Hello,
Popularily, it's common to heard that the Bf 109 was a hard airplane to fly, specially in take offs and landings. However, given that there are so many myths about WWII in general, I'm wondering how the 109 was really evaluated under critical eyes at the time, both by the Luftwaffe and the Allies.
Someone has information about this to share?
Hello,
Popularily, it's common to heard that the Bf 109 was a hard airplane to fly, specially in take offs and landings. However, given that there are so many myths about WWII in general, I'm wondering how the 109 was really evaluated under critical eyes at the time, both by the Luftwaffe and the Allies.
Someone has information about this to share?
The Me 109 was actually a lot easier to fly than most of its contemporaries, though that needs some qualification. The aircraft had a long tail relative to its other surface areas and masses and so was very stable and extremely easy to recover from a spin. Better than allied fighters. It gave plenty of pre stall warning and when it did come there was no tendency to drop a wing or flip which could happen in a Spitfire, Mustang or Fw 190. The DW.520 was especially notorious in this area. That's thanks to the slats and that tail. Up to the Bf 109E the slats did have a slight tendency to deploy unevenly under intense manoeuvring but the effect was more annoying than anything. From the me 109F onwards the mechanism was changed and the issue went away and slat deployment hardly noticeable. Slats don't increase lift at the angle they deploy, they only increase the stall angle possible thereby indirectly increasing maximum lift. There is a slight alteration in pitching moment i.e. the wings centre of lift but not its actual lift so the aircraft isn't unsettled.
The Me 109 bad reputation for handling comes from the tendency of the aircraft to ground loop during takeoff and landing. This was eventually traced to one wing stalling ahead of the other when in the three point attitude (tail on ground) attitude due to prop circulation.
It was fixed by fitting and extended tail yoke that lifted the nose and improved another problem that caused accidents in piston engined aircraft, poor forward visibility. The Vaught Corsair had the same problem and it was fixed the same way, with a longer yoke.
The extended tail yoke is usually most associated with the hybrid interim Me 109G-10 of November 1944 but was standard on the Me 109K-4 of October 1944 in which it was also retractable. The yoke was just an interchangeable part and could be fitted to the Me 109G6, G14 as well and often was.
Other fixes for the ground loop issue before it was fully understood was a lockable yoke, which worked so long as not forgotten, and a taller tail. Nevertheless Me 109 had no worse a statistical record than other Luftwaffe aircraft in this regard suggesting that pilot training, sparse towards the end, was a partial issue.
Allied pilots testing Me 109 didn't like that they needed to trim it into a dive but never seem to have annoyed the Germans who probably had different pilots notes.
The Me 109 had a high dive speed. When the taller tail came in the rudder balancing horn was replaced by a balance tab. The rudder horn caused shock waves in a dive and was thought the cause of airframe breakup sand unrecovered dives. There are stories of Me 109 out diving P-51D. The all trimming tail plane apparently helped in dive recovery.
While it couldn't out turn a Spitfire (though some Luftwaffe pilots claim they could) they were a good match for most other allied aircraft especially at low/medium speed where the roll rate was good. When the new oversized super charger and MW-50 came in the improved Power to Weight ratio could make the aircraft a real challenge and I recall a P-51 pilot on the dogfights series saying he met an Me 109 that was no ordinary Me 109 that out turned his P-51D.
The Me 109 had a high climb rate and in particular a steep climb: one escape trick was to go in to a tight corkscrew climb. No allied aircraft could get inside its steepness or tightness.
My father, who was 13 in 1945, lived some 25 miles from Penemunde where the V1 and V2 were developed. He remembers Luftwaffe fighters repeatedly rising up to intercept allied bombers on their many raids. What amazed him was the steep climb angle. He never forgot that. He'd motion something greater than 45 degrees, over 60. I've always assumed they were Me 109 from his description.
The Luftwaffe was trying to get rid of the Me 109 but it was not so easy to do. Remarkable for an aircraft that predates the Hurricane. Even if they could make enough Fw 190 they couldn't afford to provide its high octane c3 fuel.
Its worth noting that the Fw 190 was regarded as having nice well harmonised handling during high speed manoeuvre , a gentle stall when landing with flaps out but nasty when stalling under manoeuvre. The Me 109 had less harmonised controls but if stalled or spun was very easy to recover. So when talking of good handling consider the context might be different.