Great article that...bryson109 wrote:This link is a good read, all about the myths and realities of the bf 109.
Very interesting.
http://www.virtualpilots.fi/hist/109myths/
"109s were so difficult to take off and land that half the 109s lost in the war were lost to take off and landing accidents."
- 5 % of the 109's were lost in take off/landing accidents.
"Me-109 had an astonishing 11,000 takeoff/landing accidents resulting in destruction of the a/c! That number represents roughly one-third of the approximately 33,000 such a/c built by Germany."
- Source: FLIGHT JOURNAL magazine
- The magazine has it wrong or has misintepretated the numbers. Luftwaffe lost about 1500 Me-109's in landing gear failures. Note that German loss reports often lump destroyed and damaged (10 to 60% damaged) together. It was also a standard practise to practically rebuild even almost completely destroyed airframes. While rebuilding/refurnishing these planes were also upgraded to the latest standards and latest equipment. This means that large proportion of these damaged/destroyed planes were not complete losses, but returned to squadron service.
I thought that 11.000 aircraft "lost" sounded far too much. If such was the case, then the aircraft would have been considered a complete failure. The Luftwaffe would have converted completely to the FW190 if one considers this as a loss rate of 1/3 is just way, way too high to sustain.
Tony
