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Not so...when the Bf109 was first introduced in the 1930's, it was one of the fastest warplanes on earth.I ran across an article that reposted a blurb from Leonard "Kit" Carson's 1976 interview or story in Airpower magazine. in it he proposes several mods to the 109 to "clean up the airframe" and get more performance out of the plane. How practical or realistic were these proposals? Carson worked for the aerospace industry but at what capacity I do not know.. here's what he says:
"Messerschmitt practically ignored the subject of low drag aerodynamics and one can tell that by an inspection of the 109E or G. The fact is evident even in close-up photographs. It was aerodynamically the most inefficient fighter of its time. That's a puzzling thing when one realizes that much of the original work on high speed drag and turbulent surface friction was done in Germany in the 20s and 30s. Messerschmitt was surrounded by it. Further, the work in England and the U.S. in this field was in the open literature, at least until 1938.
I also suspect, again from the record of history, that Willy Messerschmitt was too busy becoming a Direktor of Messerschmitt A.G. to concentrate on improving his status as an ingenieur.
As soon as they said "30 days", I lost interest. In a wargame simulation or a fantasy book series, this is doable, but in real life, it takes months if not years to redesign, test, retool and start production.Having gone this far, let me carry this affront to Messerschmitt's engineering reputation one step further.
An airplane factory can get things done awfully fast, in any country and in any language, once the engineers and sheet metal benders understand what is wanted. Every factory has a "development shop" or its equivalent, which is a full scale model or prototype shop with 100 or 200 old pros in every skill. Having that many coffee drinkers, pipe smokers and "yarn spinners" around on the payroll, let's clobber 'em with a bundle of shop drawings on a clean up of the Me-109. Object: to make it a 400 mph plus airplane. Time...30 days. The information and techniques required are currently available as of 1940. It's all written up in unclassified reports.
Not image - survival(1) Cancel the camouflage paint and go to smooth bare metal. Besides the weight, about 50 pounds, the grain size is too large when it dries and it causes turbulent friction over the entire airplane surface. That may take a phone call to the brass. They're emotional about paint jobs. "Image," you know.
Later Bf109 variants had an improved canopy, but to put a Me209/Me309/Me262 style canopy on the Bf109 would have meant considerable change to the fuselage.(2) Modify the cockpit canopy. Remove the inverted bathtub that's on there now and modify as necessary to fit the Me-209-VI canopy. That's the airplane that set the world speed record in 1939.
The slats were there for a reason and they made the Bf109 extremely deadly in a turning fight. Eliminating the slats defeats one of the main performance features of the Bf109.(3) Get rid of the wing slats. Lock them closed and hand fit a strip, upper and lower surface, that will close the sheet metal gaps between the slat and wing structure. That gap causes the outboard 15 feet of each wing to be totally turbulent.
I would LOVE to see the look on an Aeronautical Engineer's face when they read this part...(4) As aerodynamic compensation for locking the slats, setup jigs and fixtures on the assembly line to put in 2 degrees of geometric twist from the root to tip, known as "washout."
There may have been some features that induced penalties on the Bf109, but the cooling surface area on the Bf109 was critical. It was introduced to the airflow with a specific formula. There's a great many photos of the Bf109 in a wind tunnel to show how Willy dealt with these issues.(5) Modify coolant scoop inlet fairings. The square corners that are there now induce an unnecessary amount of drag. Also lower the inlet 1 to 2 inches below wing surface to get it out of the turbulence of the wing surface.
Additional weight and mechanisms - would the penalty be worth the gain?(6) Install complete wheel well fairings that cover the openings after the gear is retracted.
Yes, it was done on some models...(7) Retract tail wheel. (Tom's Note: This was actually done on some models of the 109.)
Again, this comment of theirs is deep in the fantasy realmAll of the above could have been done in 30 days but it wasn't. I don't know why. Someone would have to ask Willy...it's for him to say."
Unfortunately, I was having a great deal of trouble with the message area last night, so I seem to have lost a portion of my comments regarding the slats and their value for low-speed performance.Eliminating the slats may or may not improve combat performance, only the most experienced pilots push an aircraft close to its limits at which point they might make a difference, but it will certainly kill a lot more inexperienced pilots by increasing the aircraft's accident rate. Poorer performance near the ground and higher landing speeds tend to do that.
They were an aerodynamic design feature of the aircraft, they were deleted from the Me 210 as a matter of expedience and this definitely contributed to the problems with that aircraft. Unsurprisingly, they were restored on the Me 410.
Cheers
Steve
The main gear's design was also one that simplified production, offered ease of transport and provided a large advantage to maintenance. Not much could be done to change that without extensive frame redesign....tricky undercarriage geometry...
Yes indeed, but it's the only image I had on hand for the moment!That's the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Hermann Goering near Braunschweig. That is obviously a Bf 109, but Messerschmitt more commonly used the facilities of the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL) for obtaining test data
Cheers
Steve
A plane may go faster with a polished metal finish, it may be safer on the ground and low level with camo paint but the LW chose to paint the 109 with bright yellow noses because telling friend from foe trumps other considerations.
Steve, I agree,Yellow noses were applied at a time when the Luftwaffe was fairly safe on its Continental bases, later it was only the lower surface of the nose that received such a distinctive and camouflage compromising marking.
Later, as the allies became more dominant over Europe even the white of the national markings was reduced, deleted or sometimes greyed out. I've seen early/mid war pictures of aircraft at dispersal with the national markings covered with covers or foliage. There are late war images showing aircraft literally 'hiding in the woods'.
(6) Install complete wheel well fairings that cover the openings after the gear is retracted.