Allison-Engined Messerschmitt Fires Up….

@Creaking Door: “Wouldn’t an Allison-engined Me110 or Ju87 rely on there being Merlin-engined versions going spare?” Huh?

First indication of the impressions of John Romain on test flying the Erickson Allison-engined Bf-109G-10 – it’s a “lovely aeroplane”: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154267973065947&set=a.497010895946.266025.508430946&type=3&theater

Agreed I would rather see it fly with this engine than not fly.
Also how great to see a JU87, must be plenty of room for the Allison as apposed to the JUMO

Wouldn’t witnessing any flying odd / old bird(s) make us happy!!!!????

At 50 +…. will take what flies in front of me and (will try to) appreciate it to what it is…!!!

Cheers…..

Hi All,
tftoc – Many thanks for the answer even if they cannot recreate the sound the aircraft still looks lovely IMHO….:cool:

Well done to the team again for getting her airborne and many thanks to DazDaMan for the post of the video…..:eagerness:

Geoff.

“The Il-2 popped up out of nowhere, so I look forward to further surprises.” – Although the Jumo has been photographed, I remain confident this is exactly what will happen with the Paul Allen Stuka.

Allisons – I was thinking about using them for replicas/new-builds in the countries where such aircraft are allowed, rather than in originals where there’s no other option.

The only Spitfires that have been repainted in precise BoB film livery and flown are EP120 and MV154 for ‘Dark Blue World’. This to match the extensive BoB film out-takes utilised.

PV202 was repainted in BoB film livery for a couple of days as AI-E in 2010 to partner the Buchon but the CAA were ‘unhappy’ with the choice and it was changed to QV-I.

Mark

Indeed, for Piece of Cake, A Perfect Hero and a couple of variations on that theme.

Seem to remember that MH434 has been re-painted in BoB film colours at some time .

Would love to see one of the film’s Spitfire stars painted back into its film colours just for that season….

The comfortable notion that the B o B film is of our ‘modern’ era becomes ever harder to sustain when you remember that the filming took place 23 years after hostilities ended, but we are now 72 (!) years from VE day

In fact next year we can mark ‘Half a century’ since the filming of the greatest ever aviation film !

Mark 12 :

Nostalgia – the older I get the better it was

DC

Thanks.

About a dozen by my reckoning. Some on public display, some stored, one under rebuild, and one or two nose or fuselage sections.

How many of these are left and in what condition?

It’s a shame we don’t still have one of those flying.

“There is one more He-111 that had intentions to fly at one time, but sold in recent years.”

It seems like only yesterday…

Mark

Image: Simon Morrison

I suspect Hispano were more concerned with practical aspects of the Merlin conversion over making the Buchon look exactly like a late model 109 Plus, IIRC the Allison is a physically smaller engine than the Merlin.

The Czechs still had the tooling to manufacture Jumo 211 engines after the war. I think that not trading with Soviet-bloc countries may have given RR an advantage to sell Merlins to Spain.

I suppose there’s been a bit of a chicken and egg situation with for example the Ju-87 – why rebuild one to fly when you’ll never find a suitable Jumo motor for it and the cost to do so and operate it would be prohibitive even if you did have one? Now that there appears to be a (non-economically-suicidal-unless-you’re-Paul-Allen) way round the non availability of motors, perhaps we’ll see some movement?

I think at this time it would be easier to find Jumo 211 engine than it is to obtain a Ju-87 wreck. Rare as those engines are, I am surprised at how many DB engines have come out of the woodwork for Bf-109 rebuilds. There are seven 109s than can fly with another 10 or 12 in active restoration (some making more progress than others.) Museums have some tucked away, when they aren’t being cut open to display the internals. It took a while to learn the DB engine again and hopefully similar expertise will develop for the Jumo mills.

This conversion does raise one interesting question: why, if it is possible to substitute a V-1710 so seamlessly for a DB605 in a Bf109…

…then why does the Merlin-engined Buchon look such an abortion?

I suspect Hispano were more concerned with practical aspects of the Merlin conversion over making the Buchon look exactly like a late model 109 😉 Plus, IIRC the Allison is a physically smaller engine than the Merlin.