Wingspan 9.92 m Retired 1965 First flight 1951 | Length 8.49 m Engine type V12 engine | |
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Manufacturers Messerschmitt, Hispano Aviación | ||
Messerschmitt bf109g hispano aviaci n ha 1112 technikmuseum sinsheim
The Hispano Aviación HA-1109 and HA-1112 are license-built versions of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 developed in Spain during and after World War II.
Contents
- Messerschmitt bf109g hispano aviaci n ha 1112 technikmuseum sinsheim
- Messerschmitt bf 109g hispano aviaci n ha 1112 25th pardubice airshow 2015
- Design and development
- HA 1112 M1L
- Variants
- Aircraft on display
- Specifications HA 1112 K1L
- References
Messerschmitt bf 109g hispano aviaci n ha 1112 25th pardubice airshow 2015
Design and development
The Spanish government in 1942 arranged a manufacturing licence with Messerschmitt AG to build the Bf 109G-2, with DB605A engines, propellers, instruments, and weapons to be supplied from Germany. This proved impossible, as Germany was incapable of meeting her own needs, let alone Spain's; in the event, only twenty-five airframes (minus their tails) and not even half the necessary drawings were delivered.
As a result, Hispano substituted the 1,300 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Z-89 engine, which flew at Barcelona in 1944, while the first HA-1109-J1L made its maiden flight 2 March 1945 at Seville, using a VDM prop and lash-up engine mounting. The other twenty-four airframes were flown during 1947-9 with Escher-Wyss props, but never became operational.
A developed version, with an improved installation for the Hispano-Suiza 12Z-17 engine, appeared in May 1951 as the HA-1112-K1L. Fitted with a three bladed de Havilland Hydromatic propeller, it was nicknamed Tripala ("three blades"). Its armament consisted of one or two 12.7mm Breda machineguns and Pilatus eight-packs of 80mm rockets.
It first flew in 1951, and although 200 units were planned, only 65 were ever built. The Hispano engine was an upright V12 in contrast to the inverted V12 Daimler-Benz DB 601 & 605 engines used in the Bf 109. Being of compact design, it fitted the airframe of the Bf 109 well, representing it in the German 1957 film Der Stern von Afrika (The Star of Africa) about Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille. In the original design, an asymmetric vertical fin with an airfoiled profile had been introduced starting with the Bf 109F to produce a slight left movement of the tail, which counteracted the left-side torque reaction from the Daimler-Benz engine's counterclockwise rotation. Since this was left unchanged in the Buchón, and the Hispano V12 powered a clockwise-turning propeller instead, the combination of the airfoiled fin and the clockwise-turning propeller created a hard-to-counteract right swing on takeoff, since the fin and the propeller essentially worked in the same direction.
A second version, the HA-1110-K1L, was a two-place tandem trainer model.
HA-1112-M1L
The final variant was the HA-1112-M1L Buchón (Pouter), which is a male dove in Spanish. It first flew 29 March 1954. The 1112-M1L was equipped with the 1,600 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-45 engine and Rotol propeller, both purchased as surplus from the UK. This engine had a chin intake, that altered the lines of the Bf 109's airframe visually. As such, this plane was an improvised assembly of outdated components for the specific purpose of controlling Spanish colonial territories in Africa where a higher level of technology was unnecessary, and moreover not available in isolated Spain at the time. Its armament consisted of two 20 mm Hispano-Suiza 404/408 cannons and two Oerlikon or Pilatus eight-packs of 80 mm rockets. It remained in service until 27 December 1965.
HA-1112-M1Ls remained in flying condition until the mid-1960s. This made them available for theatrical use, masquerading as Bf 109Es and Gs in movies like Battle of Britain, Der Stern von Afrika, Memphis Belle, and The Tuskegee Airmen. Remarkably, Buchons also played the Bf 109's opposition, the Hawker Hurricane, in one scene in Battle of Britain.
The HA-1112 have also flown in the film Battle of Britain alongside the CASA 2.111 bombers. which were a Spanish-built version of the Heinkel He 111 German bomber. They had the same engines, the Rolls Royce Merlin 500.
Variants
Aircraft on display
Specifications (HA-1112-K1L)
General characteristics
Performance
Armament