Messerschmitt the man
Born in 1898, Willy Emil Messerschmitt was the son of a Wine merchant.
As a young boy he became obsessed with aviation after seeing a Zeppelin airship. The young
Messerschmitt helped out the German gliding pioneer Friedrich Harth and it was Harth who
arranged for Messerschmitt to work with him at a military flying school during the First
World War. Harth and Messerschmitt together designed the S8 glider which Harth kept
airborne for 21 minutes in 1921, a world record for glider flight at the time.
The first all-Messerschmitt design, a tail-less glider called the S9, made its first
flight in 1921. It was followed by a series of powered gliders and small sports machines,
all of which were dogged by technical failures and accidents. Even when Messerschmitt took
to the air himself for the first time (in 1925) the M17 in which he was flying crashed,
putting him in hospital for some time.
In the late 20s and early 30s Messerschmitt designed the M20, a simple single-engined
transport aircraft, the that was cheap to operate. These were built under the
auspices of the Bavarian Aircraft Works at Augsburg, the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, hence
the term "Bf" for the aircraft originally produced there. Messerschmitt soon
found himself with an enemy in high places in the shape of Erhard Milch, head of
German civil aviation and ardent Nazi. Hans Hackman, a close friend of Milch was killed
testing the prototype Messerschmitt M20 transport plane. Milch was incensed by
Messerschmitt's lack of remorse for the death his friend, and he made sure that
Messerschmitt got no government work. It was also Milch who, as head of Lufthansa, forced
bancruptcy on the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1931 following further crashes of M20
aircraft. In 1933 Hitler came to power and German rearmament started. This gave Milch even
greater power and it might have been expected that Messerschmitt would suffer the same
humiliation as another of Milch's enemies; Hugo Junkers. However Messerschmitt had
cultivated friends in high places, Rudolph Hess the deputy head of the Nazi party was one,
Theo Croneiss a World War I fighter pilot and associate of Hermann Goring was another. The
Bayerische Flugzeugwerke was resurrected in 1933 and set about getting government
contracts.
In 1934 Messerschmitt designed the M37 to try and win the European Aircraft Rally. In this
he was helped by Robert Lusser who had joined the company in 1933 after working at Klemm
and Heinkel. This design turned into the Bf108 Taifun, a remarkable four-seat touring
aircraft.
When the contest to find a new fighter for the Luftwaffe was announced Messerschmitt
realised this was his chance. The design he and Lusser produced was outstanding; a small
metal airframe built around a big engine with a thin wing for speed and Handley Page
leading-edge slats to bring down the landing speed. It is hard for us today to realise
just how revolutionary the Bf109 was. In the 1930's many designers were experimenting with
monoplane metal construction, retracting undercarriage, enclosed cockpits and high lift
devices, Messerschmitt was the first to combine all of these elements into a single
fighter.
By this time Milch's power to influence the choosing of new equipment for the Luftwaffe
had been greatly diminished by the appointment of Ernst Udet, a flamboyant WWI fighter
ace, to be head of the air force's development section. When Udet first sat in the
prototype 109 he declared it would never make a combat aircraft, but that was before he
saw it fly and had flown it himself. First and foremost a man who loved to fly, and who
excelled in aerobatics, Udet saw that the 109 was simply the best flying machine in the
world at that time. He flew them himself in competition at the 1937 Zurich air races.
Messerschmitt gained worldwide recognition for the 109 design and it went on to be
produced in greater numbers than any other single seat aircraft in aviation history. He
gave the Luftwaffe exactly the weapon that was needed to secure the aerial dominance of
Europe in 1939-1941. The Luftwaffe had ordered the Focke-Wulf FW190 to replace the 109
from 1941 onward, but it was never available in the numbers required, and the 109 was
superior to it at high altitude. Thus the Bf109 stayed in production until the very end of
the war. When one considers the number of fighter types employed by the allies, the
Spitfire, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Thunderbolt, Mustang, Tomahawk and Kittyhawk, the
Migs and the Yaks, not to mention the French and Dutch fighter types, and also the lesser
Allied fighters such as the Gladiator and Airacobra, the achievements of the Luftwaffe
with just the 109 and its later companion the FW190 are remarkable indeed. The reputation
built up by Messerschmitt's designs led to the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke being restyled as
the Messerschmitt aircraft company, although aircraft that had started in production
before the change of name retained the "Bf" nomenclature.
Before the War started, Messerschmitt had developed the 209, perhaps the ultimate piston
engined aircraft. This was the aircraft that secured the world speed record for Germany at
469 mph. He had wanted to develop the Me 209 into the next generation of Luftwaffe
fighter, but stripped of its high-powered but unreliable racing engine, and with its novel
evaporation cooling system changed for more orthodox radiators, the 209 showed little
advantage over the 109.
Messerschmitt went on to design many other aircraft. The Bf 110 was a twin engined, two
seat fighter that was used with great effect against Allied bombers. The most fantastic of
Messerschmitt's war-time designs was the Me 321, a giant glider able to carry a tank that
led to the Me 323, a development fitted with engines that could carry up to 130 men.
Perhaps Messerschmitt's finest achievement was the beautiful Me 262 twin jet powered
fighter with swept wings, a design years ahead of its time. The 262 saw combat at the end
of the war but was never available in enough numbers to be anything but a nuisance to the
air-forces ranged against Germany.
There is one wartime aircraft project which was a disaster for Messerschmitt. The
Luftwaffe wanted to replace the Bf110, the Ju87 Stuka and some of its twin-engined bombers
with a single design. Waldemar Voigt, Messerschmitt's chief designer, came up with an
outstanding twin-engined two-seat aircraft with very clean lines and the advanced feature
of remotely controlled guns in rearward facing barbettes. The design had the potential to
be as good as the British Mosquito, with the added advantage of being at least a year
ahead of the "Wooden Wonder". However Messerschmitt insisted on weight-saving
measures in the new aircraft, called the Me210, which made it unstable longitudinally and
caused the undercarriage to collapse. The Luftwaffe had ordered 1,000 examples of the
Me210 "off the drawing board" before the prototype had flown, and the aircraft
was essential for the German war effort, so the failure of the project was a terrible blow
to the prestige of Messerschmitt. In the end the design had to revert to being very close
to Voigt's original plans, manufactured as the Me410 the aircraft ended up being nearly
two years behind the Mosquito into combat. Goring, head of the Luftwaffe, said his own
epitaph should read: "He would have lived longer but for the Me210." The failure
of the Me210 project and the cancellation of the production order in 1942 forced
Messerschmitt to resign as head of the company, taking on the post of Technical Director
instead.
Other Messerschmitt projects, such as the Me 264, a bomber with the range to strike
targets in America, never progressed beyond the design or prototype stage. One
revolutionary aircraft that bears the name of the Messerschmitt aircraft company was
actually the work of Alexander Lippisch, a designer working for Messerschmitt. This was
the Me 163 "Komet" rocket powered fighter.
One failing of the German aircraft industry was the reluctance to build long range
single-engined escort fighters. The twin-engined Bf 110 was used for long range escort
missions during the Battle of Britain, but suffered considerable losses at the hands of
the nimble RAF fighters. When pressed by someone to design a single-engined fighter with
long range Messerschmitt replied "What do you want, a fast fighter or a barn
door?" Years later, forced to seek shelter together from American Thunderbolts
attacking the Augsburg factory the same person announced, "Well there are your barn
doors!"
Messerschmitt's reputation as an aircraft designer is somewhat open to question. His early
aircraft were all prone to failure, often with tragic loss of human life. Indeed it is
hard to think of any other aircraft designer with such a record of disaster! It was only
after 1933 with a new team of bright young engineers working for him that he had sustained
success. Perhaps he should be best remembered as an aviation visionary and organiser.
There is no doubt that he was always questing after aircraft that would be better in every
way. His passion for producing the fastest or biggest aircraft was exasperating to many of
the Nazi and Luftwaffe bureaucrats who wanted all efforts concentrated on existing
designs.
After the war Messerschmitt was arrested and tried for having allowed the use of slave
labour in his factories. He was in prison for two years. When released he set to work
rebuilding his business. Not allowed to make aircraft in Germany one of his products was
the Messerschmitt Bubble Car. He managed to do some aircraft design for Hispano in Spain,
including work on the HA 200 jet trainer. He also helped in the design of the HA-300
supersonic jet fighter for Egypt in the mid-60s. Problems with the engine meant this
advanced tailed delta design never went into production.
The Messerschmitt concern shared in the post-war success of Germany and is now part of the
massive MBB concern, which manufactures parts for the European Airbus and the Tornado
strike aircraft.
Willy Messerschmitt retired in 1970 and died in 1978.