Wilhelm Messerschmitt

June 26, 1898 (age 80)

Frankfurt Am Main, Bayern, Germany

A leading aeroplane constructor as well as designer, he founded the Messerschmitt aircraft manufacturing plant in Augsburg in 1923 and three years later produced his first all-metal plane. In 1930 Messerschmitt was appointed Honorary Professor of Aircraft Construction at the Technical College in Munich. During the Third Reich he emerged as one of the foremost figures in the German aircraft industry. At his Messerschmitt Works in Augsburg he produced a series of outstanding fighter planes remarkable for their speed, including the Me-209 and the famous single-seater Me-109 which was first publicly displayed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and was subsequently tested and proven during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II the Me-109 was a highly successful fighter plane utilized extensively in the Polish campaign, in the Low Countries and Scandinavia, not meeting a real challenge until the Battle of Britain. In 1943 Messerschmitt also designed and built the first jet-propelled Me-262 aeroplane. His international reputation and contribution to strengthening the Luftwaffe was rewarded in Nazi Germany by his appointment as Vice-President of the German Academy of Aeronautical Research and Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer. He was also awarded the title of ‘Pioneer of Labour’. I nterned at the end of the war, Messerschmitt was classified as a ‘fellow-traveller’ by a de-Nazification court in 1948. Subsequently he was employed in the construction of cabins and prefabri¬cated houses but a decade later was once again a designer of jet aeroplanes for NATO and the West German air force. From 1969 Messerschmitt was a partner in one of West Germany’s largest private concerns, the aircraft company Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB). He died at the age of eighty in a Munich hospital.

Wilhelm Messerschmitt Edit Profile

aircraft designers

Background

Wilhelm Messerschmitt was born on 26 June 1898 in Frankfurt am Main, the son of a wine wholesaler.

Career

A leading aeroplane constructor as well as designer, he founded the Messerschmitt aircraft manufacturing plant in Augsburg in 1923 and three years later produced his first all-metal plane. In 1930 Messerschmitt was appointed Honorary Professor of Aircraft Construction at the Technical College in Munich. During the Third Reich he emerged as one of the foremost figures in the German aircraft industry.

At his Messerschmitt Works in Augsburg he produced a series of outstanding fighter planes remarkable for their speed, including the Me-209 and the famous single-seater Me-109 which was first publicly displayed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and was subsequently tested and proven during the Spanish Civil War. During World War II the Me-109 was a highly successful fighter plane utilized extensively in the Polish campaign, in the Low Countries and Scandinavia, not meeting a real challenge until the Battle of Britain.

In 1943 Messerschmitt also designed and built the first jet-propelled Me-262 aeroplane. His international reputation and contribution to strengthening the Luftwaffe was rewarded in Nazi Germany by his appointment as Vice-President of the German Academy of Aeronautical Research and Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer. He was also awarded the title of ‘Pioneer of Labour’. I nterned at the end of the war, Messerschmitt was classified as a ‘fellow-traveller’ by a de-Nazification court in 1948. Subsequently he was employed in the construction of cabins and prefabri¬cated houses but a decade later was once again a designer of jet aeroplanes for NATO and the West German air force. From 1969 Messerschmitt was a partner in one of West Germany’s largest private concerns, the aircraft company Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB).

He died at the age of eighty in a Munich hospital.

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