the right question to ask about these high 109 losses, is why did the germans not correct this problem or do something about it to fix it ?
the answer is rather interesting, as another poster summarized it well:
Quote:
The Messerschmitt company spent much energy and money in attempting to produce an improved version of the Me-109.
The first attempt was the Me-209 with which the world speed record with set. Although it had a wide inward folding landing gear, it was a failure and only 4 were produced.
Next came the Me-309 with tricycle landing gear. The 4 prototypes not only had bad nosewheel wobble, but also swung to the left on takeoff! Despite all modifications, the Standard
Me-109G could easily out turn the 309, and the project was abandoned in late 1943.
Last try was using 60% of Me-109 parts, new wing and tail with DB 603G engine. The nose and oil cooler looked like the FW-190D, and flight characteristics were very good. The aircraft used the old Me-209 number and despite that Messerschmitt was ready to produce this aircraft, the Air Ministry cancelled all plans choosing the FW Ta 152H.
So Messerschmitt kept building the Me-109 with its bad landing gear right up untill the end of the war
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953: Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone, it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children
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