Why did the Me 109 roll and turn so bad at speed?

[Engineman]

As the weight of Messerschmitt's fighter keeps increasing, the tire sizes kept pace (I threw in the 309 in as it is "popular" at the moment with Dan & Callum's new book out)

Model	Empty weight (kg)	weight (kg)	Main wheels	Tail wheel
Bf.109D-1	1,580	2,170	650x150	260x85
Bf.109E-3	2,010	2,609	650x150	290x110
Bf.109F-4	2,020	2,890	650x150	290x110
Bf.109G-6	2,268	3,196	660x160	350x135
Bf.109K-4	2,346	3,362	660x190	350x135
			Nose Wheel	Main Wheel
Bf.109F Werknummer 5602 (tricycle gear mock up)			465x165 Bf.110D thru G tailwheel	650x150
Me.309			650x150	700x175

Tire size	Approved stationary wheel load (kg)
260x85	300
290x110	450
350x135	650
465x165	1,200
650x150	1,400
660x190	1,700
700x175	1,960

I'm certain engineers would have loved to get 250kg out of the G models and go back to smaller tires, but better (stronger) materials to reduce weight were hard to come by.

Weights from my Model Art books on Willy's fighter, tire capacity from German aircraft landing gear by Gunther Sengfelder.

Good compilation.

Eng

 

[spicmart]

Then maybe the Germans had worse rubber material....