GERMAN AIR FIGHTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1940, Page 6

GERMAN AIR FIGHTERS

SAID TO BE TOO SLOW. An optimistic report on the deficiencies of German fighter aircraft is given by the air correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph." London. He says: Test pilots have flown a captured Messerschmitt fighter, and their reports show that the aeroplane is actually slower than many of Britain's bombing aeroplanes. Yet the Messerschmitt —a squat little single-seat monoplane with square-cut wing tips—was one of Herr Hitler's most vaunted weapons. I was told last week that captured German pilots referred to their aeroplanes as “flying bricks.” and complained that they were difficult to manoeuvre in combat. A German fighter pilot landed his machine in France on one of the Allied aerodromes, under the impression that he was in Germany. In tests with the machine at certain speeds the short metal wings flap and the machine is almost impossible to turn quickly—an essential in air fighting. The maximum safe speed for the machine is reported to be lower than 300 miles an hour, and at that speed the whole aircraft is virbating dangerously and rattling. Britain's warplanes are fitted with engines designed to use the most efficient fuel possible. The engine of the Messerschmitt, however, is designed to work on petrol little more potent than that used in a high-efficiency sports ear.

According to German propaganda before the war. the Messerschmitt was going to keep the ail' over Germany clear of invaders. British and French craft have now flown millions of miles over enemy territory on reconnaissance flights with ridiculously small losses.

The reports on the captured lighter seem to give the explanation.