Much improved Me 109K?

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Streamlining gave 20+ km/h to the 109K-4 vs. 109G-10, on same engine and same level of fit & finish, so it was certainly a plus. When a 30mm cannon was installed, a Bf 109 was a very good bomber interceptor.


The main advantage of the DB 605AS and D engines over the DB 605A was that they gave much better at higher altitudes, allowing the Bf 109s with these engines to negate much of performance advantage the Merlin Mustangs and P-47s possesed above 20000 ft.
 
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A bit more than just "some", I count ~1.8K AS versions vs ~2.9K non-AS

If it makes you feel better, I should have said some versions of the G-14...…..
My count, 2689 G-14 of which 854 were U4s, 1377 G-14/AS.
 
Could you explain why? For a given cruising speed a more streamlined air frame requires lower power setting and thus lower fuel consumption. Am i wrong?
 
Could you explain why? For a given cruising speed a more streamlined air frame requires lower power setting and thus lower fuel consumption. Am i wrong?
You are not wrong but then I am not sure you are really right. It depends so much on the speed chosen, by that I mean if the speed desired was, say 500kph and the throttle/s of the fighter group were adjusted to give that speed then both range and endurance would be increased. So you are right.
On the other hand if the pilots are told to cruise at say, 2000rpm and 1.15 Ata (or other power setting consistent with continuous power) then the increased speed due to better streamlining would give better range (more ground covered per minute of flight) but the endurance would be the same ( same fuel burned per minute of flight). I am not making any claims about the Germans but the British often flew at max weak mixture (2650rpm and 7lbs boost) on most Merlins or another rpm/boost setting , this simplified piloting as they knew the fuel burn at such a setting and they let the speed vary with whatever altitude they were at. Adjusting throttles as the altitude changed to give a constant speed is a bit more work.

And in any case we may be arguing over 10% or less in range/endurance. Or a 50 minute combat flight vs a 55 minute combat flight.
Some of the later DB 605s could burn 425 liters an hour at 2600rpm and 1.45 ata and and 610 liters an hour at 2800rpm and 1.80 ata (1600PS at 6000 meters)
5 minutes at the high rating and 15 minutes at the max continuous rating is 157 liters, without a drop tank that leaves 243 liters to start, warm up, take-off and climb to 6,000 meters or better and then find the fight and get back home, maybe I have overestimated the time spent at the high throttle conditions but a more streamlined 109 is only going to pick up a few minutes of endurance on an intercept mission.
 
An aerodynamic improvement that would result 60km/h speed increase would give a noticeable improvement in sustained turned rate . Also marginally better acceleration at high speeds

Dedalos,

Cleaning up an airframe will give you an increase in speed, or an improvement in fuel burn / mileage but I don't think it will give as much of an improvement in rate. To turn you roll and pull, deflecting the elevator up, creating drag. The drag rise or bleed rate will go down but not enough in my opinion to give you a noticeable change in rate. Hopefully Bill will chime in here to explain it better.

Also roll is important even at high speed. An example would be during a high speed attack on the bomber stream. The ability to roll will increase the number of aircraft you can attack per pass as well as the accuracy (lateral corrections during the pass).

Cheers,
Biff
 
Dedalos, there you have it, straight from a combat pilot.
Cleaning up the parasite drag for top speed (straight and level flight) is not going to have that much effect on your energy bleed in a high G, high AOA turning fight, as the relative wind isn't striking the parasite drag features from the angle they were streamlined for, and the huge increase in induced drag from the AOA and G load is going to far outweigh the minor reductions in parasite drag from the aerodynamic cleanup.
Cheers,
Wes
 

The difference was that the Spitfire was still flyable by the average pilot. The later Me109s were still lethal weapons in the hands of the Experten but deathtraps for new pilots.
 
No, G-5/AS were conversions (Erla Antwerpen), the 325 G-6/AS were new-built

My apologies Denniss. Don't know why that was in my head. Anyways Prien has 225 new builds total and the rest of the 686 were conversions.
 

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