Adler, agreed. I forgot that the first version of the 109 in service was as slow as that so that is a very impressive gain indeed. It was said of the Spitfire that it grew in weight by the equivalent of 36 passengers and all their luggage. Do you have any information on the weight gain of the 109? Being a more compact airframe did it manage not to pile on so much?
The first 109Bs were around 2200 kg. The last one, the 109K-4 weighted 3362 kg, the so the gain was about 1,1 tons, plus in the meantime horsepower was
tripled.
My search for a reliable definitive history of the 109 has been fruitless, do you have any recommendations? I think I have enough Spitfire books.
The best one is undeniably Prien/Rodeike's Bf 109F-K. Highly recommendable for the later variants.
Radinger-Otto's 109F-K book is a good companion to it, as it has some interesting information, but its not so good alone as a standalone book.
Jean-Claude Mermet's Bf 109 guide can be found on the internet in PDF. Also highly recommended.
One that I found also very informative was Mathmann-Zobel's Bf 109 book. These ones are mostly free of errors that of popular books.
In addition, just about any of the Janda-Poruba books (K-4, K-4 camo, G-10/U4) are very highly recommended. Excellent photos, latest research, very through and has things nobody else.
For the earlier versions, its a difficult question. I know Radinger-Otto has a book the A-E variants, but I can't comment on it, its probably nice and well researched. Lynn Ritger also published a book on, I have the one for the early versions, which is also one of the best ones. Actually, the old Squadron Signal 109 volumes (two of them) are also rather good, even if some information - esp. on late variants - is now obsolate.
