MESSERSCHMITT BF 109 T-1

Description

Messerschmitt’s proposal for a shipboard fighter was designated Bf 109T (T for "Trager"). It was basically a Bf 109E-1 with a larger wing, an attachment point for catapult points underneath the fuselage, and an arrester hook underneath the aft fuselage. The engine was the Daimler Benz DB 601A. Since the Messerschmitt A.G. was fully occupied with Bf 109 and Bf 110 production, responsibility for the Bf 109T project was assigned to the Fieseler Werke. 60 Bf 109T-1 fighters were to be built from scratch. the Graf Zeppelin Carrier project was halted in May of 1940. Assembly of the 60 Bf 109T-1 fighters was also halted at the same time. However, the successes of British carrier-based aircraft against the Italian Navy late in 1940 rekindled German interest in ships of this type, and the Fieseler Werke was instructed to complete the 60 Bf 109T-1s then under construction but to remove the naval equipment and deliver them as land-based fighter bombers suitable for operation from short strips. Stripped of naval equipment and fitted with a rack for a 66 Imp gal drop tank, 4 110-lb bombs, or a single 551-lb bomb, the planes were redesignated Bf 109T-2. (Scale : 1/72e)