On July 23´rd, the IV. International Flightmeeting begun at Dübendorf Airbase, near Zurich. A total number of 152 planes, coming from 14 nations, took part at the competitions. 40 of this planes were from Germany, five of them were Bf 109:
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The Bf 109 signed on for four competitions:
The race went on four laps on a four-edged course of 202 km (125,5 mi) total length. Only Ernst Udet (with Bf 109 V-14) and the Brit
Gardner (with Percival "Mew Gull") stayed in the race, because
the french competitor withdraw his enrolement.
Gardener agreed, that Dipl.Ing. Francke with his Bf 109 V-7 was allowed to join the race.
During the first lap, the Bf 109 V-14 got troubles with its engine and Udet hat to resign.
In the end of the race, Francke won.
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At the presentation ceremony, Francke gave Gardner the first price, to pay tribute to his fairness.
This competition was like this: After the take-off, the competitors had to climb up to a height
of 3000 m (= 9840 ft) above sea level (440 m (= 1443 ft) above airbase Dübendorf), then the
diving begun. The finishing-tape had to be crossed with a definite course and a height of between
100 m to 400 m (328-1312 ft) above ground level.
Dipl.-Ing. Francke demonstrated the domination of the Bf 109 V-13. Only 105 seconds after the
take-off, he reached a height of 3200 m (10500 ft). The following dive, with an angle of about
75 degrees was completed only 20 seconds later. He reached a speed of more than 600 km/h.
Francke won in 2 minutes and 5,7 seconds, 17,3 seconds faster, than the second german competitor,
Dipl.-Ing. Schürfeld, flying a Henschel Hs 123, again being 10 seconds in front of the czech
competitor, who made the third place.
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This competition route was triangular shaped. The first part was from Dübendorf to
Thun (105 km) and over Bellinzona (125 km) back to Dübendorf (137 km),
making a total distance of 367 km.
With the two german pilots Udet (Bf 109 V-14) and Seidemann (Bf 109 V-9), four czech (Avia B-534)
and one french pilot took part.
After one of the czech pilots returned to the airbase, again Udet had to give up, because of a
broken oilpipe. He had to do an emergency landing on a field. The Bf 109 V-14 was totally destroyed,
Udet himself got away with only minor injuries.
In the end Major Seidemann won. He was the fastes in all three parts of the competition route. He
reached the finishing-tape after an total time of 56 minutes and 47,1 seconds.
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The competition in formation flying was a lot more exciting, than the single competition. The
german team was duelling with the team of Czechoslovakia. It got so interesting, because one of
the three german Bf 109 had troubles with loosing oil and could not keep up the pace of the two
others. So they had to slow down, in order to keep up the formation.
Nevertheless, the german team could stay in the lead. This was supported, because the czechs
became a problem of their own and were forced to reduce their speed on the last part of the
route, too.
The other competitors had no chance, especially the teams from Belgium and Swiss, because they used
double-seated planes.
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The german planes and pilots were very sucessful. Partially the Bf 109 pilots won every
competition, they were participating. Only in the Alpenrundflug, the new german fighters
wer not the fastest planes, because the formation was not as fast as the fastest multi-seated
plane, the Do 17 M V-1, a german plane as well - even they had won the competition.
However, the ultimate comparison to modern fighter planes was missing, because neither
the "Hurricane" nor the "Spitfire", the latest developments of the british aircraft industries,
showed up at Zurich.
The german Pilots, who did not have the best reputation in this days, tried hard to present themself as very
friendly, sportive, fair and comradely.
The young Luftwaffe presented its most impressing new weapons, but also tried to show, that there was no
reason to fear them.