WIKI

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft, designed by a team led by Wilhelm Willy Emil Messerschmitt in the early 1930s, when he was chief designer of the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (hence the prefix Bf). ). It was one of the first truly modern fighters of the time, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, enclosed cockpit, and retractable landing gear. Having undergone its baptism of fire in the Spanish Civil War, the Bf 109 remained in service until the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II, during which time it was the backbone of the Spanish Civil War force. German Luftwaffe fighters.[2] With an inverted-V 12-cylinder engine, the phenomenal Daimler-Benz DB601, the Bf 109 was supplemented, but never completely replaced in service, by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, from late 1941.