One hel of a fighter

[Bill Greenwood]

If you've won the lottery and want to buy something unique, not just a big house that has the same granite countertops as all the other fancy places: then here is your chance.

For $4.5 million real money (good old US of A dollars) a Messerschmitt Me 109E can be yours.
This is the genuine thing, a real Diamler engine Me 109. It was restored by top wrench Craig Charleston and is painted in the colors of the one flown by African desert ace Hans Joachim Marseille, the pilot called by Galland, I think it was, the "Ace of Aces".

This is the plane owned by Ed Russell of Niagara, Ontario, Canada, and is something special.
I have seen this plane, heard it run, seen it fly, up close takeoffs and landings and got to sit in it.
One of the most fun and memorable things I have done in 34 year of being a pilot, was being lucky enough to get to fly beside this 109 on a flight from Ed's airport at Niagara South to a Willow Run, at Detroit, Michigan for their excellent airshow, Thunder Over Michigan. To look out one way and see a genuine Hurricane and next to it a genuine 109 is an experience I wish I could bottle and sell.
It is a mean looking little thing. It is mostly engine, not even that much wings and doesn't seem to have much fuselage and tail, it seems 2/3 engine. It is more angular than a Spit or Huri, doesn't have the nice, round, almost feminine curves of the Brit planes.

And it may even look a little primitive, but make no mistake, in the right hands, and the Luftwaffe certainly had some of those with the right hands, this was an efficient and deadly little weapon.

[cluttonfred]

Nah, I'd rather have that gorgeous Collins Foundation North American A-36 Apache (Mustang) with the dive brakes and chin-mounted MGs I saw last year...to each his own! Great photo here, too big to upload.

[Bill Greenwood]

That A-36, especially the quality and authenticity of that restoration is great. But those planes don't have the historical significance of a 109. I'd guess that any of the top German 109 aces each shot down more planes than all the 36's combined.

Of course the 36 was more of a dive bomber than a fighter, and I don't know much about it's history or success in that role.

[cluttonfred]

Well, I would argue that the A-36 was the father of the P-51, which can certainly claim the same historical significance as the 109, and shot down quite a few to boot. ;-p

[champ driver]

I agree Bill, it's one heck of a fighter in the right hands. There must be a reason that Erich Hartmann and others decided to continue flying the 109 when the FW190 came out. Sounds like your flight was a dream come true with such iconic fighters off your wings. But, shame on you for getting me all worked up and not even posting a photo or link to such a great fighter.

[Interstater]

Here is a pic from the Platinum Fighter Sales facebook page...

[Bill Greenwood]

Joe, what a wonderful photo. If that doesn't make a guy stare then he must be in a coma.Notice how much bigger, thicker, the Hurricane is than the 109, even though it is farther away from the camera plane.

Champ, like you, I wondered about why virtually all the German ace pilots stayed with the 109 even though many Allied pilots saw the FW 190 as superior.
I asked that question to some of them, Gen. Galland, and Gen. Gunther Rall, and they really didn't have an answer, just that they were so familiar with the 109 by that point in the war, and maybe that the 109 was better at altitude.

And as for photos, well it was a once in a long while opportunity for me, and of course I should have had a camera. But I was so busy that week in Canada, some day I may write about that week, and it was so new to me that I was concentrating hard to try not to make any mistakes. In one way it is a big relief to be able to share someone else's airplanes without having to do the maintenance or pay the bills. It was great at first in that respect, but then the feeling of responsibility hits you, that you are dealing with someone's 2 or even 3 Million Dollar historic airplane. The only bigger responsibility is when you are doing a flight with someone's child or wife on board.
We had 4 airplanes to get to Thunder Over Michigan on Friday. Each had some problem and at one point about Thur morning one of the British guys said, "Well we have worked on the planes all week and rendered all of them unairworthy". Two were just avionics glitches, one was a hydraulic leak, and one was a more serious engine problem, which was resolved ok,a and no problems on the trip there or coming back.