This is a repaint for the payware FlyingIron Simulations Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 'Gustav'. This repaint depicts the restored Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 'Black 1', registered as N109GY, owned and operated by Jerry Yagen's Military Aviation Museum located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is painted in the markings of a Bf 109G-4 flown by Knight's Cross-recipient Gruppenkommandeur Hptm. Klaus Quaet-Faslem of I./JG3 "Udet". This repaint features two versions - one, as the aircraft looks now based at and registered in the US (with historical tail markings and American registration), and a second depiction, as the aircraft looked during the initial test flying in Germany in 2015 (with German flag and registration on tail).
History:
The background of this aircraft can tell the tale of three different airframes - Messerschmitt Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 'Black 8' and Spanish AF Hispano HA-1112 Buchón C.4K-64 forming the basis of the rebuilt aircraft, with Klaus Quaet-Faslem's Bf 109G-4 'Black 1' being the paint scheme represented.
Messerschmitt Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257, painted as 'Black 8', was the personal mount of Knight's Cross-recipient Oberfeldwebel Viktor Petermann of III./JG52, based on the Eastern Front in mid-1943. On June 6, 1943, after engaging with and shooting down three Soviet fighters, Petermann himself was forced down after his oil cooler was damaged by rounds fired from a Yak-1. Despite being wounded, Petermann was able to make a successful wheels-up forced landing on the Kuban river delta, near Slavyansk-on-Kuban, and fled westward, finally reaching the German lines after four days. He would later be involved in another forced landing in October 1943, after falling victim to friendly fire from a German anti-aircraft gun, resulting in severe injuries and an amputated arm, but would once again return to service and continue to achieve more victories. Petermann ended the war flying Me 262s with JG7, and is credited with a total of 64 aircraft shot down, having served nearly three years on the Eastern Front. Petermann's Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 'Black 8' was eventually recovered (year unknown) and was one of several Russian-recovered Bf 109 wrecks acquired by Jerry Yagen of Virginia in the early 2000s.
Hispano HA-1112 Buchón C.4K-64 (c/n 133) flew with the Spanish Air Force's 71st Squadron as fuselage number 71-0, and with 72nd Squadron as fuselage number 7-44, until being retired in 1966. In 1967 it was acquired by the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, and initially displayed in Spanish AF markings. In the 1980s it was moved to Robins AFB in Georgia and rebuilt to represent a Bf 109G-4 variant for static display, fitted with a DB 605 engine and cowls, and painted in Luftwaffe markings representing Gerhard Barkhorn of JG52. The aircraft was completed and returned to display at Wright-Patterson by 1985. There it remained until Jerry Yagen was able to acquire the aircraft from the USAF Museum in 2003 and it was soon registered with the FAA as N109FF (although it was not airworthy).
In 2005, Yagen sent a restoration package, including the ex-USAF Museum converted Buchón and a stockpile of recovered Bf 109 parts (mainly WkNr.19257), to MeierMotors at Bremgarten Airport in Eschbach, Germany, for rebuild to fly. After a detailed assessment, the decision was made to re-use the Buchón wings, but build a new fuselage and tail based on original Messerschmitt drawings and using as many original Bf 109 parts as possible (the Buchón fuselage, which was considered to be in not great shape, was sent back to the US and placed into storage). With the challenge of finding a suitable engine, a DB 605B was sourced, which had originally been installed during World War Two on a twin-engine Bf 110 WkNr.5338 that made an emergency landing in Switerland in 1944. The engine was overhauled by Mike Nixon in California, who has done several DB 601 and 605 engines. The propeller was supplied by Skycraft, based in England, which has made all of the propeller blades in use on '109s flying today. Manufactured to the same design/profile as the original wartime German VDM blades, they only differ in being made of wood rather than metal. Although restored/rebuilt to resemble a Bf 109G-4 variant, some details were added or changed in order to aide the operation of the aircraft. For instance, an access panel, which was only originally present on the Bf 109F variant, was installed on the left-side fuselage, below the windscreen, so that the rudder pedals can easily be adjusted. A larger oil cooler and air intake were also crafted, as a precaution to avert overheating the oil in the warm Virginia climate. With enough parts from Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 being used in the tailplane and cockpit of the rebuilt fuselage, the German civil aviation authority, Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, deemed it a restoration and titled the aircraft as Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257.
As the aircraft neared completion, the decision was made to paint it in the colors of a Bf 109G-4 flown by Gruppenkommandeur Hptm. Klaus Quaet-Faslem of I./JG3 "Udet" in 1943. Credited with 49 aircraft shot down, he was killed in January 1944 in a flying accident due to bad weather over Braunschweig while intercepting 8th Air Force B-17 bombers and was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross. The original serial number of Quaet-Faslem's '109 is unknown, but the aircraft's markings consisted of Gruppenkommandeur double chevrons and identifier 'Black 1'.
Following the completion of rebuild at MeierMotors and temporarily registered in Germany as D-FOON, the Bf 109G-4 took flight at Bremgarten (EDTG) for the first time on August 11, 2015, piloted by renowned English warbird pilot, Charlie Brown (experienced in a number of Bf 109s and Buchóns). Following the completion of its test flight program, the '109 was disassembled and shipped to the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA, where it arrived in November 2015. In 2016, with the aircraft reassembled and registered with the FAA as N109GY, Rick Volker undertook the first test flights in the US, due to his previous experience having flown Ed Russell's Bf 109E when based in Canada. This was the first time a Bf 109G variant had been flown in the US since shortly after the end of World War Two when the last captured example finished its test program. After being checked out in the '109, the museum's chief pilot, Mike Spalding, has been the aircraft's regular pilot ever since.
Among the many impressive structures at the Military Aviation Museum, one is a genuine World War Two Luftwaffe hangar that once was located at Cottbus, Germany. Originally built in 1934 for use by a flight school, during World War Two the hangar was put to use by the Focke-Wulf company, which at Cottbus manufactured and test flew the Fw 200, Fw 190 and Ta 152. Although severely damaged in an 8th Air Force bombing raid in 1944, it was repaired and continued to be used throughout the Cold War. Jerry Yagen acquired the hangar in 2004 and had it disassembled and shipped to Virginia Beach where it was reassembled on the western end of the airfield. Today, it houses many of the museum's original and replica German aircraft.
Details of Repaint:
- Every effort was made to accurately recreate the paint scheme, in exacting detail, as applied on the real world restored Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 (N109GY) as it looks today.
- Colors matched to those applied on the restored aircraft, featuring an overall northern European camouflage scheme of RLM 74 (grey-green) and RLM 75 (grey-violet) over RLM 76 (light blue).
- All new stencils applied across the airframe, matching the stencils applied on the restored aircraft (stencils missing on the real aircraft are accurately missing in the repaint).
- Bf 109F access panel on left-side forward fuselage added, matching restoration.
- Access panel for machine gun pressurization tank added on rear starboard fuselage.
Further Links:
A pilot report written by Rick Volker, flying the real Bf 109G-4 WkNr.19257 (N109GY): https://rickvolker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Bf109G-article.pdf
A brilliant scenery depiction of the Military Aviation Museum, where this Bf 109 is based at and flown, can be downloaded here: https://flightsim.to/file/52438/42va-military-aviation-museum
Other repaints of aircraft owned and operated by the Military Aviation Museum:
Spitfire Mk.IX MJ730: https://flightsim.to/file/15921/spitfire-mk-ix-mj730-the-co-s-query-n730mj
Corsair N46RL: https://flightsim.to/file/55447/milviz-fg-1d-corsair-n46rl-vf-17-jolly-rogers-goodyear
Curtiss Jenny N6898C: https://flightsim.to/file/50136/curtiss-jn-4d-jenny-n6898c
Tiger Moth N6463: https://flightsim.to/file/50590/de-havilland-dh-82-tiger-moth-t-5525
PT-17 Stearman N41EE: https://flightsim.to/file/51154/dc-designs-stearman-n41ee
DH-89 Dragon Rapide N1934D: https://flightsim.to/file/53518/de-havilland-dh-89-dragon-rapide-g-addd
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