25 Facts About Willy Messerschmitt

Willy Messerschmitt rebuilt his company and produced a number of successful military aircraft for the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Willy Messerschmitt was accused of using forced labor for aircraft production and convicted of collaborating with the Nazi regime in 1948.

Willy Messerschmitt worked in Spain until returning to Germany in 1955, serving as director of Willy Messerschmitt AG until his retirement in 1970.

Willy Messerschmitt designed the Willy Messerschmitt Bf 109 in collaboration with Walter Rethel, which became the most important fighter aircraft in the Luftwaffe and remains the second most-produced warplane in history, with some 34,000 built.

Wilhelm Emil Willy Messerschmitt was born on 26 June 1898 in Frankfurt am Main, the son of Ferdinand Willy Messerschmitt and his second wife, Anna Maria Schaller.

Willy Messerschmitt was raised in Bamberg where his parents ran a large wine shop and wine bar.

Willy Messerschmitt had an interest in aviation from a young age, building his own model airplanes and his own gliders which he would test with his friends.

Harth joined the Imperial German Army after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and while he was away at war, Willy Messerschmitt continued work on one of Harth's designs, the S5 glider, until himself signing up for military service in 1917.

In 1923, Willy Messerschmitt graduated from university, but he and Harth had a falling out and went their separate ways.

Willy Messerschmitt founded his own aircraft company at Augsburg which at first built sailplanes, but within two years had progressed via motor gliders to small powered aircraft - sports and touring types.

In 1925, Willy Messerschmitt befriended Theodor Croneiss, a World War I fighter ace and the older brother of his test pilot Carl Croneiss.

Willy Messerschmitt was negotiating with a potential financier to equip his M17 with an engine, going as far as preparing to waive his patent rights to secure funding.

Willy Messerschmitt, collaborating with Robert Lusser, designed the flagship product of the relaunched company.

Willy Messerschmitt was able to form ties with leading Nazis Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goring which saved him from sharing the fate of Milch's other great enemy, Hugo Junkers.

On 11 July 1938, Willy Messerschmitt was appointed chairman and managing director of BFW, and the company was renamed after him to Willy Messerschmitt AG.

Willy Messerschmitt was later tasked with streamlining production of the Bf 109 into a final model before the introduction of the Me 262, but was uninterested and passed the work on to his colleague Ludwig Bolkow.

Willy Messerschmitt was accused of relocating some production to the Flossenburg, Dachau, and Gusen concentration camps, where the forced labour was sourced from, though the true extent of his involvement is unclear.

In 1948, Willy Messerschmitt was convicted of collaborating with the Nazi regime and was released after two years in prison, resuming his position as head of his company.

Willy Messerschmitt designed the later Helwan HA-300, a light supersonic interceptor, for the Egyptian Air Force.

Willy Messerschmitt saw his company through several mergers, first with Bolkow in 1968 and then Hamburger Flugzeugbau in 1969, at which point it became Willy Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm with him as chairman until 1970 when he retired.

Willy Messerschmitt died on 15 September 1978 in a Munich hospital in undisclosed circumstances.

Willy Messerschmitt's designs were characterized by a clear focus on performance, especially by striving for lightweight construction, but by minimizing parasitic drag from aerodynamic surfaces.

Willy Messerschmitt's critics accused him of taking this approach too far in some designs.

Willy Messerschmitt's falling out with Harth had been over designs Harth felt to be dangerously unstable, and the Me 210 displayed instability, too, which could be cured only by enlarging the airframe and the aerodynamic surfaces, increasing drag and weight.

Willy Messerschmitt was appointed Honorary Professor by the Munich Technical College in 1930, and the Vice-President of the Deutsche Akademie fur Luftfahrtforschung.