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Originally Posted by Ballenato
Quote:
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Originally Posted by stalkervision
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Originally Posted by Ballenato
E7 its called E7 because droptank. If not drop tank is able to carry (that mean no rak), was called E/3-4. Bombs in E-4 and before were an retroffited planes.
Stalkervision, where didi you read that those drop tanks and it's alarming tendency to catch fire in flight btw?
saludos
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I believe it was in the Ballentine Series of military books / ME-109 by Martin Caidin buddy.
Pss..that was because they were actually made from pressed and molded paper! 
right after the battle a metal one came out but by then it was to late.. |
I think you must double check your sources, at least dont get too much credit on those fantastic Caidin texts.
From "Bf109 Recognition manual" - Marco Fernandez Sommerau:
"From the E7 to the last K4s, all Bf could carry auxiliary fuel tanks externally. These were suspended from a carrier rack under the belly. The type of belly rack changed very little between the E and the last K.
The original ALUMINIUM drop-tank selected for the 109 was a Junkers design of 295 litres capacity. Other types of tank soon appeared, most being similar in apparience but with a flattened botton in order to give adequate ground clearance. At the end of the war an "economy" steel version (type 8-4559 E1) appeared but saw limited use as it was less resilient than earlier tanks and imposed some limitations - aerobatics and sudden manoeuvres were not advised with it attached, nor were reough field landings recomended. Areinforced steel tak was subsequently adopted."
regards |
I have a bit of a problem with your " source" buddy. The problem I have is that if you and the author are saying a real usable nonleaking droptank of metal construction was available to the luftwaffe during the battle of britain the germans would have absolutely totally used it!
Many many german planes landed in the channel out of fuel or crash landed on the beach because of a lack of fuel. Also there is the problem of the germans always having to cut short their escort missions to bolt home because of a lack of fuel.
I have also just found another confirming source for this in "THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN" by Richard Townsend Bickers. A very excellent source for BOB information..
A quote from the book..
" The Jagdflieger were aware that their BF 109 E's possessed sufficient endurance for a mere 20 minutes actual combat over Britain and that London represented the effective limit of their tactical radius. This embarrassing limitation had been foreseen and a jettisonable 66 Imp gal (300 liter) fuel tank had been developed and, in fact, manufactured in some numbers. However, produced from molded plywood, it was found to leak seriously after comparatively short exposure to the elements and its incendiary proclivity resulted in its rejection by BF 109E units."
I have seen this mentioned in a few other places before also.
My source is confirmed I believe now.
Apparently Marco Fernandez Sommerau is quite inaccurate here if he is implying in some way that there was a usable metal fuel tank for the Me-109 during the Battle of Britain buddy.
well actually he isn't so much inaccurate from your quote as I believe he actually means the late end E7 model that came out at the very end of the conflict with the new metal tank in line 66 gallon tear drop belly tank. He is apparently not even aware of the earlier plywood tank though..
cheer up though. I apparently was wrong about the molded paper tank. It was actually molded plywood!
ME-109 by Martin Caidin is an excellent book btw, you might want to get a copy. He has always turned out to be right on everything about the 109 that I have ever read about it..
regards SV