The Only Flying Messerschmitt Bf109 | Restoration Classics | Spark

[Music] this is duxford aerodrome home to a thriving part of Britain's imperial war museum it's also the operational base of the beautifully restored Messerschmitt Bf 109 black 6 any remaining Gustave orgy variant still flying on the 12th of July 1991 black 6 arrived here Benson airfield to take its place in one of the world's foremost centres of aircraft restoration and preservation with over 130 flying and static aeroplanes on display it's Europe's largest collection of its kind ducks feds purpose as a living and working the future generations historic aircraft like black fix we preserve old aircraft because they can help us interpret to future generations history war from the 20th century my job is just to show what happened tell what happened and let people come to their own conclusions and not to send up glory that these six hangars contain black sixes stables veteran aircraft from every major conflict in the twentieth century many survived combat and then years of neglect before being bought here for restoration Chris chipping ttan museum's conservation manager coordinates this work I'm responsible for the preservation of all the exhibits which belong to the museum here on site at Duxford we have to make the distinction between restoration and conservation restoration is restoring it back to a condition that it was in previously conservation is trying to conserve it maintain it in its existing state as far as this particular aircraft is concerned it's the only currently flying German World War two aircraft in its original condition being able to improve like 6:00 as an exhibit on the museum site is only one side of the story operate each aircraft is the responsibility of their field manager attention well I think it actually works quite well Ministry of Defense are responsible having given us a signed agreement that there remain responsibilities to Europe and is to supply us with pilots Russell's team are entirely responsible for the engineering backup and support my job in the appear woman's job is first of all to get the bookings to do the administrative side of the air display work that the aircraft gets involved in not basically to market up I guess we look after the insurance and we pay the bills but then on the other side of the coin we take the money Oxford's responsibility is now to care for and to operate back six until the expert of the agreement for the mo do but how this aircraft came to be restored so authentically and supplying condition his rough snapping score I looked at this thing I thought well if anybody was going to ask which they did like the Chief of Air Staff and his official visits how long is it going to take Sneden I say casually five years have since come to regret that little statement the history of black six can't be fully understood without first gaining some realization of the development and historical background the rearmament in post-world War one Germany basically the 1994 so treaty was was the the treaty that limited German operations off the wall they permitted them to have a certain mode of civil aviation and gliding was permitted and things that but all military aircraft were destroyed or handed over to the Allies they reached an agreement I think it was in 1923 where the Soviet government and the Soviet government permitted them to have object under stein training base about 200 miles east of Moscow and that's where they for about nine years from 24 onwards they actually trained pilots observers engineers in Germany itself the main training role was with gliders there was about 50,000 people that were formed part of the gliding school by about 1929 and there was literally thousands of people who were trained to fly gliders and then can also be developed on to fly high-performance aircraft love tanks they were using and designing aircraft that could have a dual purpose the Dornier 17 and the Heinkel 111 the two leading german bombers the early part of war both were developed as high-speed male planes and possibly carrying aircraft this junk is 52 was standing beside was the reason it assigns an airliner single-engine airliner and put fitted with three motors and it was used as the bomber the only Cyberman aircraft have allowed to be designed and built in Germany also trained very many people to fly so they bite on 1935 came around the german air force was officially unveiled they were sewn out 20,000 men they were able to serve on the 10th of march 1935 interview with Goering was printed in the British press he stated it is not the creation of an offensive weapon threatening other nations but rather a military aviation strong enough to repulse attacks on Germany Germany was still prohibited for imagery air force but I think a lot of people realize that and actors going on in places such as ducks that have been redeveloped in 1929 and in the early thirties because we've begun to recognize that Germany was going to be a potential threat plenums and hurricanes like these beautifully restored examples from the Duxford based aircraft restoration company and the sea Huracan team were growing in number here in britain in germany the newly formed Luftwaffe had settled on one design as their frontline fighter the BF 109 was the brainchild of Willy Messerschmitt the German Air Ministry issued a specification for a monoplane fighter to replace their biplanes and therefore they were submitted the Arado and the focke-wulf were very quickly eliminated from the competition there has been not not like to be suitable but a Heinkel anniversary were both given a development contract for ten prototype aircraft and in fact many people in Germany I think thought the time the Heinkel was more advanced I was a potentially greater multiple aircraft I think partly because Heinkel had greater experience in building military aircraft they'll get Willy Messerschmitt had never built a military aircraft as part of this mystery 108 which was really a communications ever out so there was a bit of a long shot to go for this untried designer something proved to be correct this 33,000 listen own eyes being built the Spanish Civil War was to be the proving ground for the Luftwaffe in the late late stages of 1936 the Condor Legion was formally formed and the Germans unashamedly used the space Civil War as a development play faceful development of their aircraft and their tactics and so they they really had a big step in advance of the rest of the world - a world war broke out because they had proved most of their current frontline aircraft in service in combat in total over 30,000 109s of different marks were built the typed remained in service for 30 years it's all combat in every theater of World War Two and beyond the last 109s to retire with the Bhushan's like this one restored by the old flying machine company in German markings merlin engine Messerschmitts saw service up until the 1960s and beyond in September 1942 this Misha Smith was just one of the many to come off the production line of the oiler machine and work near Leipzig the fact that we know this and almost all of black success history from that date there's a further tribute to Russ Madden and the 109 teams attention to detail well chasing the history was a started we had no idea whether history Russ knew that this 109 had been operated by 14:26 enemy aircraft flight at collie Weston during 1944 this rare archive shows it in flight during evaluation tests but the supposed story of its capture left Russ with many doubts an official tear wasn't had been captured in Sicily in 1943 I think it was and I could find no records at all have let that being so it was unlikely that such an early 109 g2 as this would have been in Sicily at that time when the more heavily armed g6 was in service at the fall of the island thus and we found anything indicated it was probably in the desert we found lots of sand in the wings and in the real world doors and all that sort of thing so had to be the North African desert in November 1976 a photograph appeared in our international magazine submitted by group captain Keith Isaacs of the Royal Australian Air Force his letter revealed that this 109 was flown by squadron leader Bobby Gibbs at gambit cyrenaica this was the first breakthrough in the search for black sixes true history but not only that I found a chap we'd captured the aircraft who is retired now and lives in Sydney and through him and through establishing contact with him I came up with several photographs from his album and it established beyond doubt that exactly having established the point in time at which the aeroplane fell into a line then possible to start piecing together its history first in North Africa and then in England on the 13th of November 1942 flight lieutenant Ken McRae engineering officer three squadron Royal Australian Air Force discovered black cigs where it had been left by the retreating Germans on gambits main airfield he reported it as shot up with damage to tail wheel tail plane canopy and one propeller blade radio oxygen unserviceable and some instruments missing the following day repairs were carried out and three squadron markings CVV the personal codes of Bobby Gibbs were applied in readiness for his first flight in the 109 G on the 15th Gibbs flew black six to Gazala satellite and on Tamar tuber on the 19th escorted as all captured aircraft had to be by two Kittyhawks he was obviously impressed by the 109 his diary reads the 109 is a hell of a nice kite with a terrific performance Bobby's plan was to ship his 109 back to Australia as a war trophy but his prize was required elsewhere for performance and evaluation trials this was the first service of all BF 109 G to be captured and at that time it was outclassing all the opposition including the spitfire v and following an order from AOC he delivered it to heli openness there an engineering attachment of 451 squadron Royal Australian Air Force took charge of the bf 109 G on the 15th of December 1942 Group Captain Mungo Buxton and flew the 109 to litter Palestine for evaluation tests it remained there until it was ferried to Cass for each for tactical trials black sixes last recorded flight at Cass for each was a mock dogfight with a spitfire 5c on the 24th of february 1943 sometime after that the station salvaged section prepared and act the 109 for shipment to England on the 26th of December 1943 a very badly damaged packing case containing the 109 arrived with 14:26 enemy aircraft flight at Colley Weston apart from a missing propeller the 109 was to quote lofty westward fitter to a very untidy and damaged due to bad handling and crating in an unsuitable crate after several weeks plundering parts from other captured and crashed one mines ground runs were completed and the aeroplane was redesignated Romeo November 2 to 8 on the 19th of February in 1943 harren two to eight made its first flight from collie Weston flown by flight leftenant Lulu ndon seen here with Doug Goff another of the 109s pilots whose name appears often in 14:26 his log RN two to eight spent the rest of the war with 14:26 flight this film found in the Imperial War Museum archive is now one of the rarest records of black sixes Royal Air Force career are in - two eights main roles with 14:26 or photographic sessions evaluation tests and tactical trials against Allied aircraft but as roughs nadan explains in 1944 it was put to a new use towards the end of the war to show particularly the Americans how to disable aircraft that they would come across in Germany without ruining them basically so if they showed them a particular part of a German aircraft that they could immobilize they would stop it off being operational and the idea being subsequently if any evaluation teams came over any aircraft which was perhaps interesting then with a minimal of rectification they could get it right 1:09 flew a tour of American and British airfields in this new route during 1944 and continued flying sporadically due to periods of unserviceable it up until March 1945 when Doug Goff RN 2 to 8 for the last time from collie Weston to Tangmere following the disbandment 14:26 flight in January Ross now new black sixes history in allied hands but his ambition was to restore this aircraft as authentically as possible with its original equipment camouflage markings and insignia during many hours of research at the public records office a document emerged that revealed the original German serial number 106 3 9 and II Stewart of British Aerospace who'd helped Russ in the past then took up the search through the Bundys archive in complaints the information they supplied corresponding with allied records of the capture of the 109 and established the Luftwaffe history of black 6 having left the earlier machine in burke in leipzig work number 106 3 9 was accepted by the Luftwaffe on the 13th of October 1942 and collected by 3 Jagger's father 77 munchin rheem air field from here it was flown to northern Italy enroute to North Africa lightnin Hinds Luda man was a young pilot who trained with the Luftwaffe during 1941 in 1942 he was on active service in Russia flying this bf 109f with the 8th squadron of the 77th Fighter Group the fafa turns eight stifles Yogesh father 77 hind his tour of duty image and lasted until mid October 1942 when his unit was withdrawn from the Eastern Front for redeployment to the desert they flew their bf 109s to Munich and after some home leave collected their new BF 109 Gustaf's to follow the route through Italy to North Africa Heinz normally flew black for but it's quite possible that black six flew with his unit to the desert black 4 was unserviceable Heinz flew black 6 in combat with p40 Kittyhawks similar to this example from the fighter collection according to Lou demands diary he sustained slight injuries to his head and body during this action but he managed to return black 6 to the feel that cotta fire leaving it there and continuing by Road West only just ahead of the Allied breakthrough at El Alamein black six was ferried by an unknown pilot to gambit airfield 200 miles away for repair but the Allied advance was too Swift and it was abandoned following the removal of vital equipment hein Saluda Minh was killed in combat with p-40s over Tunisia on the 10th of March 1943 his nephew Heinz Langer attended the rollout ceremonies in May 1991 Benson and gave an account of his uncle's career before presenting Russ nadan with two of his uncle's medals black six is as it was when Heinz Ludum and last fluid in combat an accurate restoration of an axis fighter in the desert campaign but in its post-war life it suffered from several as rust describes them very imaginative paint jobs which were applied for appearances on Horse Guards Parade during Battle of Britain week in 1961 the bf 109 G went to water sham where a proposed rebuild was started by one of the flat left tenants stationed there his idea was to restore the thing to flight only it was going to do in six months you know that puts the whole thing in perspective really he was going to fly it was bolted the legs bolted down with a big bar between them to hold it down it was going to throw all the which is subsequently did he threw all the German instrumentation and handling away and put in a basic piece of aluminium with basic British instruments in it so far as to say after some months they put it to the board to assess his board it which other command it wasn't he's days and they said no way sunshine back together again the way he got it 109 returned to static display and spent a further 10 years appearing in various fictional guises at open days around the country on the 30th of September 1972 Russ Snowden inherited the bf-109 g2 that we now know as black 6 it's arrival at Lynam marked the end of Russ Snowden's search for a suitable aircraft to restore on the start of 22 years hard labor for Russ and his team I'd been involved in preservation of 20 years for 20 years by that stage firstly through one of the first preservation society's in the country historic aircraft Preservation Society which is sadly gone now but we managed to save lots of aircraft like Lancaster Walrus Corsair sea fire saber all through donations from the people who owned these things and it's changed days now they cost a fortune but then these days people would like to get rid of them but that fell asunder when I was with the service in Singapore but then I find myself on the Comets core tenets Lynam and lifestyle there was such tit you would go around the world for about two weeks three weeks and have a similar amount of time in between trips I thought I could make use of this time restore an audio track and the 109 I have to say wasn't my first target my first time it was a folk of of 190 which still one of my favorite day after day first I saw of it it was an area flowing and where I was stationed and had been delivered from area 40 Sherman Suffolk in the back of two hercules transport aircraft one Calculus brought back the fuselage complete with propeller and the other one brought a pair of wings back in the first I knew of it was a little corporate when the customers share bringing me at my quarters on the base saying do you know anything about an F Messerschmitt 109 sir to be perfectly candid it I had only seen the pictures of the aircraft I'd never actually seen their traffic myself and it looks re dilapidated but nothing irrecoverable I thought inside had been totally gutted there was nothing really of use inside the airplane at all the engine was in a sorry state externally at least lots of books were missing pipes were bent damaged broken undercarriage legs both deflated well one was deflated in the other was up so was sitting with a terrible lopsided attitude to it the more I got into it the more despondent I became a felt about ringing wattage and saying can you take it back please unbeknown to Russ he and mason had already made his first contact with the bf-109 I was caught in charge of duty crew when one of the lads came up and said some idiots got an ancient arrow playing down at movements and we've got to go and get it and show me a blip on so in actual fact I was one of the people who pushed it in a hangar when he arrived from Watership and it went in circles all the time you had to push it for about 50 feet then drag the tail sideways then push it again because one leg was completely collapsed and the other one was still hanging on to a bit of pressure and at that point when he stepped became aware of bits of brown paper stuffed in the wing roots and cardboard fairings held on with self-tapping screws and so yeah it was in a pretty bad shape having got his 109 and survived the initial shock Russ started work so my primary intention was to restore it as accurately as I could the secondary thing was just a little thought in the back of my head if we found it was okay why not fly it because there wasn't one flying the next stage really was to investigate all the damage and what we could do with it and all the rest of it but at this stage having cleaned diffuse large down and looked at a very superficial corrosion we'd got rid of it all looked nice and suddenly the rug whisperer Amanda and 216 squadron disbanded and I was faced with a move somewhere I knew nor thought of old it's a tiny little airfield with not a lot of hang reach and lots of airplanes and I thought my chances of shoehorning even a small Misha sweat when I know near must be remote I was very surprised contacting there both the station commander and the engineering officer said bring it along or put it in somewhere I wasn't really have had him put it alive Bryce and I got a phone call one day from a Squadron Leader ahemadi saying did I know Flight Lieutenant Snowden did I wish to continue working on the one online yeah so you'd be happy with the posting to Northup certainly he's very persistent very good at his letter writing what sir grams are called in the trade Ian and Russ had spent most of their spare time at Lynam cleaning and preparing the Gustav it looked lovely here at this stage that was a few slash the fusion eyes had been done one wing had been done externally the other wing we hadn't touched the engine by the stage had gone to rolls-royce at Bristol Filton just under or add a volunteer to look at it for us by this time Russ and his 1:09 were becoming well-known but how did the Royal Air Force regard the project and its you for the official space and equipment I only agreed to take the aircraft on provided everybody stayed out of my hair I wasn't having anyone breathing over my shoulder every inconvenient moment and also that they put no time limit on it because having been involved in restoring aircraft in the past to a more superficial degree anything that you reckon might take two days generally took a week so as a result of that I'm glad to say that they both the mo D in the Air Force from a higher level kept out of my way they tended to be a bit of interference basically because of course we were using hangar space which really should have been used to service the operational aircraft of that station and not restore a museum airplane and I could see the point of view it was irritating nevertheless having established my ground rules the other side of the coin was they established their ground rules at coins and appropriate for his company and that was that they would have they would listen to given all public funds towards the restoration anything had was done had to be done voluntarily and by people giving their time and parts and all the rest of it which didn't bother me at the time that then as I said to having seen inside the aircraft and seeing just how much was missing then it started to worry Ian's not known for his gift of the gab but somehow he managed to win over about three of his team members on the south side of the airfield he was responsible for seeing in and serve thing to a minor degree the visiting aircraft and he managed to cajole them into coming along to have a look at the 109 unfortunately out of the three two became regular members of the team for a couple of years and that really did help up until 1977 the team were fitted into the hangars at North felt but then very suddenly they were ordered to move out and your accommodation came as a shock and the medieval conditions we had a North old we were in a little blister Nissen Hut which really couldn't be termed a hangar in any sense of the word there was no heating very few little lighting no water no toilet facilities holes in the roof now well out of the Air Force I can probably say we got our electricity by opening a fuse box putting 100 yards of cable showing the leads into the fuses bang the fuse back into position switch the one lead despite the problems work progressed over the next few years cleaning and assessment of the fuselage and wings reached completion and reconstruction started the fuselage was now complete with tail and front bulkhead all painted in the original primer identified and found by Russ after much research the team now turned its attention to the wings although these had passed non-destructive testing along with the main spar the D frames and the tail they still required a lot of attention an addition to the team in 1978 was John L CIM I was officially invited in by Ian after he had seen me photograph in the gate gaurdian a Spitfire I said do you want to come a photograph a real aeroplane so I said what it why what have you got and he said a Misha Schmitt when I knowing you'd have to but I would have thought been a really knowledgeable person to recognize the piece of metal that I saw it was just a bear rubbed down the fuselage which was firewall to just before the tail where the tail disconnects and I had no sinistairs anything you won't clean well I mean I've got Sundays the whole day off I'm not doing anything and scotch sprites in the hand and there's a piece of pipe given to me before I knew what would happen sort of thing and it went on from there literally availability of bits with some time something that you thought we know will we ever find whatever it wasn't a case of knowing that there was a bit missing and going to the local store and buying it that was almost like an act of faith he just carried on doing something else and hope to god it would turn up by the time you got stuck and luckily basically he always did one source of parts was the Swiss Air Force and together with pilatus had developed the p2 trainer from their stock of redundant 109 EES I contacted them and they said well you'll have to make an official approach for that and offer something in exchange where I could offer anything in exchange and I approached the area of museum and said look can you help and fortunately it all worked because before that the Swiss Air Force had given the area museum had to have envenom fighter and in exchange for which they only F gave very little and they felt guilty about it at the time so this was an opportunity to redress the balance and they found what the Swiss particularly wanted which was a napier Sabre engine and that was stuck in a crate sent to Switzerland and in exchange we got three crates of spares back which included a complete set of undercarriage legs from the Pilatus p2 rudder pedals or they hydraulics we wanted tires wheels brakes everything we really as Christmas come early that year I tell you he's a tremendous scrounger beggar and writer of letters he's got things that I regularly thought there's no way he's very persistent in 1980 Russ's commission came to an end technically I was still in charge but of course I know lived something like an owner half drive away so it made it not very easy to work on the aircraft or even to coordinate the work that was being done but on top of that Ian Mason because the Falklands well this was after I left the Air Force but Ian Mason left to go down to Ascension Island when the Falklands crisis blew up so I lost him subsequently and the members of the team that we had gathered together in the years at North or they left one on posting the other one in to civvy Street so slowly the team went down to virtually nothing again really and also at that stage interests were being shown shouldn't go into too much detail but there were various senior officers were starting to take an inordinate interest and I went online which everybody ignored for 30 odd years before people who were obviously are even trying to hijack the project is one that always sticks in your mind there was a lot of interest here so subsequently I was summoned to the station commander's office and told that I'd have to move the airplane whether what the two were connected I know not but at that stage the squadrons at North augury equipping or getting more equipment and space that mean hangers was becoming more and more scarce in July 1983 the 109 was on the move again this time to Royal Air Force Benson in Oxfordshire its third home in ten years I was given about five weeks to get it off the station and during that five weeks I heard that we could have space at Benson I then went to the station commander who I thought was a nice friendly officer until about then and asked for a Queen Mary upon these long articulated trucks to take the aircraft to Benson and eventually I was offered a three-ton truck and a trailer I dreaded what might arrive at the other end I might add because I could see all sorts of things happening on route and offloading but there was really little damage at all in by the stage had long since left us because of his postings in the Air Force and all the rest of it I managed to induce cajole interest some other people in the new hangar it was in and the first of those was a chief technician called John Dixon first I knew about it it was planted in the hangar outside the little bear where I worked in the undercarriage legs were the first thing we worked on and I said yeah certainly Russ and he assured me what he had was which which were too original legs off the aircraft which were supposedly serviced and capable of all the oil and air you know and when we tried that it all run out the bottom and he had another set of legs off pilatus aircraft which are exactly the same license built by the swiss so we had spare legs to play with and look at and we took it from there we resealed the legs put oil in them charged them up and whoopee we got him to all the oil and put the air in and we had a fully serviceable set of legs some weeks later a corporal called Paul blacker took an interest is in their friends man magic with his hands and I just went along introduce myself asked him if I could do anything and he said you know help yourself so I picked the groceries looking parts on the rack and took him away came back days later with him totally rebuilt which astonished us at the time and I just took more more paddles away and then just as he came in to a week after week there were more and more restored bits on his right waiting to call the aircraft and they've become to thir members of the team sometime afterwards and well into the time when the aircraft was really starting to take shape again Ian Mason turned up at been stand on his last posting before leaving the Air Force it's a tradition in the service that you're given a choice of your life sporting walked in the hangar door and basically slap-bang in front of the Walt in through the hangar is 109 having found their reasonably safe haven and a new team for his 109 the next few years saw some incredible progress we were there until we moved airplane which was a 90 was 10 years basically just under 10 years time flies when you're having fun physically there was no reason why I shouldn't find all through the restoration we haven't anything really they would stop it like it was although it looked horrible when I got it physically it was in good shape we had to do very little repair to their frame to make it ready it was merely a task of finding all the bits that are required to restore the thing properly the first system we had serviceable which thinking about it now was the the brake system which followed from fitting the legs and it's a very simple system a static line braking system hydraulic just like you ever on your car and from there we fitted the wings as potentially putting them on here for him fantastic putting the wings on I've never seen an aircraft with its wings on it arrived in the back of Hercules with wings and one in fuselage in the other and of course the two were never mated same one wing on and then the back cut of months later see in the other wing on started getting the controls to operate up and down you know getting the range of movements and it was good you know from there it's sort of blossom forth by February 1988 the airframe was largely rebuilt ready to accept the contents of the rolls-royce lorry that arrived at Benson it's great big yellow box turning up and when we sort of took the lid off inside was his gleaming engine and this rather delightful piece of engineering appeared out of this box glistening you know lovely gloss black very nice gleaming sparkling shiny engine to sort of hold back for about two months before we actually fitted it and that was the next major step seen the engine on first time in 40 odd years an engine had been fitted on the 109 we looked at it for a while and then hung it on the front and we were quite surprised that how much bigger than the aircraft looked at you know with the engine on the front and we had to propel it back from Germany and that was mounted that's a nice big nine-foot propeller and it was beginning to look like a real airplane there and these four big milestones to us in the eight years reconstruction of Benson the bf-109 g2 gradually changed into what we know today as black six the team was joined in 1990 by Chris Starr who had a special interest in large piston engines I was passing through Benson and heard about it and I've got an interest in older aircraft and engineering and popped down the hangar and saw John Dixon I was looking for something to do actually I was looking to be involved so it was quite bit of Providence there that I discovered the the 109 project which really fitted my interests the piston engine particularly it's got a song and a history especially in the Second World War big engines and the technical aspects of the Mercedes really are complex they're intriguing and that's really why I've sent it on the engine also the airframe was well looked after by John Dixon and Paul blacker particularly the airframe work was mainly complete when I bumped into the project by July 1990 the aircraft was almost complete and ready for its first engine run yes we have this dream scenario that you work on this lovely old aircraft and you push it out and it's such a gentle little beast that when you push the appropriate switch isn't pull the appropriate toggles that would immediately fire into life because it's nice that way we couldn't even get the thing to talk to us we the engine and the the den the daimler-benz engine and 109 is started by a hand crank and a flywheel again a cockpit full switches and makes them anxious which is no arrestor and introduces a fuel of course then hopefully everything comes together and then fires now we couldn't even get the propeller to turn in issue and it was so frustrating it's untrue we should take it out quite regularly and try going to start they wouldn't start and then change plugs look at the war in and there was weakened upon weakened upon weakened during the summer of 1990 that we all turned out all optimistic that this was the day the engine was going to fire and we couldn't even get the thing to cough I think we just had given up all hope of it starting it's about how fast for one wet and windy afternoon it was coming to near dusk and I was absolutely shattered as was the rest of the team but we caught this little cough the propeller kicked and I thought I saw something way I think it was a puff of smoke and out of one of the cylinder stubs exhaust stubs but I was so shattered I thought alright ok we're getting somewhere call it a day or pack it in and go home and I was shouted down by about six other members of the team in fact I'm surprised I survived the event at shows nearly lynched suggesting we pack up put in a hang and Google and we persevered for about another half hour and nothing happened really despite many attempts we tried one more goal and lo and behold it fired and I couldn't believe it there was several seconds before I sort of regain sanity and started doing the job I was supposed to be doing which was looking over roger shoulder into the carpet of the instruments and seeing it everything was tickety-boo it wasn't but nothing drastic but having congratulated each other I thought well perhaps as a fluke so we'll start it again and we tried again in a coughed and I thought here we go again and after the second got fired and we did another run no leaks to speak of no nothing and we went home suddenly delighted thinking we're making progress little did we know it would take us several months later to get the thing to run the way it should run it was to take a further 8 months of testing and adjustment before the first flight could be made on the 17th of March 1991 but the obvious thing of course is we was going to fly it there's a chap called reg Holland who was group captain in charge of experimental flying at fondari a farmer at the time who was not only highly qualified Empire test pilot qualified etc but actually flew Spitfires and Mustangs and the Hispano 1 1 1 2 which is the spanish book version of the aircraft of the melbourne engine on the front so I think first of course called him at home and suggested that he might like to fly the only 109 flying in the world and he there was no hesitation whatsoever they said yes please the day of flew of course well to be honest it shouldn't have done on the day it was a fairly lucky day and a bad strip about a month before Benson our little radar station pudding and they dug up the grass strip and put a trench across it the pilot had looked at it and he thought it was you know good enough to ever go it so let reg bless his heart decided to take off but the take-off itself well that was something else they're all about five of us video in this thing and mine was the only camera that kept working I'm sorry I got the only footage there was the actual first take though they're talking about very quickly indeed nothing it's fair to say within a few yards of it moving forward had full right rudder on to try and hold the aircraft that didn't help he had full right brake on and that didn't help and then he hit the first trench and as he went over it it's song Qian not too off about 40 degrees I thought it was going to end up in a little heap at the end of the grass I turned away and just didn't watch the blade touched the ground and then either a board and launched into their Harrier style and reg with all his expertise managed to hold it there and pull it away I thought we were gonna have a smoking heap at the end of the day but reg got it airborne the next remark I had from him was over a little radio I had grass of course like a train the amazing thing after that was as we subsequently found the propellers damaged is the way for 30 minutes it whipped about the skies no problem at all and he was very impressed with the performance I heart was going I don't know what rate Evette ever so glad that it got airborne but weird all sorts of little problems in the flight all of which was rectified later when he came back down you go out and how did it go and in his first words were it goes like a train after that the propeller had to be repaired or replaced I don't think it was any chance of replacing him so eventually it was shipped to Hoffman provel avec at in Germany and they very kindly straightened it for us and repainted it for us and this was all done within the space of a few working days at that time we had other problems because having got the propeller back we discovered it and a couple of the exhaust valves in the engines had burnt through we had hoped at the official rollout ceremony which had then being planned by mr. defence that we could fly it for the invited guests some of them of course what kind of in Australia but that was active engine the rollout ceremony had been scheduled for quite some time and couldn't be postponed a team had to continue as planned with the preparation of the 109 on the day it was only to be seen on static display Russ's detailed research into the origins of his 109 were now being proved the exact camouflage markings and insignia that had been displayed on Heinz Ludum ins black 649 years before were restored in every detail on the second of May 1991 black 6 went on public view for the first time the roll out ceremony was attended by many distinguished guests from the aircraft's past Heintz Langer nephew of Heinz Lou Diamond the last LaFave a pilot to fly black six who presented Russ with two of his uncle's decorations Bobby Gibbs the man who claimed his gustaf in 1942 as an australian war trophy and had to give it up to the Royal Air Force Doug Goff pilot of the bf 109 g2 during its time with 14:26 enemy aircraft flight following the rollout Russ and the team rectified the engine problems in readiness for flight during this time Russ had been negotiating with the mo D the agreement under which black six now operates at Duxford I first sorted Benson before its first air test and it struck me then a fact that hadn't even been finally haven't got its top coat of paint on it was still in undercooked primer but it struck me then that it was a very professional and painstaking rebuild by guys who not only knew when they were doing but loved what they were doing I knew there was a 109 undergoing restoration yes I think it was from my point of view anyway a bit of a surprise when we were asked to take over the operation of the airplane having given the undertaking to the people who rebuilt it ie Russ and his team that they would fly it and given that it got back into flying condition the air force board considered that a they had no funds to fly it within the Air Force it also wasn't appropriate for a former enemy aircraft to be tacked onto the back end of the battle the written memorial of light and so they had to find some instrument whereby the aircraft could find a home where would be well looked after and where it could actually climb in a meaningful sort of way for a period the Imperial War Museum was that instrument really on 12th of July in 1991 the Gustav took off from Benson airfield for the last time and flew to its present home the Imperial War Museum Duxford black six completed test flights at Duxford and flew in its first part is play in September 1991 Russ's ambition was to return this aircraft to the condition that was in when Heinz eluded the last post in 1942 the bf 109 G continued to fly successfully from duxford for the next two years Charlie Brown one of the three pilots rated on the aeroplane flew it last in 1993 that was an air test an annual air test which was do everything everything worked exactly according to plan I first saw the 109 when it arrived from Benson with John our celeb controls after its I believe it was his second flight because reg Hallam did the first and it was very excited by the airplane because it was absolutely authentic and original I've never seen a restoration like it it came about through John Houston ready John Allen's chief pilot with the airplane he decides exactly what's done and what isn't done with the aircraft the deputy pilot if you like is David Southwood who's a test pilot one day John hacen and said to me we had she been flying Spitfires together would you like to fly the 109 and it was as simple as that and I said well you can happen in Lake as well if you like unfortunately the next time I went to fly it we broke the the start a doggone start up on the crankshaft and so we've had to protract it engine maintenance program during last year the starter dog on the back of the crankshaft split the only way you've got to start the aircraft just sue that starter dog it's not accessible without stripping down the hole of the engine effectively boss we had the rear box off to get to the started off we decided that we would try and cure some of the old leaks we've been humming through the season so we involved taking off the blocks in the Pistons and when we took one of the blocks off five of the Rings were broken so that was a good start we could do without that work during the winter the engine had undergone an extensive rebuild and was reaching the final stages in the engine workshop effectively the engine comes apart and the gearbox comes off the back or to change the star to drive but these these are problems everybody seems to have with big piston engines they are labor-intensive and they do go wrong relatively regularly as my experience this time the airframe was in hangar 2 awaiting the engine and final dressing I think like most most I don't people we have a train set to play with this is my train set other people have golf or some people really do have train sets I have to balance it as best I can but it does come down to my wife and a level of understanding if somebody had come up to me in 1972 and said here's an aeroplane it's gonna cost you a fortune you're gonna be given absolutely no assistance and stuck in the most god-awful places and it'll take you 20 years how about it auditorium where to go and what to do with those sounds and as of 19 October 93 I'm no remember the butler bring the flight during the week I'll work on the BB MF and weekends work with a Messerschmitt doesn't leave me a lot of time to do anything else I think my wife has become used to me disappearing for a couple of days on end but it's taken 20 years to get this far by the end of April the engine and airframe were reunited the final dressing and assembly had begun in preparation for an engine run the following day on the first of May black six went out for the first engine run of the year it was just possible that the 109 would take part in duxford the d-day air show should all go well at this point a problem emerged fuel was leaking from the tank it was too late to rectify it for the following day black 6 sat out the airshow while the team tried invade to resolve their problem the leak was to frustrate the team for several months to come although several engine runs completed during may still have to prove that the teams work on the engine had been successful the fuel tank though after 50 years proved to be irreparable Russ and the team were faced with at best a long delay while funds were raised for a new tank or at worst the permanent grounding of the airplane and it's returned to static display at the royal air force museum in Hendon I've always had a love of flying Arab things to me in Arab then is stronger have been a very attractive thing to look at and to appreciate but you don't really get the full value of it until you see it in the air so you can have a Hall full of historic Spitfires such as they've got of the Royal Air Force Museum Hendon and all the Battle of Britain aircraft they're very impressive they're very interesting particularly for people who have never seen them but they don't come alive until they get into their own environment and the 109 were not that short of 109 yes it's a fairly rare event but there are no 109 it's flying and we can afford to do with one we know the history it should be up for people to see I'd like to see it carry on flying indefinitely as long as the engine and as long as we can get spares for the engine or the airframe it would be nice I think to keep it going until something else German are another 109 appears on the scene and there was obviously work going in that direction now there are a couple in the States being rebuilt to fly just now Victor that's the sum total of it and when you consider that over 30,000 of these were built in all its various configurations and forms and there's only that small number left it's a very minuta portion of perhaps you know one of the most important aircraft of all times having kept the team together for so long what will they do if their aeroplane is taken away from them I think we shall disperse most likely one way or another we'd like to carry on being associated with duxford to be honest with you I think if you're gonna do a restoration you store it to out was like what it was like and you over covered the problems to make it requires a goal to keep people together and the goal is this aeroplane which isn't which isn't privately-owned which is publicly owned nobody profits from our work except perhaps in a war Museum the future of black six and the team hung in the balance until early June when funds were allocated by the Imperial War Museum for a replacement fuel tank this has just been one more problem for us and his team to solve out of the many of them faced over 22 years russ has already achieved what no one else has this is the only aircraft original German combat aircraft from World War two like anybody in the world it makes me feel very responsible I think but nonetheless i i thoroughly enjoy the flying of it I feel that the aircraft should be flown in a responsible way in that its needs should be catered for in terms of warming the engine looking after the technical side of the aircraft but nonetheless it is a fighter and it should be demonstrated in the spirited manner there isn't anything there's any softer safety through the whole thing it's designed to do its job so that has to be borne in mind by people who fly these days there is a train of thought which I can fully understand which says really if you've got no experience than that you don't want to risk damaging this aircraft but there's the other side of me I've been a professional pilot for thirty years now and I reckon I'm fairly competent and given adequate suitable training at least I think I should have a go at it I say having said that have if I don't have a go at it then I'll never forgive myself now I'll end up a bitter and twisted old man wondering why after 20 odd years working on the aircraft it and fly the thing that I was responsible for ever causing to be rebuilt [Music] but my primary attention history story is actually exactly the second grade thing was just a little thought in the back of my head if we found it was okay we're not flying [Music]

Channel: Spark

Views: 315,603

Rating: 4.8411417 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, science documentary, science photography, science explained, science experiment, bf109, Messerschmitt, luftwaffe, ww2, wwii, World War II (Event), 1939, Germany, warbird, Emil, Dog fights, world war 2, fighter planes, antique airplanes

Id: tBY92XY7HrI

Length: 55min 57sec (3357 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019