Hi all, Im after help really. On the BOB site recently the conversation got onto where the seams were on the rear fuz’s I always thought that the 109 E’s had the join on the upper surface only and on the later ‘G’s’ it was on the upper and lower surfaces. As for the K’s, i thought they were the same as the G’s.
Come on someone with far more knowledge than me (Thats all of ya!) Help me out. Ive used in the past other builders models as reference. Bad Move. Ive also used the Osprey series of ‘Building the 109 E and Building the 109 G’ They seem as sketchy as everyone else, as they are quite prepared to put pictures in thier puplications of some planes with top seam and others without, in the same Mark. Very strange. Come on lads…Helllpppppp
I know you mean a panel line 'cuz it looks weird when you refer to it as a seam. This came up a long long time ago. I “seam” to recall that somebody posted some tech info the showed there was in fact a panel line down the belly and spine of the rear part of the fuselage. The sections of the fuselage that appear to be bands are 2 halves.
If oyu do depict it, don’t use the kit seam. fill it and rescribe.
I am poised to be corrected too so have at guys [;)]
Thx Wingnut, I know its an old topic of interest but its one that ive never gotten to the bottom of. I have a line diagram here that shows the ‘E’ model with no Panel line on the underside!! Im sure Phoenix (Stan) will give us the benefit of his vast knowledge soon…Hopefully LOL.
Right, thx Luftwaffle. Thats the definative on the underside of an E. Definately a seam (Panel join)…Right now the top and then the G’s onwards top and bottom LOL. I dont ask for much [:-^]
In a detailed account on Messerschmitt 109 construction, I read years ago, the segments of the fuselage were joined together and built up to make a left and right half. (for all variants).
The '109 was designed with a keen sense of mass production in mind. Special metal work and joining technologies were invented for it. One example is the rear fuselage. The jigs and tooling for it remained remarkably consistant throughout the war.
…I wish I owned that book that had that info in it. (borrowed)
what the others said. All 109’s have panel seam running the length on the rear fuselage top and bottom. Here a good pic of a 109G upper fuselage spine.
Seems to me or should I say seams to me that we spoke of this in the BOB GB earlier than the last time. Like 30 pages back or so. Can we say the definitive answer is yes the seams are their in all versions? Was this same tech used in other German fighter fuselages? If so then according to my master computer the answer to this greatest question is … 42
To the best of my knowledge (and some of my older references), Messerschmidt was the only German manufacturer to use this particular method of construction on production aircraft. The 109, 110 and the 210/410 were all constructed in this manner. One of my references has a pic of a of the two sides of a 109 fuselage being prepped for joining. Apparently each side was constructed out of stamped sheetmetal (the vertical lines) w/horizontal longerons added for strength, then as much equipment as possible was installed in each side and finally the two sides were riveted together. I’ll see if I can dig the book out and scan the pic.
The photo of the Emil clearly shows a seam on the last ring section of the fuselage. The fuselage construction aft of the cockpit went virtually unchanged in terms of construction for the entire production of the 109.
Unfortunately I’m out of town and don’t have access to my reference sources, I’m pretty sure I have some original factory line drawings that illustrate how the fuselage was put together.
So are we all saying that there was definately a seam, pamel join, whatever your calling it on both the top and bottom of all 109’s? I hope so, because that would make life so much easier.
The construction of Messerschmitt 109s was deliberately and methodically planned for maximum use of “semi-skilled” labor. The rear fuselage incoporated a newly invented joining method known as a “Z” bend. Segments of the fuselage were shaped to form a bilateral “half”. These segments had special angled bends put on their edges. The segments were locked together by the bends. The bends were mashed to make the join permanent. Longerons and formers were added for extra strength. Once a fuslage half was completed airplane parts were added in and the two halves were joined together.
A Supermarine Spitfire took very close to ten times the man hours to produce than one Messerschmitt 109.
Trexx is right. One of the reasons it was chosen was ease of manufacture. This was one of the criteria the RLM looked for at the time. Another was it had to be able to easily be transported by rail. This is where the narrow landing gear came in. Also with the gear attached to the fueslage meant it could be rolled around by one or two guys without it’s wings. The wings were stored in one piece and could be attached in the field.
