Messerschmidt Me109 G4 visiting the Soellingen airbase

I'm a member of the German-Canadian Airforce Museum, which sees itself as a tribute to the Canadian Airforce which operated on the airbase until the middle of the nineties. The museum is a small one, but with very active members and strong ties into the warbird community. This produces events like in June 2005 when we got visited by the "Red 7", a Me109 G4, which I'll never forget because you usually don't get so close to a real, alive Me109 with its Daimler Benz 605A motor running and all the action around.
I love the sound of those big old piston engines, no matter who built them, and the way they are constructed and built seems like a work of art to me!

I also have three videos (sorry for the quality) and a few images of the event (be sure to turn up your speakers / headset ). The guy in the blue overall on the last picture was the pilot. He's a god. And he knows it...

Youtube:

Me109 rolling to the shelter:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW6toNP83lg[/media]

aerobatics (just for the sound)
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDVYgRCR7Ag[/media]

Me109 starting the motor
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Mc7FbL48A[/media]


Enjoy,
Mark

Red 7 is one of my favorite warbirds today!!!!!! I wish her a speedy recovery to return to the air in 2009.

vtdeucedriver said:

Red 7 is one of my favorite warbirds today!!!!!! I wish her a speedy recovery to return to the air in 2009.

Click to expand...

What happened, to need a recovery?

Landing mishap at ILA 2008 :

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufLPE3aCFU4[/media]

The aircraft had two bad landing mishaps, see

http://www.me-air-company.de/
and
http://www.me-air-company.de/bildergalerie.html

After that the small and highly active me-air-company got into financial trouble because there were not enough funds to restore it to flying condition. The aircraft was then turned over - for the sake of keeping it flying - to the Messerschmidt foundation. As far as I know all flyable 109s in Germany are now owned by the Messerschmidt foundation / EADS Manching, Bavaria.


Mark

They are not a easy plane to land or take off in with that type of landing gear.. Well .. on my IL2 Sturmovik Flight simulator game anyway! This is cool..
I was able to see a earlier version ME109 fly here in Michigan two years ago.. Nothing else sounds like them..

Roger has it right, The vid clip is not red 7, that was another ME-109.

my fav vid of red 7
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgYkfq9OVw&feature=related[/media]

This is the one that had the recent gear failure.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nj77mJlzrc&feature=related[/media]

One mishap occured on its home-airfiled Albstadt-Degerfeld, the other in Manching/Bavaria.

Nice clips, vtdeucedriver, thanks for sharing.

ME109 gear failures were a major problem for the Germans in WWII. They lost many pilots to that design defect.

I used to be a volunteer at the Geneseo Warbird Museum in Geneseo, NY. They had an unrestored Spanish Air Force ME109 (Either owned by Dave Talleshea (Ssp?) or the local orthodontist (Bill) who owned the P40 - I forget which). It was built during WWII. The Mercedes engine was in great demand and Germany had none to spare. Guess what engines were used the the ME 109 chasis? The Merlin (U.K.)!!! So, in WWII, the combantants manufacturing abilty was combined to build Franco's fighters.

Not one but TWO!!!!!!!


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-16ZVyHVZU[/media]

The Spanish Built ME-109 with the RR merlin engine. The spanish also built the HE-111 bomber using the same engines.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ga4aM0TYU[/media]

Two? Maybe my memory is failing. You're not confusing the other plane with Bill's Spitfire (off the old pub) right? (I started on it just after the "helpers" drilled out the rivets a little too big - major $$$$ ouch!!!).

I wonder what happened to the two P39 chassis that Dave T. brought back from New Guinea? The one chassis paint looked like new - said to be a 'lemon" so it was relegated to being a hanger queen by the military.

cool vids... thanks for posting!

Great post guys, gawd I love that plane. Thanks to all for sharing