tanner@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mike Tanner) (10/20/89)
From: Mike Tanner <tanner@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> In article <10146@cbnews.ATT.COM> huntzing@PICA.ARMY.MIL (CCL-S) writes: [among other things] > A souped-up "production fighter aircraft" [<-- referring to the Me 109] > version held the piston speed record for awhile This is a myth created by the Nazi propaganda machine at the time. In April 1939 a prototype Messerschmitt fighter, designated Me 209V1, set the world speed record for aircraft at 469+ mph. This was a level-flight record set as the average of two passes over a 1.8 mile straight course at 300 feet above the ground. It stood for more than 30 years as the the low-altitude record for piston-engined aircraft. (I believe the record was broken, circa 1970, by Darryl Greenamayer (sp?) in a highly modified F8F Bearcat. I don't remember any details.) The Nazis recognized the propaganda value of this feat and called the airplane an Me 109R to give the impression that it was merely a modified version of the Me 109E then entering frontline service with the Luftwaffe. The speed was more than 100 mph faster than the E model was capable of, but it gave European air forces something to think about. The Me 209 was designed as a replacement for the 109, but never got past the prototype stage. It was not a modified 109, nor was it even based on the 109. It did use the same liquid-cooled, fuel-injected Daimler-Benz 601A engine as the 109E. In the 109 this engine was rated at 1000 hp, in the 209 it could be boosted to 1400 hp, and for the speed runs it was overboosted to 2300 hp. The engine did not have a normal radiator for cooling but used an evaporative method that pumped water from the cooling jacket to the wings, where it cooled by evaporation and was pumped back to the engine. For the speed runs it carried 100 gallons of water and lost it through evaporation at 4 gallons per minute. Afterwards, the engine was worthless junk. I've only seen one blurry photo of the airplane, so I can't say much about what it looked like. In the photo it reminds me of the big racers of the '30's: long nose and narrow wings set well back. The vertical fin extended below the fuselage. It was apparently very difficult to fly, it had a tendency to pitch up dramatically at high speed leading to violent stalls, this made it hard to maneuver at speed and detracted from its value as a fighter. (Do you envy the guy who flew it for the record at 300 feet knowing that with just a moment's inattention aircraft could snap-roll itself to bits and slam him into the ground at 470 mph?) I don't know if any of them crashed as a result of these characteristics. Work on the 209 was discontinued not long after the speed record. See Martin Caidin's _Me-109_. The above is from memory of this book, so don't hold Caidin responsible for errors in it. -- mike ========================= PS. I notice Mike Trout has commented on the Me vs. Bf issue, coming down on the side of Bf. Much as I respect his scholarship on this and other aviation history points, it is worth noting that people who prefer to use Me are in good company. Ethell and Price in _Target Berlin_ use "Me 109" because they say (1) it's less confusing and (2) contemporary, official Luftwaffe documents use "Bf 109" and "Me 109" interchangeably, indicating that there was no official preference either way (or that there was equal confusion then as now). (1) is good enough reason for me.