military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) (10/18/89)
From: brspyr1.brs.com!miket (Mike Trout) In sci.military Digest Wednesday, 11 October, 1989 Volume 3 : Issue 17 "Hugh A. Huntzinger" (CCL-S) <huntzing@PICA.ARMY.MIL> writes: > FW-190 vs. ME-109: > If I recall correctly, the FW was developed as a lightened up fighter > aircraft because the ME was getting too big/heavy, probably very > applicable to how the F-16 is a smaller/cheaper F-15 today... [...] > > [mod.note: From William Green's _Warplanes of the Third Reich_: > The FW-190 was designed as a "second iron in the fire", an > eventual replacement for the Me-109, even though the latter was > greatly esteemed. "While weight consciousness and simplicity > were design keynotes, the underlying theory was the creation of a > fighter which, offering greater structural integrity than any of > its predecessors, demanded the minimum of field maintenance time > and could be produced through the widespread use of dispersed > factories and sub-contractors." Green's evaluation is substantially correct. He is one of the best sources on WW2 German aircraft (or ANYBODY'S WW2 aircraft, for that matter), although some of his early writings from the early 1960s have been in error (and have since been corrected). _Warplanes_of_the_Third_Reich_ is an unmatched masterpiece. > I have also read (but cannot reference at this point) that > the Me-109 had little interior room for niceties such as armament, > so that later additions caused protrusions in the outer skin, > leading the the plane being knicknamed "Bulge". Me's carried > 2 7.9mm MG's and one or two 20mm cannon, typically, while > FW's were able to carry two 7.9mm MG's and two or four 20mm's. > The last version of the Me to be produces was the Me-109K. - Bill ] Actually, adding armament to the Bf 109 was easier than with most 1930s-designed fighters. The wing, cowling, and engine had all been designed with future expansions in mind. It is true that the addition of 13mm machine guns in the nose cowling (in place of the original 7.9mm) in the first Bf 109Gs forced blisters on the nose which compromised performance. And enormous cannons were also added to the wings on still later models, again forcing detrimental blisters. **************** A note on WW2 German aircraft designations: With the high degree of accuracy in sci.military, could we not all make a little more effort to get these correct? The designations work like this: two letters, the first upper case, the second lower case; a space (not a hyphen) between the letters and numbers; pre-1938 Messerschmitt designs are "Bf", post-1938 Messerschmitt designs are "Me". "Bf" stood for Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Works, the compatriot of BMW), renamed in 1938 in honor of its most famous designer, Willy Messerschmitt. Thus: WRONG RIGHT ME-109, Me-109 Bf 109 FW-190, Fw-190 Fw 190 There are a very few minor exceptions, such as the DFS 230 glider. An easy way of remembering the Bf/Me cutoff point is that Messerschmitt numbers of 110 and lower are Bf, while 163 and higher are Me. Thus it's Bf 110 but Me 210, Bf 109 but Me 163, and Bf 108 but Me 262. ***************** [mod.note: I stand red-faced and chastised. Geeze ! 8-) - Bill ] -- NSA food: Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, SOD & NRO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161 "Who watches the watchmen?" --Epigraph of the Tower Commission Report, 1987