuverable Yaks.

by the way, worth noting here, that the higher the speed, the worse the 109th managed. For example, take the second German fighter, Focke-Wulf Fw.190, with whom it was the other way around. At low speeds, it was that iron, but if you overclock - acceptable. The main thing is to have time to pick up speed. Those "swings".

We will not go into engineering details here., especially, that it makes no sense to discuss the single-spar wing of the Messerschmitt and the two-spar Focke-Wulf. clear, that the Fokker was much stronger, this is worth stopping.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

It just happened, that the whole evolution of the 109th is nothing more than the evolution of the engine. The engine became more powerful - there was an increase in speed. This is quite normal and expected.. However, then, that the ever-growing 109th was based on the same lightweight sports design, more and more affected the maneuverability and strength qualities.

It happened, that in those years all the designers were simply obsessed with speed, sometimes even to the detriment of maneuver. “The speed will be higher - everything will be!». But in fact, frank "irons" appeared, which yes, could develop very impressive kilometers per hour, but…

best example, perhaps, our MiGs can serve here, who very quickly left the arena, vegetating in air defense units, and beat them, who arranged the Japanese "Zero" with their faster, but less agile colleagues.

There should be enough. And speed, and maneuver. The sense of a super-maneuverable fighter (I-16), if he can neither catch up with the enemy, nor run away? What is the use of an airplane, which catches up with any car, but nothing more can be done with it, unless it knocks down from the first run? it, by the way, "Focke-Wulf". Caught up on the "swing", hit and run! Otherwise, you can get the fullest from the weaker in terms of weapons, opponents. What happened all the time, as a matter of fact.

Meanwhile, the 109th did not have such a balance.. And the further the plane developed, the more difficult it was with problems. The mass grew, maneuverability and controllability were deteriorating, the chassis caused more and more concerns.

No wonder the Finns, who happily operated the 109th, radically redesigned chassis, actually redesigning and building the node, who arranged them? Actually, at modification level G ("Gustav") the plane approached a certain limit in terms of performance characteristics, behind which nothing good was visible.

And, it was impossible to simply take and correct the shortcomings. They were already firmly cemented and an attempt to eliminate one gave rise to a whole shaft of subsequent necessary processing and finishing.

for example, lamp. Is it really that hard to level 1943 year to make a drop-shaped lantern with a virtually all-round view? Sorry, even ours could do it.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

And why then the German pilots, remembering, apparently, "shaize" in all forms, continued to fly, who actually had no back view? And because, that removing the fairing and installing a lantern with all-round visibility was hindered by the same peculiar set of elements in the tail section.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

It turns out, that the review could be improved. Replacing the entire tail section or its total alteration, which is essentially the same.

Handling could be improved, creating a new wing. Not so light and quick, new.

The chassis problem was also solved, but required alteration of the center section. As well as the installation of more capacious (i.e. heavier) gas tanks, since the new motors were also more powerful, and more voracious.

I think, or did I really sketch out a work plan to create some other aircraft?

It's very hard to understand today, why Willy Messerschmitt did not go down this path. Probably, because, why Yakovlev did not greatly diversify his fighters. Its name is stream.. Fighters were in-line production, and put them on about evenly, that Messerschmitt, that Yakovlev.

We will talk about a full comparison in the second part., it just needs to be done. There will be some absolutely breathtaking moments., and now little by little we will finish.

What I would like to say. Only that, that at the very beginning of World War II, while there was still a chance to start designing a new aircraft, I should have taken this chance. But as the war went on, then the simplicity and speed of manufacturing the 109th turned out to be stronger than the shortcomings. Temporarily.

Moreover, the new DB-605 motor, who issued from the earth 1500 HP. was simply incomparable and "Messer" really tore everyone to shreds. but alas, time was really wasted.

In reality, the whole structure worked for wear and tear and at the limit of its capabilities.. This was especially evident in the Bf.109G. If you look at the statistics, about 22% aircraft of this modification did not die in battle, but were broken during takeoff or landing. By that time, it was indicative that the chassis was already “not holding”, and take off "Gustav" could only from decent concrete airfields.

Need to say, that by that time the Germans actually only took off from them, since the campaign on the Eastern Front was lost.

But just imagine, that in the Red Army Air Force "Yaki" and "La" could not take off or fought in such numbers ...

But Bf.109G of all modifications (and there were 11) could. Beat in chips and not fly. Think, 11 modifications, 15000 aircraft for 3 of the year. And at the same time, I constantly had to twist and finish something.. And this is without the so-called "field modifications".

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

Many authors quite reasonably present this as a kind of possibility for multi-purpose application.. Such, you see, versatile fighter, anything can be hung on it. Do you want guns, you want a fuel tank, anything.

combat aircraft: so strange «Messerschmitt» Bf 109

But few people think about it «either or». Do not hang the fuel tank - minus an hour of flight. If you don’t hang guns, the pilots of the “flying fortresses” will laugh at your attempts to bring them down. Complicated. And why then "Yaki", "La", "Focke-Wulfs", "Spitfires" and "Thunderbolts" managed to win the whole war without carrying a wide variety of stray under their belly? that, I note, reduced already not the best aerodynamics.

At all, it is customary to consider the Bf.109 as one of the best fighters of the war. Well, the most massive. This is extreme, in my opinion. As well as the extreme to consider the employees of the Messerschmitt company as non-professionals, handed the Luftwaffe a worthless plane.

truth, as always, in the center.

the, that the Bf.109 was an unusual aircraft for the late 30s of the last century, and I'm not afraid of this word, revolutionary, undoubtedly. But to write it in the best is just flattering. Messerschmitt took the same, than Yakovlev: ease of assembly and manufacturability. I.e, mass production was really massive. "Messers" collected faster, what beat them.

And here is the nuance. While experienced pilots were sitting at the controls of the Bf.109, "thin" was a very serious opponent. And very dangerous.

But over time, frames were knocked out, Kozhedubs especially worked on this on the Eastern Front, Pokryshkins, Rechkalovs and others, the plane became heavier and more capricious, and finally the moment has come, when all. Bf.109 ended as an advanced fighter, because he stopped being that Bf.109, which was made on the basis of a sports aircraft and became Bf.109, who was blinded from that, what happened.

Plus, the flight crew, completely unprepared for aerobatics of such a strict and fragile machine.

And somehow the halo begins to fade. But for the sake of completeness, we will compare in the next part of the Bf.109 in terms of combat. And comparable to themes, who had to really fight. And then we will draw the final conclusion.

/Roman Skomorokhov, topwar.ru/

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2 years ago

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