Messerschmitt Bf 109 G2 "Black 6"

[longer ron]

Like I said above - nobody ever called any of those aircraft 'BF',it would be misleading to suggest otherwise.The 'BF' saga started in the 70's (?) - prior to that most people were happy to call these a/c 'Me' including their pilots and Groundcrew

[megan]

Further examination finds that though the German pilot notes make no mention of Messerschmitt or Me the maintenance manuals do use the designation Me 109. The question now is, why were they not consistent in their designation?

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attach...-1-pdf.517790/

Rest of the manual for those interested.

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attach...-2-pdf.517811/
https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attach...-3-pdf.517812/
https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attach...-4-pdf.517813/

[Jhieminga]

Interesting document megan. Front page states Me 109, on page 10 the first paragraph mentions the 'BF 109 E'. I think this is a subject that we can argue about until the end of times and not come to a consensus. They switched designations at some point, probably related to restructuring the company as Messerschmidt A.G. in 1937. There was also the custom of linking the designation to the chief designer (see Ta 152 for an example) so perhaps this led to people calling it a Me 109 while the company tried to stick to Bf 109, before giving in and changing the name of the company to Messerschmidt. And then there is the already mentioned 'fog of war' that will have influenced a consistent strategy in designations.

I have seen similar discrepancies and variations for other, post WW II types as well. Getting everyone in a large company to call a product by the same name or designation can be difficult. Try starting a discussion on designations for Fokker built types

[longer ron]

Originally Posted by megan

The question now is, why were they not consistent in their designation?

Perhaps they had more important things to worry about Megan

[longer ron]

Originally Posted by Jhieminga

so perhaps this led to people calling it a Me 109 while the company tried to stick to Bf 109, before giving in and changing the name of the company to Messerschmidt. And then there is the already mentioned 'fog of war' that will have influenced a consistent strategy in designations.

I doubt the Company was worried about the prefix LOL,as I previously posted - nobody ever called it a 'BF'109 and why would Willy bother about people calling the a/c after his Surname ?? The Company became Messerschmitt in 1938 so I would say fair enough to prefix as Me after 1938,I can never understand why all this matters so much and has taken up so much bandwidth over the years,who cares ? the Germans didn't

[megan]

I can never understand why all this matters so much

You can question why anybody has an interest in anything, folks have interests in all manner of things.

[megan]

A source that puts matters to rest.

Kurfurst - Your resource on Messerschmitt Bf 109 performance