Why did the Me 109 roll and turn so bad at speed? (3 Viewers)

[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....

 

[spicmart]

From "The German Fighter since 1915" by Rüdiger Kosin, Putnam, 1988:

pp.142-144

Now I recall. I have read this before. Also have Kosin's book. It must be somewhere in the attic.

 

[Engineman]

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

There are records that the quality of German rubber products varied hugely in WW2. My first hand experience is that some rubber was good, sometimes original seals are as good as new, but other rubber seems very poor. The tyres of some German aircraft suffered badly and some Bf 109's were recorded as blowing tyres on a single sharp turn. Certainly, the 109 particularly stressed the sidewalls of the tyres on the inside edge. Some of those tyres were just 4-ply, and those plies were just canvas with no comparison in strength to modern materials. Furthermore, the German tyre loading tables possibly reflect the tyre performance when made with top quality materials, not the reality with mid or late war low quality.

Eng

 

[spicmart]

Inadvertent post

 

[GregP]

There are records that the quality of German rubber products varied hugely in WW2. My first hand experience is that some rubber was good, sometimes original seals are as good as new, but other rubber seems very poor. The tyres of some German aircraft suffered badly and some Bf 109's were recorded as blowing tyres on a single sharp turn. Certainly, the 109 particularly stressed the sidewalls of the tyres on the inside edge. Some of those tyres were just 4-ply, and those plies were just canvas with no comparison in strength to modern materials. Furthermore, the German tyre loading tables possibly reflect the tyre performance when made with top quality materials, not the reality with mid or late war low quality.

Eng

Part of the issue is the tailwheel. It is sort of spring-loaded to center, and you have to stab the brakes very hard to make the tailwjeel turn, even if you unlock it. At least, that's the way the Ha.1112 works. It is basically a Bf 109G-2 with a Merlin on the front.

From what I have seen, it would be hard to taxi on a muddy field, and you might have to use blasts of power against the rudder to affect the direction. Then again, perhaps I am missing something. Can't really tell.