Tuesday 12 June 2018

Messerschmitt Bf.109G, German users, part five

During the year 1943, many improvements were gradually introduced. That way, attempting to improve the pilot's field of view an armoured glass head-rest canopy, known as the Galland Panzer, was introduced. It began replacing the standard canopy in the spring 1943. At the end of that same year, the clear-view, three-panel Erla Haube canopy appeared. It was named after Erla Maschinenwerk, which was a sub-contractor which manufactured many examples and upgraded many of the older variants. That canopy is oftenly misnamed as the "Galland Hood" and eventually replaced the older canopy type. Its structure was completely redesigned to incorporate a greater area of clear perspex and the welded framing for the three-panle Erla Haube design was reduced to a minimum as there wasn't no longer a fixed rear portion, with the entire structure aft of the windscreen being hinged to swing to starboard when opened.
The Bf.109G-10, AS-engined G-5s, G-6s and G-14s, as well as the most advanced K-4 variants had their engine cowlings improved. The Beule blisters, which formerly had covered the spent shell casings of the propeller's hub firing MG-131, were completely integrated into the upper cowling panels, vastly improving the streamlining of the fuselage and allowing them to be lengthened and enlarged to cover both the weapons and the engine bearers.
Initially, prototypes were symmetrical, but as larger superchargers were fitted, the engines required modified upper engine bearers to clear the supercharger housing, so, as a result, the final shape of the new cowling was asymmetrical as it was enlarged on the port side where the supercharger was mounted on the DB engine. There were also special streamlined panels fitted to the forward fuselage. Those panels, also known as "agglomerations", took many patterns. As they were more aerodynamically more efficient in a side-view of DB 605AS and D powered Bf.109Gs and Ks, the aglomerations were barely discernible when compared with the conspicuous fairings they replaced.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_variants#Bf_109G
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of fighters

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