DB Spitfire
Funny this thread re-surfaced because right at this moment I am reading “Willy Messerschmitt” by Frank Vann.
In the Chapter titled “Problems with the Bf 109” There is made mention about the DB Spitfire (using a DB601N). What is intersting is the mention of re-engining a Bf 109 with a RR Merlin.
Quoted from a Messerschmitt memo
“The Daimler-Benz company is making the following exchange: they are installing the DB601 engine ina Spitfire and the Rolls-Royce Merlin in an Me 109. I have no objection to this trial.
Daimler-Benz are carrying out the exchange to demonstrate that the Spitfire is better with their engine and that the Me 109 with the Merlin is worse.”
However the book then goes on to say that no correspondence survives on this so there is no evidence that the RR/Bf 109 exchange took place.
One has to wonder wether it did and as Willy Messerschmitt worked with Hispano in Spain after the work that he did in fact design the HA-1112.
The book also makes mention of installing Spitfire radiators on Bf 109 as it was felt that it may be more efficent than the one currently on the aircraft.
I will say just on the book that it is a good read and does not gloss over Messerschmitts personality, particularily his affiliation to the Nazi Party and that he was not adverse to a few underhanded tricks to get his way. Incidently the author conjectures that the Bf 110 that Rudolph Hess flew to the UK was infact a either a gift from Messerschmitt or privately owned by Him, bought directly from the company and not a current Luftwaffe aircraft.
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