The airframe certainly seems to have used up a number of its cats nine lives.
Bf 109 G-4 “red 7” (Me Air Company/Germany)
Behind costly restoration projects, as the restoration of an Oldtimer to airworthy condition, mostly stands a big company, holding these planes as traditional planes. Not in case of this Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-4. The restoration works were financed and done totally private. This is much more astonishing, when you remember the huge costs of such an project.
Actually this plane is not a real “genuine original”, because the restoration is based on the Ha 1112 M-1L (WNr. 139), used for the movie “Battle of Britain”. It was produced in 1950 at Hispano in Spain. Nevertheless it took eight years, until it entered service with the Spanish airforce code C.4K-75. There is nothing known about its “life” at “Ejercito del Aire”, but maybe this “Buchon” was used during the Ifni-Conflict in North Africa. In 1965 the plane was withdrawn from service and parked at the airbase in Tablada, where it stood for three years, until it was purchased for the “Battle of Britain” movie and optically converted into a Bf 109 E-4. In the movie the plane carried the markings of “yellow 11” and “red 14”. Still during 1968 the plane was intended to play a role in another movie and so was reconverted into a P-51 “Mustang”. Therefore a fake belly-cooler was attached. But the plane crashed during a take-off and was severely damaged. Later, the “Buchon” went to England, before it was shipped to the USA, where it was reviewed and fixed until 1986. During the first test-flight, the plane again crashed and was again heavily damaged. Afterwards it was poorly fixed and converted into a Bf 109 near shape for static display. 1994/95 the plane was again shipped to France and later to Augsburg (Germany), where it was planned to make it airworthy again. The French owner gave up this plan, because of the costs and made the wreck up for sale.
In October 1997 the actual owners got knowledge about this plane and made the spontaneous decision to buy it. The initiator already got a functional DB 605 engine. During the further examinations, it became obvious, that the fuselage was not useable anymore and a new would have been to construct. Only the cockpit section, the spar bridge and some other small parts could be used. Of course the team needed help from specialists, to construct parts and components for the plane. Parts of the aft fuselage were produced in England and the tail fin was made by AERA in Italy, who already restored the Bf 109 G-4 “Nesthäkchen”. The wings got a new covering and the stabilizer of a bellylanded “Gustav” was attached. The engine hood was that of a G-4, although the team initially wanted to construct a G-6. The lack of the “Beulen” (bulbs) in the hood and the resulting better view, were in favour of the G-4. The cooler is not genuine too, because the bigger variant – used with G-10 – was attached, to improve flight security.
In January 2004, the DB 605 was attached to the plane and worked without any problems. During June the ground testing begun and ended with the preliminary traffic licence. The flight testing was done by Walter Eichhorn, who also flies the Bf 109 G-6 and G-10 of the Messerschmitt Foundation. He took off for the maiden flight at August 23´rd 2004.
Being done under top secret conditions, the officially presentation of this restoration project at October 8´th in Albstadt-Degerfeld was like a thunderbolt. Prideful the owners presented their Bf 109, marked as “red seven”, that took off to its presentation flight into the blue skies.
At 07/16/2005 Siggi Knoll came in to touch down after a short flight. It was flight number 105 of this Bf 109. This landing failed and the plane touched down with only one wheel, than touched the ground with the opposite wing. The undercarriage broke, the engine was torn out and came to rest some meters beside the crashed plane. The pilot was not injured. After some days of shock, the owners decided, to repair their plane and bring it back to the skies again.
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