Messerschmitt the man
Born in Frankfurt 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
became part of MBB which manufactured parts for the European Airbus and
the Tornado
strike aircraft. MBB in turn has become part of the massive EADs
corporation .
Willy Messerschmitt retired in 1970 and died in 1978.