3 Messerschmitts fly again

Actually it's two Messerscmitts and one Spanish Buchon; nonetheless, it's still great to see them all in flight.

 

Spectacular! Now they just need to do that with FW-190's! There are 3 in the world that fly.........

 

Fascinating stuff. This is the Hangar 10 collection in Germany. Very interesting to see the contrast between the old-style canopy of Bf109G-6 'Black 8' and the later 'Erla-Haube' of Bf109G-10 'Black 2'.

Also of course the unique 2-seat trainer 'yellow 27' which in the clip has a Merlin ( correct for a Buchon ) but now I believe this has been replaced by a DB605. The clip is a good opportunity to hear the difference between the Mercedes 'blue note' and the very different Merlin sound.

 

The Merlin engine and mount were severely damaged in a ground accident back in 2012/13, and the decision was made to convert the Buchon into a G-12. The Buchon was given a DB605 when she was converted.

 

Flugwerk's FW-190 reproduction aircraft more than double that number...

 

Australia has one...

 

I presume the Buchon airframe was designed originally for a Merlin. Converting it to an inverted V-12 MB 605 is no easy feat but glad they did. I would love to see a sectional drawing of an ME 109 with the 30MM mounted through the propeller hub. It would appear the crankshaft would be in line with the barrel of the cannon so the propeller hum must be hollow and some of the gearing around that hollow . Give the torque od a 27 liter V-12 how it stayed inline is a mystery to me. The Bell P-39 has it's 37 MM but it's V is upright, making more room for the cannon. It just does not make spatial sense to aging minded me

 

The P-39 had the engine behind the cockpit, with a drive shaft extending forward to a gearbox which drove the propeller. This made room for the big 37mm gun which fired through the hollow propeller shaft.

 

Yep. Flugwerk produced many parts to get it into the air, as well as the Russian Powerplant(essentially a BMW 801 copy).

 

I had forgotten the P-39's rear engine, that makes sense. any thoughts on the 20MM Me-109? I also can understand a hollow hub but not where the gun was mounted. It obviously is parallel to the crank and must be above then the inverted V banks of the engine would be wider and lower than seems feasible. Clearly, it works just seems cramped and difficult. Did it carry a 60 round drum? And if so where did it reside? 20mm seems good for attacking bombers and 30 caliber bit to light so maybe in ariel combat between fighters, the 50 caliber was a good choice in WW2.

 

Was a similar design used for Soviet aircraft such as the Lagg-3, and the Yakolev fighters? I've never thought about this before actually....

 

The only thing I miss about Orlando is hearing the P-51 Mustangs buzz the office building I worked in back then! It was always awesome to see them flying around and the noise they made was unmistakable!

 

P-51's are a rarity where I live, but I see a B-17, B-25, T-6 Texans, PT-17 Stearmans, and the occasional T-28 Trojan quite frequently.

 

JJ, the Soviets did get some P-39's from us and apparently liked them for ground attack fighters. They were not up to air to air combat with the ME 109's. The LaGG-3 was not based on the P-39, it has a "belly" that looks like it might have been but it was a conventional V-12 layout, a Klimov, mounted upright in front of the pilot but it was mostly laminate wood construction. Well armed but a bit heavy and Russian pilots joked they were flying coffins. The Yak 3 and 9 had a conventional design, not unlike a Spitfire and also had a Klimov V 12 up front. There may be a P-39 based design somewhere but I have not heard of one but I am no authority !!

Thank you for the "thank"

Gaines

 

I completely agree with what you're saying Gaines, there was no other aircraft, outside of the P-63 and XP-75 that were based off the P-39. I didn't properly explain what I meant by similar design. I was talking about the Cannon placement in the nose, and it's location relative to the engine. I'm assuming the Soviets took a similar approach to the nose mounted cannon as the Germans, and later the U.S did.

 

Well, the P-63 was a direct descendant of the P-39, while the P-75 Eagle was only similar to the P-39 in general layout(in fact, the XP-75 used the landing gear of a Corsair, the tail of a Dauntless, and the wing panels of a P-51).

The approaches were different, the Germans and the Soviets had the cannon firing through the engine, while the US went with a mid-fuselage mounted engine that used a drive shaft to connect the engine to the propeller.

 

I believe the ME's cannon receiver and breech were actually in the cockpit between the pilots legs.

 

Thanks Takao, I didn't know that the XP-75 was based off of so many aircraft! Learned something new again!! Would the vibration of the cannon be harmful to the engine over time?