September 1945: Assessing German air power

Barely had the flames of war ceased smouldering when our predecessors turned their attention to the Nazi regime’s airborne machinery

After hostilities ceased in the Second World War, The Engineer set about assessing some of the technologies that had beset Allied forces in the previous years. Barely had the flames of war ceased smouldering when our predecessors turned their attention to the Nazi regime’s airborne machinery, with the first article dealing with the Luftwaffe’s engines and the second looking at the aircraft they powered.

Both articles make the point that while the in-service equipment may have tended towards the conservative – the articles note that the Allies flew “at least a dozen’” designs of single-seat fighter, but Germany used only two basic designs throughout the war – Germany had a forward programme in advance of the Allies. To keep pace with new models of the Spitfire, Messerschmitt had to continuously improve the Me109, which was 10 years old by the end of the war. In 1937, the article says, the 109 had 500HP and was slower than the Hurricane, but by the end it had 2000HP, could match a Mustang in the air and had 10 times the firepower of the original 109.