Talk:Messerschmitt Me 209 (1943)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Messerschmitt Me 209 (1943) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Aviation: Aircraft

This article is within the scope of the Aviation WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.AviationWikipedia:WikiProject AviationTemplate:WikiProject Aviationaviation articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

This article is supported by the aircraft project.

Military history: Aviation / European / German / World War II

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Military aviation task force
	European military history task force
	German military history task force
	World War II task force

Germany Low‑importance

	Germany portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Germany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GermanyWikipedia:WikiProject GermanyTemplate:WikiProject GermanyGermany articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Me 262[edit]

Although this information is taken from David Irving's biography of Erhard Milch, so may be unreliable, Irving gives a reasonably convincing account of the Me 209 being the reason that the Me 262 arrived too late for Germany, and not Hitler's 'obsession' with making the new jet into a bomber.

Apparently Messerschmitt himself was loath to give up on the Me 209 even after it was rejected, and continued to employ skilled workers on it when the company should have been concentrating on the Me 262. This was after he, the Messerschmitt board, and Milch, had already decided that the company should concentrate on getting the Me 262 into production as quickly as possible. This was not helped by Messerschmitt having already tooled-up for production of the Me 209 to the point that it was 95% ready to be mass produced. Messerschmitt had assumed that the Me 209 would be bought for the Luftwaffe during Milch's predecessor, Ernst Udet's, years in charge, presumably before the aircraft's performance defects were known, and that was why the factories had already tooled-up for production.

The 209 BTW, was rejected, apart from other reasons, because it had a poorer rate-of-climb than either the Me 109G or the Fw 190D. By that stage of the war climbing performance had become more important because Germany was increasingly being put on the defensive in the air.

BTW, according to Irving's account, the Me 262 had been designed to carry bombs from the beginning, and when Messerschmitt was asked how long it would take to fit pylons for carrying bombs he replied " ..say, fourteen days".

The Milch biography BTW, is quite a good read, which rather surprised me considering the author's reputation. There is an online legitimate (i.e., publisher's) pdf copy of the book, "The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe - The Life of Field Marshal Erhard Milch" here: [1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.68.219 (talk) 19:57, 17 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]