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7. Wide blade propeller as on the G-10
(VDM 9-12159)
8. Tall tail Type 9.
9. Cockpit canopy with rounded inside
corners at the rear and without an antenna
mast on the fuselage behind the cockpit,
with the antenna lead going directly into
the fuselage (or could also be attached to
a small mast on the canopy frame as was
the case with the postwar Czechoslovak
C-10/S-99).
10. Short tailwheel.
11. A whip antenna associated with the
FuG 16zy system was located under the
left wing (glass panel).
12. Small blade antenna for the FuG 25a IFF
system below the fuselage behind the wing
trailing edge.
13. MW50 water-methanol injection system
and its associated equipment – a box fairing
on the rear wall of the cockpit behind the
headrest, and an access panel on the right
side of the spine behind the cockpit.
14. Fairings covering the wheel wells
were of the large variety and had the
corresponding 660 x 190mm wheels.
15. All aircraft were built as U4 mods, with
30mm MK 108 cannons and associated
equipment: a large cannon cover below
the instrument panel in the cockpit and
an access hatch to compressed air bottles
in the fifth fuselage segment on the
right side. The installation of the engine
mounted weapon allowed for the use of the
MG 121/20. This was because there were
issues with the MK 108 cannon that arose
during production.
CONCLUSIONS:
It’s all pretty complex, isn’t it? It appears
to all be a mixed bag of almost ‘non-German’
chaos. It’s one thing to get a handle on the
features differentiating individual versions,
but it’s another thing altogether grasping
where they came from and why there were
simultaneously so many versions of essentially
one type. Where was that German attempt at
type unification? Add to that that the Bf 109K-4
was only mentioned in a peripheral way and the
fact that other simultaneously produced fighters
for the Luftwaffe was ignored altogether. Even
the grasping of the specifications of individual
versions is no simple matter. The entire situation
only begins to gain some clarity only when all of
this chaos is considered with an understanding of
the historical context that defined the conditions
under which development of the aircraft took
place.
The aforementioned Allied bombing campaign
had a dramatic impact on the overall situation
that Germany found itself in. The German war
effort was increasingly crippled as the bombings
intensified. Despite a marked decrease in the
intensity of the attacks in June and July, when
the Allied air forces operating from the British
Isles focused their efforts on supporting the
Normandy landings and the push into southern
France, German industry was succumbing to
increasing pressure. As mentioned earlier, the
Vienna and WNF firms were virtually wiped off
the face of the earth by the American 15th Air
Force in mid 1944. As time went on, Luftwaffe
fighter units were pulling on an ever decreasing
length of rope. The Allied air superiority
manifested itself in every aspect of life over
German occupied Europe through 1944. Added to
the overall devastation, there were supply and
logistical problems, thanks to which the situation
worsened from month to month, even week to
week, and in some cases, literally day to day.
In the second half of the year, there was
a dramatic decline in the situation on all fronts,
leading to rapid Allied advances on the Western
Front and in Italy, and even more so in terms of
both military and civilian losses following Red
Army offenses on the Eastern Front. Germany
lost vast areas with significant industrial and
economic potential. After the Red Army attack
on Eastern Prussia, and the subsequent push
into Poland, there was a massive exodus of
migrants into Silesia in the winter of 1945. This
was the quite literally apocalyptic scenario that
accompanied the development and production of
the above mentioned aircraft.
The progress, weather under conditions of
perceived or actual chaos, of the designating
of the later versions of the Bf 1090G, is, in my
opinion, as follows: It began with the delays in
the development of the Bf 109K, and, by extension,
the DB 605D powerplant. When it became clear
that there would be serious delays in the
supply of the Bf 109K, interim solutions were
sought. These were entrusted to Erla , which
was responsible for the mating of the DB 605D
HISTORY
INFO Eduard
19
September 2024