Rare German Fighter Is Back In The Sky
After a year in the shop, an iconic aircraft is ready to fly again.
This weekend’s Warbirds Over the Beach Airshow in Virginia Beach will feature the participation of a rare World War II fighter. Though close to 34,000 Messerschmitt Me-109s were produced, only a handful are currently flying. The Military Aviation Museum’s Me-109G-4 is one of the very few flying to be powered by its original Daimler Benz DB 605 inverted V-12 engine. Ironically, post-war Spanish-built Buchon versions of the German fighter were powered by the same Rolls-Royce Merlin that was installed on British fighters during World War II.
The Virginia museum features a stable of three dozen World War II-vintage aircraft, including the Me-109’s stablemate Focke Wulf Fw-190 and its adversaries, the P-51 Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane.
The Me-109 was restored from the remains of WkNr (Production Number) 19257 flown by Feldwebel Viktor Peterman on a mission over the Eastern Front. Russian fighters damaged his cooling system. He force-landed and walked four days to get back to his base. From the remains, Meier Motors in Eschbach, Germany, performed the restoration.
The Me-109 is just now emerging from more than a year of heavy maintenance. It made its first post-maintenance flight on Sept. 9. Last week, Military Aviation Museum chief pilot Mike Spalding flew the Messerschmitt again and declared it ready for this weekend’s show.
