Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Messerschmitt

On June 26, 1898 Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt was born in Frankfurt/Main. In 1906, Messerschmitt was 8 years old, he moved to Bamberg with his familiy. There he attended high school and later the so called Oberrealschule.
Soon he was interested in aviation and very early, he begun to construct some flying models.
In 1913 Messerschmitt met Friedrich Harth, who constructed gliding planes. Harth joined the german army in 1914, so Messerschmitt, at age of 16, had to build the glider "S 5" by himself. Although the design work was mainly by Harth, the "S 5" was Messerschmitt´s first plane.
In 1917 Messerschmitt made his Abitur and joined the army soon after.
Directly after the end of war, Willi Messerschmitt started his study at the technical university of Munich. At the same time, he still worked with Friedrich Harth, who now was design engineer at the Bayrische Flugzeugwerke (BFW).
In 1921, Messerschmitt on his own designed his first plane: the "S 9". This plane was no success, because it had big problems with flying stability. This flop harmed the relationship between Harth and Messerschmitt, who now had their own firm in Bischofsheim/Röhn. Two years later, in 1923, the two constructors went apart.
So Willi Messerschmitt founded his own firm, the "Flugzeugbau Messerschmitt GmbH" in Bamberg. After he completed his degree, he was able to concentrate on the development and construction of planes.
So the gliders "S 11" to "S 14" followed, as did the motor gliders "S 15" and "S 16". With this motor gliders Messerschmitt took the step to motorized planes and the "S 14" would be the last glider he developed. He now constructed the sports plane "M 17" and the famous commercial aircraft "M 18". It was the first of Messerschmitts planes with an all over metal construction. In it´s different versions, the "M 18" was able to transport up to 6 passengers.
In 1927 Messerschmitt sold the production of the "M 17" and "M 18" to the Bayrische Flugzeugwerke. Messerschmitt also took the position of technical director at BFW.
1928 it was the commercial plane "M 20" designed at BFW, which was produced in 16 examples. Another order of 10 planes by "Luft Hansa" was canceled, due to the crash of two of the "M 20". That caused heavy financial problems to BFW and the bankruptcy in 1931.
Messerschmitt again worked in his own firm, which still existed until 1933. In that year  BFW was refounded and Messerschmitt incorporated his construction bureau and the Messerschmitt Flugzeugbau GmbH.
At this time the planes "M 27", "M 28", "M 29", "M 31" and "M 35" were designed.
Because of the foundation of the Reichsluftfahrministerium (RLM) in 1933, the aviation industry and also the BFW received more orders. So for example in 1934 the order to produce the "M 37", better known as "Bf 108 Taifun", in quantity. This plane can be called the prototype of all travel planes. It was produced in three versions with 885 examples until 1945. After the war additional 285 exmples were produced in France, called the "Nord 1000".
The "Bf 108" had many revolutionary technical innovations. The "Taifun" had retractable flaps on the front of the wings, landing flaps and a retractable landing gear.
Also in 1934 a plane was designed under the leadership of Professor Messerschmitt and Dipl.-Ing. Rethel, that was chosen to take part in the competition for the order of a single-seat fighterplane for the Luftwaffe. This plane was called "Bf 109". Also takeing part in this competition were Arado with the "Ar 80", Focke-Wulf with it´s "Fw 159" and Heinkel with the "He 112".
The final decision was between "He 112" and "Bf 109", the last one won. With a produced number of 30573, it should become the most produced fighter-plane of all time.
In 1934 also the "Bf 110" took shape on the drawing boards of the Messerschmitt construction team. The "Bf 110" never complied with it´s role as a "destroyer". That was rather the fault of this plane, but of the conception to combine the performance of a single engined fighter with the range of a bomber. It was impossible to combine these two roles. The "Bf 110" proved her worth in many other roles: as nightfighter, a fighter-bomber, a heavy fighter and a reconnaissance plane. 5762 examples of "Bf 110" were manufactured.
The RLM gave the german aviation industry the ambitious goal of bringing all flight records to germany. Messerschmitts chief testpilot Wurster got the speed-class-world record with a tuned "Bf 109 B" serial plane in 1937. In the same year the project "Me P. 1059" was developed, which would be quite equal to the "Bf 109" in structure, but was very different from the aerodynamic point of view.
With this plane, named "Me 209 V-1", testpilot Fritz Wendel got the absolut world speed record for piston-engined planes by 755,138 km/h (468 mph), on April 26´th 1939. In the FAI-recordlist you can still find this record, held by a "Bf 109 R". This name was chosen to give the impression, that this record was made by a regular "Bf 109" serial plane.
In 1938 the BFW were renamed Messerschmitt AG. So Messerschmitts planes now received the abbreviation "Me" instead of the former "Bf".
In this year, the Messerschmitt construction bureau also received the first data about jet engines, developed by BMW. The RLM requested Messerschmitt to construct a plane with two of this new engines. So the project "Me P. 1065" was born, which was famous all over the world as "Me 262". The "Me 262" was ready to go into prduction in 1942, but it was canceled then, because the RLM thought, that the war would be won by piston engined planes.
In November 1943 this revolutionary fighter was commanded by Hitler, to be the "Blitzbomber". In spite of ththe fact, that the General of Fighters Adolf Galland had argued vehemently to use the "Me 262" as fighter, it first saw combat as bomber, particularly at KG 54(J).
This period, when the "Me 262" was used as bomber, caused the most of it´s losses, because the bombs, attached on racks below the fuselage reduced the speed to a level, that the "Turbo" could be attacked by enemy fighters again.
The first "Me 262" fighter unit was not been deployed until early 1945. It was the "Jagdverband 44" under the command of Adolf Galland. The predecessor of "Jv 44", "Kommando Nowotny" only received a few "Me 262" in the summer 1944, to test it´s usability as fighter. In spite of all these delays and misuses 1433 "Me 262" were produced before the end of war.
At the same time, the "Me 262" was designed, a successor for the "Me 110" was planned. The "Me 210" looked quite equal to "Me 110", but it was a complete new construction.
This plane went in production too early, because it was not yet suitable for front line service. The "Me 210" had many faults, especially in stability. The plane was very difficult to fly and many crashes occurred. The "Me 210" was a huge flop and seriously damaged Messerschmitts reputation. Messerschmitt and his engineers managed to get the plane suitable for front service, but the "Me 210" again was redesigned and renamed in 1943.
This so developed plane was named "Me 410" and differed from "Me 210", having a longer fuselage and stronger engines. Otherwise the two planes were rather equal. The performance of "Me 410" was satisfying and the trust in Messerschmitts planes again reached the level it was before the "Me 210" flop. The "Me 410" would be the last piston-engined reconnaissance plane, that was able to operate in the sky above England.
Another famous construction of the Messerschmitt team was the huge cargo-glider "Me 321" in 1940, which got the name "Gigant". Willi Messerschmitt didn´t participate either in the construction of "Me 321", nor it´s redesign to the six engined cargoplane "Me 323" in 1942.
At the Messerschmitt facilities another famous and unconventional plane was produced: the "Me 163 Komet".
Although the plane was called "Me", this rocket-engine fighter was constructed by Professor Lippisch, who wasn´t a member of the Messerschmitt team. Messerschmitt only made the serial production.
Although Messerschmitt designed and produced some revolutionary planes, he couldn´t change the tide of war. After the German surrender, Messerschmitt was interned until 1947.
Later, Willi Messerschmitt worked on different projects. He developed concepts for prefabricated houses, power-plants and sewing machines.
In the 50´s Messerschmitt designed the famous "Messerschmitt Kr 200 Kabinenroller", which couldn´t escape itīs background in aviation. It looked more like a cockpit on wheels, than like a car.
After 1952 Messerschmitt also worked for aviation again. He developed the training plane "Ha 100" and the jet planes "Ha 200" and "Ha 300" at the spanic aviation facility Hispano Aviacion.
When the German Airforce was re-founded, the Messerschmitt AG handled the maintenance and service of the "T-6" training planes. The Messerschmitt AG also participiated in the licensed production of the Fiat "G.91". The biggest plane production project after the war, was the licensed production of the infamous Lockheed "F-104 Starfighter".
The production of these modern plane models brought the necessary know-how to enable the designing of the vertical take-off plane "VJ 101", in which Messerschmitt himself was involved.
In 1968 the Messerschmitt AG merged with the Bölkow-Gruppe. One year later, the aviation department of the concern Blohm merged. These three enterprises now formed the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm group, or "MBB" for short.
Professor Messerschmitt held the position of honorary chairman of the board of directors for MBB and took part in the projects of MBB well into his later years.

Professor Dr.-Ing. Willi Messerschmitt died
on September 15´th 1978 in Munich, at age of 80.
He went down in the annals of history as revolutionary pioneer of aviation.