Messerschmitt Me 209

Me 209
Messerschmitt Me 209 authentic fuselage at the Polish Aviation Museum, Kraków
Role	Race plane/Fighter
Manufacturer	Messerschmitt
Designer	Willy Messerschmitt
First flight	1 August 1938
Number built	4

Messerschmitt's designation Me 209 was used for two different projects during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The first was a record-setting single-engine racing aircraft for which little or no consideration was given to adaptation for combat. The second Me 209 was a proposal for a new development from the lineage that produced the highly successful Bf 109 that served as the Luftwaffe's primary fighter throughout World War II.

Design and development

The first Me 209 was a completely new aircraft designed only to break speed records whose designation was used by Messerschmitt as a propaganda tool. Although the aircraft was a "single purpose" high-speed experimental prototype, it was hoped that its name would associate it and its world-beating performance with the Bf 109 already in combat service.^[1]

The Me 209 was constructed in 1937 and shared only its Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine with the Bf 109. Willy Messerschmitt designed the small aircraft with a cockpit placed far back along the fuselage just in front of its unique cross-shaped tail section. Unlike the Bf 109, the Me 209 featured a broad-track, inwardly-retracting undercarriage mounted in the wing section. ^[1]

Testing

The aircraft achieved its purpose when test pilot Fritz Wendel flew it to a new world speed record of almost 756 km/h (469 mph) on 26 April 1939 bearing the German civil registration D-INJR.^[2]

The idea of adapting the Me 209 racer to the fighter role gained momentum when, during the Battle of Britain, the Bf 109 failed to gain superiority over the RAF Supermarine Spitfires. The little record-setter, however, was not up to the task of air combat. Its wings were almost completely occupied by the engine's liquid cooling system and therefore prohibited conventional installation of armament. The aircraft also proved difficult to fly and extremely hard to control on the ground. Nevertheless, the Messerschmitt team made several attempts to improve the aircraft's performance by giving it longer wings, a taller vertical stabilizer, and installing two 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns in the engine cowling. Its various modifications, however, added so much weight that the Me 209 ended up slower than the contemporary Bf 109E. ^[2]

This first Me 209 project was soon cancelled, and though it never went into wide-scale production, Messerschmitt's design did make its mark with its impressive speed record, which was not officially broken by another piston-engined aircraft until 16 August 1969, by Darryl Greenamyer's highly modified Conquest I F8F Bearcat, now at the Smithsonian's NASM].^[3]

Propaganda Use

In 1939, the speed record achievement of the Me-209 was used for a propaganda disinformation campaign, wherein the aircraft was given the designation of Me 109R. This disinformation was naturally designed to give an aura of invincibility to the Bf 109, an aura not dispelled until the conclusion of the Battle of Britain.

Survivors

Messerschmitt Me 209 V1 (display model showing its colors and markings)

The fuselage of the Me 209 V1 is currently on display, at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków, Poland. The museum has 22 extremely rare airplanes that once were part of the personal collection of Hermann Göring.

Specifications (Me 209 V1)

General characteristics

• Crew: One
• Length: 7.24 m (23 ft 9 in)
• Wingspan: 7.80 m (25 ft 7 in)
• Height: ()
• Powerplant: 1 × Daimler-Benz DB 601 ARJ, 1,342 kW (1,800 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 800 km/h (469 mph)

See also

Related development

• Bf 109
• Me 209-II
• Me 309
• Me 409
• Me 509
• Me 609
  

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of Germany
• List of World War II military aircraft of Germany
  

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Green 1960, p. 160.
2. ^ ^{a b} Green 1960, p. 161.
3. ^ "Grumman F8F-2, Bearcat, "Conquest I"." National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved: 14 July 2011.

Bibliography

• Feist, Uwe. The Fighting Me 109. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1993. ISBN 1-85409-209-X.
• Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, vol. I. London: Hanover House, 1960.
• Jackson, Robert. Infamous Aircraft: Dangerous Designs and their Vices. Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Aviation, 2005. ISBN 1-84415-172-7.

External links

• Famous Record-Breaking and Racing Aircraft: Messerschmitt Me 209 V1