In Service:
First Flight:
Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Number built:
Type: Heavy fighter, long range reconnaissance project
Crew: man
Length: 9.72 m
Wingspan: 15.75 m
Wing area: m²
Height: 3.43 m
Empty: 5,247 kg
Loaded: 6,534 kg
Engine: 2 ×
Daimler-Benz
DB 603G 12 cylinder liquid cooled supercharged inverted
Vee piston engine producing up to1,900 hp each
Maximum speed: 760 km/h
Range:
Service ceiling:
Armament:
2 ×
30 mm MK
103 cannons
2 ×
30 mm MK
108 cannons
Bomb load up to 500 kg
Electronics:
Operators: Luftwaffe
Variants:
Other: Projects
Articles:
The Messerschmitt Me 609 was a short-lived Second World War
Luftwaffe project which brought together two fuselages of
the
Messerschmitt
Me 309 fighter prototype together to form a heavy fighter.
The project was started in response to a 1941 Reich Air Ministry
requirement for a new Zerstörer (heavy fighter) to replace
the
Messerschmitt Bf
110 in a minimum time and with minimum new parts. Messerschmitt's
response was the Messerschmitt Me 609, which would use the
failed Me 309 project to form the groundwork of the new fighter.
The company had actually thought over several twin-boom versions
of its
Messerschmitt
Bf 109 line including the
Messerschmitt
Bf 109Z which joined two
Messerschmitt
Bf 109's and the
Messerschmitt
Me 409 which used two
Messerschmitt
Me 209 II aircraft.
The Messerschmitt Me 609 would have joined the two
Messerschmitt
Me 309 fuselages with a new centre wing section into which
the two inboard wheels of the landing gear would retract.
The Messerschmitt Me 609 kept the
Messerschmitt
Me 309's tricycle undercarriage which resulted in an awkward
six wheel arrangement. The Messerschmitt Me 609 would have
had its cockpit in the port fuselage, the starboard being
smoothed over.
The finished project would have been used as both a heavy
fighter and Schnellbomber, but by the time designs were being
ironed out, the revolutionary
Messerschmitt
Me 262 turbojet nullified the need for further piston
engined fighter design.
The Warplanes of the Third Reich.
ISBN-10: 0385057822
German Aircraft of the Second World War.
ISBN-10: 0370000242
Hitler's Luftwaffe.
ISBN-10: 051718771X
For a complete list of
sources
