Veterans and their stories: Willi and the Messerschmitt

A Tail of a fighter: The Messerschmitt Me BF109E and the story of a veteran

I have recently embarked on a mission of recording some of the amazing stories I have come across as a doctor dealing with WW2 veterans. Many of these stories have been lost, as the veterans pass on. I feel it is important to a least record some of the amazing stories I have heard. Living and training in South Africa I occasionally came across German veterans. I recall seeing a Stalingrad survivor (minus an arm) ; a Dresden Bombing survivor (minus a leg) , and a most interesting aircraft engineer, just off the top of my head.

Post-war photo of Messerschmitt

I met the aircraft engineer in the surgical ward of a Pretoria hospital, when I was still a student. He was a thin, unwell man at the time. He told me he was an engineer, and was, in fact still active. He was sitting up in his hospital bed working on an arched architectural design. He was in his late 70s then, and suffering from pancreatic cancer. We struck up a conversation, with him enquiring as to my German name, and as to where my German family roots lie.

He told me his real passion was for aircraft, and that he was an aircraft and glider designer. Of course, off we went... Aircraft nut in action:

Turns out that he started his career working in a factory where the first Me 109s were built. He related that he lived in a village in the Alps, and had to walk or cycle quite a distance from where he lived to the factory.

Messerschmitt was a hard task-master, and did not tolerate his employees being late. He had a two strike policy. On clocking in late for the second time, summary dismissal took place.

Wartime Bf 109 production line

The engineer in question had worked as a production assistant in the tail-assembly line. At the time (Me 109 B-model) there was a problem with the tail configuration, specifically with the ailerons.

Willi Messerschmitt kept a suggestions box at the clock-in station next to the factory floor. Our engineer took a piece of paper and drew what he thought was as the solution to the tail problem, and had put this in the box some weeks before.

Tail section of a later model- note absence of struts on tail

He relates that he arrived 2 minutes late for work one morning. Fearing for his job he set to work.
Within a few minutes he had a tap on his shoulder: " The Chef wants to see you!"

"Good grief" he thought, "Messerschmitt himself was going to fire me for being late." 

He obediently went up to Willi's office, to find the man there, not with the clock-in record, but with his drawing from the suggestions box in his hand:

 " Did you draw this? " he asked, "Tell me more about your thoughts!"

So it came about that his idea was incorporated into what became the definitive tail configuration for the Me Bf 109E. He was 17 at the time, and only allowed to work in the factory as he was a year to young to go into the army.

On his sick-bed he quickly dashed off a drawing while he was talking. It was, without doubt, the tail assembly of a ME109 that he drew for me. He pointed out what design alterations he had influenced: The shape of ailerons and the support struts.

Messerschmitt and Hitler

He spent the rest of the war working on various other projects with Messerschmit, as aircraft engineer. At the close of the war he hid his tools and instruments in a cave in the Alps.

After WW 2 Germany was not allowed to build aircraft for many years, and he turned his hand to glider design and building. For many years this had to take place in secret, without the occupying US and UK forces noticing. He never lost his love of aircraft and flying.

I only knew him for a week, from brief discussions between ward rounds, and getting my job done, but all the time he beavered away at drawings and designs. He was informed that the public system in S.Africa in the early 1980s could not offer him any hope of a cure for his cancer. 

He decided to fly to Germany to seek treatment there. I have often wondered what became of him, and what other fascinating discussions we could have had on the whole of the wartime he spent working with Willi Messerschmitt.

 I cannot recall his name, but I'll never forget his passion.

Probably the most famous Me109E, that of Adolf Gallant

The Me109E, with the tail struts and the aileron shape

 he could still dash off on a piece of paper 

5 decades or more after working on them with Willi Messerschmitt. 

First Day cover commemorating the anniversary of Messerschmitt's death

Note the Anglicised spelling of Willi (Willy, as he was known after the war)

Cutaway drawing of the Me109

Igor Sikorsky and Helicopters: Anniversary of the first successful chopper flight

Igor Sikorsky and the helicopter: Happy birthday today ?
The Aircraft genius at work:

Heard on the radio today that it was the anniversary of Sikorsky's first successful helicopter flight. I've had a look at this extraordinary gentleman's history, and the history of the helicopter in general

                                                


The Russian-born scientist, engineer, pilot and entrepreneur made fixed and rotary wing aviation history with a mix of genius, determination and humanity. An established Russian aviation pioneer, arrived in New York or March 1919. His passport revealed he entered America to "construct aircraft". He made several attempts to re-enter aviation in his new country without success.

Airplanes and engines built for World War I were available at extremely low prices and aviation was described to him by some as a "dying industry". Soon his money was running out and he resorted to teaching Russian immigrants mathematics; later, astronomy and aviation lessons were included.

He also started to lecture to various groups which brought him in contact with people who shared his enthusiasm for aviation and convinced him to start his own aeronautical enterprise. March 5,1923, saw the creation of the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation.

The company was dedicated to building the S-29A (Sikorsky type 29, America) and was based at fellow immigrant Victor Utgoff s farm near Roosevelt Field on Long Island, N.Y.

One biographer summarized that  Igor Sikorsky had three careers in aviation:

• Constructing and flying fixed-wing aircraft in Russia, 
• Constructing and flying fixed wing aircraft , including seaplanes in America, 
• and helicopters, actually his first love. 
• 
  

                                

He was fascinated by science in general, and in many ways was a classical philosopher. It has been said that he was initially inspired by a Jules Verne novel as a very young boy

He passed away peacefully in his sleep in 1972 at the age of 83 after putting in a typical day at his office at Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky Aircraft has a proud and rich history of aircraft design and construction dating to the early part of the last century, making it one of America's pioneering aerospace companies.

A list of Sikorsky's firsts:

In Russia:

1909 H-1, Constructed his First helicopter "This machine was a failure to the extent that it could not fly. In other respects it was a very important and necessary stepping stone."

1910 S-2, Igor Sikorsky Flew for the First time

1911 S-5, Igor's First pilot license issued from the Imperial Aero Club of Russia

1912 S-6A won First place in the Moscow Aircraft Competition, pilot Igor Sikorsky

1913 S-9 First monocoque fuselage constructed in Russia

1913 S-10 establish a Russian Aviation Record flying 500 kilometers in 4 hrs and 56 min

1913 S-12 First Russian aircraft capable of a loop

1913 S-12 Established a Russian Altitude Record of 3,680m

1913 Igor Sikorsky flew the S-21 "Grand" the World's First successful four-engine plane

1913 S-21 set a World's Record for duration and literally set one World's Record after another for a four-engine plane with each fligh

1913 S-10 & S-11 won First and Second place in the Petrograd Military Competition

1914 S-27 set two World Records for payload and flight duration

1914 S-27 with pontoons was the largest seaplane built in the World

1916 S-27G with 880 horsepower was the largest plane produced in the World

LAUNCHING THE FLYING-BOAT IN THE US

1923 Igor founded Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation

1924 S-29A First twin-engine airplane capable of flying on one engine and First all metal aircraft

1925 S-29A World's First airplane to broadcast a radio musical program in-flight

1926 S-29A World's First airplane to show a motion picture in-flight

1929 S-37 First airplane to fly over the Andes Mountains

1929 S-38 Used in pioneering Central and South American air routes by Pan American Airways

1929 S-38 Piloted by Charles Lindbergh inaugurated air mail service between the US and Panama

1931 S-40 "American Clipper" was the Worlds largest airliner produced

1934 S-42 First production aircraft with wing flaps: allowed high flight speeds and low landing speeds.

1934 S-42 Established ten World Records, of which eight were set on one flight. This flight of August 1st vaulted the United States into First place holder of World Aviation Records

1935 S-42 First transoceanic air service, flying the first airmail from Honolulu to the mainland.

1937 S-42 made the First regular airline crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean and pioneered the transpacific route to Asia

1936 S-43 Established four World Altitude Records

1937 S-44 (XPBS-1) long range bomber first flown August 13, 1937. It had a max range of 4,000 miles and superior performance but lost out to a lower cost competitor.

1942 VS-44 Civilian version of the S-44 first flew in January 1942. It was the wold's longest range commercial aircraft and the only aircraft to have flown commercial scheduled non-stop across the north and south Atlantic. This was the last fixed wing aircraft built by Sikorsky.