Messerschmitt - Post War Period
Professor Messerschmitt, who was known worldwide because of his high performance aircraft, was classified as a war criminal and was held in a camp under deplorable conditions with many other famous men. Willy was sentenced to two years in prison for know-ingly using slave laborers, many of whom had come from Dachau, near his Augsburg factory. Messerschmitt was a Nazi. He wore a swastika lapel pin constantly, and his party membership number was 342354.
He was detained at home and continuously guarded. In addition, all of the installations suitable for aircraft construction were dismantled up to the year 1948. Professor Messerschmitt was released again in the spring of 1948, and decided to move to Munich, because there were no facilities nor apartments in Augsburg. Since he was forbidden to operate in his initial area, Messerschmitt entered other areas of technology with enthusiasm. He constructed prefabricated houses, sewing machines, motorcycles, rotating disc motors, hydraulic gears, small automobiles, and middle-class cars. Mass production came from his ideas, so that a limited development of the facility in Augsburg occurred.
The relationships with the Spanish firm Hispano Aviacion (HA) in Seville, which had been a licensed firm of the Me 109 since 1943, as well as the personal stature of Professor Messerschmitt with the Spanish Aviation Ministry, led to a consultation contract with this firm at the end of 1951. The purpose of the association was the development of a conventional trainer and a jet trainer, as well as the basic work of a light supersonic fighter, which was to be built exclusively in and for Spain.
In January 1952, he moved to Seville with a small team and there developed the propeller driven trainer HA 100, which was flown at the end of 1953. Using many components of this aircraft, then the jet trainer HA200 was developed, so that a type of building block was produced. Externally the HA 200 only differed from its predecessor by the fact that instead of the star motor with propeller there was a smooth fuselage front part with an attractive line. To both sides there were two air inlets, which indicated the presence of two small jet engines. The exhaust gas expulsion was almost invisible within the wingroot with exhaust below the wing trailing edge. Two French Marbore-II engines with a thrust of 400 kg were installed.
The HA 200 was flown for the first time in the summer of 1955. Of course, Professor Messerschmitt and the Spanish government were interested in offering this jet trainer to the German Luftwaffe, which also represented competition to the Fouga Magister. During a fly-off in the year 1957, in Koln-Wahn, in front of German officers, the Fouga, as well as the HA 200, which carried the name Me 200 in Germany, were demonstrated. Even though the aircraft was given a good evaluation and reached a velocity of 0.8 times the speed of sound, it was clear that the French had an advantage because they had already built a production series. Nevertheless, political conditions did not allow the introduction at the German Luftwaffe.
In 1956, a single-seat supersonic jet fighter with the name HA 300 was started. A small compact fighter was to be developed and first the Armstrong-Siddeley-Sapphire engine was planned. However, the construction was finally designed for the Bristol Orpheus without afterburner with the expectation that the afterburner engine Orpheus 3 which would soon be delivered. However, the afterburner engine was never available.
In the year 1957, the Spanish government signed an agreement with the Egyptian government, according to which licensed construction of the HA 200 and the HA 300 was to occur in Egypt. A team of Spanish designers then moved to Cairo with the finished design and partially completed construction data, and the newly formed construction firm Meco completely developed this aircraft with participation of a few German engineers under the direction of Professor Messerschmitt.The first prototype was flown in 1964. Soon after the second prototype was flown, Egypt stopped its development because of political agreements.
The lifting up of the general aviation construction restrictionin the West German Republic after 1955 brought the first contracts to Messerschmitt AG in 1957. These were maintenance and conversion contracts for American aircraft, and also license contracts on a large scale for the German Luftwaffe, then being built-up. The firms were built-up again to a great extent, old specialists were hired, and young scientists were recruited.
Professor Messerschmitt started a development office in Munich, participated in project competitions, and steady contracts of thenewly organized Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg), which finally led to the four-jet, single-seat jet aircraft P 1227 with VTOL properties with jet deflection. This project was won from the BMV corporation with his very impressive development team. In 1959, the "Development Ring South" was established out of the previously competiting firms Bolkow, Heinkel, and Messerschmitt. By using his personality at the government level he contributed substantially to its success, first vertical take-off aircraft VJ 101-C, which had supersonic capabilities, and its development was concluded with the successful take-off with afterburner in the year 1959.
Independent of the participation at the Development Ring South, Professor Messerschmitt still maintained a steady office, where market gaps were followed-up and where important projects were pursued. Among other things, this steady work resulted in the West German contribution to the European "Airbus."
In 1968, Professor Messerschmitt gave up the status of his firm by a merger with the firm B81kow in the "Aircraft Development Company,"the present day Messerschmitt-Bolkow-B1ohm GmbH (MBB) in Ottobrunn near Munich and the Augsburg and Manchinger Fabrication Company of MBB, the ideas and competence of the former Messerschmitt Construction Company lived on.
Since the end of the 1960's, Professor Messerschmitt had consideredthe problem of vertical take-off of civilian aircraft. He attempted to solve the problem of providing vertical take-off capability withan engine designed exclusively for fast flight. At the same time the aircraft equipped with jet engines should not be slower than comparable horizontal take-off aircraft. The result of intensive work was an area aircraft, which had lifting propellors for take-off and landing to the right and left of the lifting surfaces. After take-off these rotors are folded up and were retracted into gondola-like containers. Measurements indicated that the designer Messerschmitt also has a successful design here. The superiority of this technology was proven in the number of comparison projects, and there were also military versions.
The senior designer was adored by his friends and respected by his enemies, experienced the realization many projects of German aviation development. Wilhelm Emil "Willy" Messerschmitt died September 15, 1978. Messerschmitt’s single most important design was the Messerschmitt Bf 109, designed in 1934 with the collaboration of Walter Rethel. The Bf 109 became the most important fighter in the Luftwaffe as Germany re-armed prior to World War II. To this day, it remains the one of the most-produced fighter in history, with some 35,000 built.
http://pro-samolet.ru/samolety-germany-ww2/bombardir-schturmoviki?start=18
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