It is late 1944 and
the allies have bombed Germany's jet engine production capabilities into
oblivion. There is no chance of resurecting it in the near future. The
Luftwaffe's last hope of regaining air superiority falls to the 109Z. The
prototype (which in reality was destroyed by bombing before it flew) was spared
from bombing and in testing proved to be a far superior fighter than anything
else in the air. It did, however have a few shortcomings, one of which was the
use of four main undercarriage legs as a result of the mating of two standard
109's.
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This arrangement
proved costly to produce, difficult to maintain and cumbersome. Messerschmitt
engineers decided to use the main undercarriage legs that were designed for the
262 - which was now out of production due to a total lack of jet engines. The
wing centre section and fuselage underbelly was redesigned to accomodate the new
undercarriage design.
The aircraft were
armed with three wing mounted cannon as well as cannon firing through the two
propellor hubs and two machine guns mounted above the engine, and firing through
the propellor, of the piloted fuselage. Quite devastating firepower among the
streams of allied bombers.
This particular aircraft is shown
being readied for dispatch to Libya, where it will fly as a stablemate with the
well known Black 6 which is now preserved in the Imperial War Museum in England.
Scott
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