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World War II: Germany
Aircraft of Germany in WWII.
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Difference between Me 109 and a Bf 109
BuffaloModeler
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Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 07:57 AM UTC
This is probably a stupid question, but what is the difference between a Me 109 and Bf 109? Factory? Manufacturer? Germany changed the designation codes? This is keeping me awake at night.

Thanks for your help
Emeritus
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Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 08:13 AM UTC
No difference. None. Nada.

The aircraft was designated Bf 109 by the German aviation ministry as it was designed by the company Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. The company was later renamed Messerschmitt AG and aircraft design after that were given the "Me" designation.
The "Bf" designation was the official one for the 109 all the way to the final K-4 variant, but both that and "Me" were apparently quite widely used even on official documents.
Wikipedia's 109 article has a small section on the naming issue: see here.

Sleep tight.
alpha_tango
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Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 08:28 AM UTC
Like Eetu wrote, except that Messerschmitt always tried to use the Me designation, while RLM insisted (at least on some documents) that Bf had to be used. There was a document published in Jet & Prop where explicitely was stated that all documents comming from Messerschmitt containing the Me 109 designation had to be declined.

But as always there are exception to the rules.

Note that the first letter has to be capital while the 2nd must be small (only exception AFAIK BV). No dash after that one! but I guess you know as you used it correct

all the best

Steffen

pigsty
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Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 10:14 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Like Eetu wrote, except that Messerschmitt always tried to use the Me designation, while RLM insisted (at least on some documents) that Bf had to be used. There was a document published in Jet & Prop where explicitely was stated that all documents comming from Messerschmitt containing the Me 109 designation had to be declined.

But as always there are exception to the rules.

Note that the first letter has to be capital while the 2nd must be small (only exception AFAIK BV). No dash after that one! but I guess you know as you used it correct

all the best

Steffen



If memory serves, the first true Me was the Me 210, and it was partly because Willi Messerschmitt was so highly regarded that he was allowed to use his own name in the designation. Then, of course, the Me 210 was a disaster, and he was given the push, but the name stuck.

BV has no lower-case because it's Blohm und Voss. Earlier aircraft from the same stable were Ha (for Hamburger Flugzeugbau). Had the RLM been following its own rules, they would have had to be Hf. But if there's one thing the RLM wouldn't do, it was sticking to the rules.
alpha_tango
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Posted: Thursday, January 07, 2010 - 10:44 PM UTC
Hi Sean

I know ... I just mentioned BV because I see Focke-Wulf very often abbreviated FW which is wrong. BTW I think Ha is because the letter H is spoken "Ha" in German. Also there was Siebel in Halle which had to use Fh (Flugzeugwerke Halle, later changed to Si) so to avoid the mixup between Fh Hf it just was Ha...

cheers

Steffen
stonar
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Posted: Friday, January 08, 2010 - 06:34 AM UTC
All true.
Every single original ALLIED war time reference (encounter reports,crashed enemy aircraft reports ,POW interogations,assesments of captured aircraft etc) I've read refers to the Bf109 as an Me109.They also employ an array of dashes and slashes for various sub types. I'm sure there were exceptions but I don't remember one. All those RAF and USAAF intelligence officers officially got it wrong Lol.
Steve
BuffaloModeler
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Posted: Friday, January 08, 2010 - 10:36 AM UTC
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to explain this to me. Now I CAN sleep tonight, however, with a headache....confusing to keep track of!

Keep on platicizing!
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