[WWII] Messerschmitt Bf 108

[Phaelen Bleux]

Messerschmitt Bf 108
Designed in 1934 for the Challenge de Tourisme Internationale, the Bf 108 was a four-seat sport and recreation aircraft with good handling and low fuel consumption. It quickly became popular with many civilian pilots, and generally became known as the Taifun ("typhoon") after the nickname used by Elly Beinhorn for her own plane.

It was adopted by the Luftwaffe as a personnel transport and liaison aircraft. Internationally, the aircraft was used by Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia (as the K-70), Japan, Poland (captured aircraft), Switzerland, Soviet Union (captured aircraft), the UK (impounded aircraft) and Yugoslavia. The British aircraft were designated the "Aldon." The British used them as a light communications aircraft, and despite featuring rondels they were often mistaken as attacking Bf 109s. Interestingly, this charade was continued intentionally in the post war years--Bf 108s were substituted for enemy Bf 109s in numerous movies, including The Longest Day, 633 Squadron and Von Ryan's Express.

The Bf 108 uses 8.7 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel costs $12.

Subassemblies: Medium Fighter chassis with Good Streamlining +3; Recon Fighter wings with STOL option +2; 3 retractable Wheels +0.
Powertrain: 174-kW aerial HP gasoline engine with 174-kW prop and 60-gallon fuel tank [Body] (Fire 14), 4,000-kWs batteries.
Occ.: 1 CS, 3 PS Body
Cargo: 0 Body

Armor
All: 2/3

Equipment:
Body: Medium radio transmitter and receiver, autopilot, navigation instruments.

Statistics:
Size: 27'x34'x8' Payload: 0.60 tons Lwt.: 1.49 tons
Volume: 184 Maint.: 87 hours Cost: $5,347
HT: 9. HPs: 60 Body, 35 each Wing, 12 each Wheel.
aSpeed: 190 aAccel: 4 aDecel: 17 aMR: 4 aSR: 2
Stall Speed: 46 mph. Take Off Run: 267 yards. Landing Run: 212 yards.
gSpeed: 173 gAccel: 9 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.5 gSR: 2
Ground Pressure: High. 1/6 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:
Historical wing area was 172 sf. Chassis weight, cost and HPs were divided by 2. Design loaded weight was then increased 1% to the historical. Design aSpeed was 188 mph. Historical values were used for all calculations when available. A 60-gallon fuel tank was purchased for the design; this is an estimate based on historical payload.

Variants:
The M.37 (Bf 108A) (1934) featured a 118-kW engine. 7 built.
The Bf 108C was to feature a 294-kW engine. None built.
The Noord 1000 Pingouin was a version license-built in France during and after the war. It is essentially the same as the Bf 108. The Noord 1001 had very minor changes, and the Noord 1002 used a Renault engine.

[adm]

A good one to add in Cliffhangers games, and somewhat obscure to most people today.

[Dewey]

Interesting design, I really need to try out the MVDS one of these days. I will admit, when I first saw this thread, I misread it as the BF 109, and I wondered why you had put it up here when it was already statted up...

[copeab]

Did it 5 years ago ;)

http://copeab.tripod.com/Vehicles/ME108.htm

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Dewey

Interesting design, I really need to try out the MVDS one of these days. I will admit, when I first saw this thread, I misread it as the BF 109, and I wondered why you had put it up here when it was already statted up...

Otherwise known as the Bs 109 ;}

Originally Posted by copeab

Did it 5 years ago ;)

http://copeab.tripod.com/Vehicles/ME108.htm

Zut! How did I miss that? Ah well, call mine the Noord 1002, then. . .that was the calendar page that inspired me.
Both designs match up pretty well except the aAccel (?)

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

Both designs match up pretty well except the aAccel (?)

Yeah, bad on me. On some older designs, for reasons lost in the mists of time, I used the formula for determining ground acceleration for aircraft acceleration ...