Messerschmitt

Book Code:  SA2338

Messerschmitt

 

The products of the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (later renamed Messerschmitt AG) played a major role in the German invasion of Poland, in the Battle of Britain, in the Russian campaign, in North Africa and in the defense of Berlin. Yet the Messerschmitt story is not simply the combat record of a number of famous fighter aircraft that were at the forefront of the Luftwaffe's efforts throughout the Second World War. It is, in addition, an account of the growth of an important aviation company and the career of its founder, Professor Willi Messerschmitt, one of the world's most outstanding, innovative and prolific aircraft designers. This fully illustrated book presents the complete story of Messerschmitt's aircraft designs from his early glider projects to the sophisticated machines evolved in the post World War II days. There are detailed accounts of the brilliantly successful Bf 109, a fighter that was built in greater numbers than any other of its type, which played such an important role in every theatre of the Second World War in which the Luftwaffe was involved. There is also a report in depth on the development of the twin-engined Me 110, Goring's notorious Zerstorer that proved such a disastrous failure in the Battle of Britain yet redeemed itself by its virtue as a night fighter. Other chapters describe and analyze Messerschmitt's revolutionary rocket and jet fighter projects. The text is supplemented by detailed specifications of all the principal Messerschmitt designs. All in all, Messerschmitt is an invaluable reference work for all students of aviation history and those in the aviation industry, for it brings together, as no other work has, technical data of extreme importance of the understanding of aircraft development over the past fifty years.

 

Anthony Pritchard

Hardcover with d/w 191pp Vantage Books 1975 1st Ed

 

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