Nathan McBraun's Fighter Roundtable, Eh!

Kapitel Ein

XXXXXXXXXX

Welcome to Nathan McBraun's Fighter Roundtable, Eh!

Kapitel Ein

Hey there, fellow fighter aficionados! I'm Nathan McBraun, from the sophomore class in the General Studies department at Ooarai High School!

Fighter aircraft are great, aren't they? Anton may have said they all seem the same, but he couldn't be farther from the truth! Each fighter has its own unique traits and features. There's an infinite variety! No two fighters are alike!

Those of you reading Projekt Jägermeistern would surely understand, right? You'd surely understand, right?!

... Eh? You don't? I see...

Well then! I'm going to introduce you to the appeal of all the fighters in Projekt Jägermeistern, from the radio masts all the way to the landing gear tires!

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4
Country of Origin: Germany
Manufacturer: Messerschmitt AG
Crew: 1 Pilot
Engine: Daimler-Benz DB 601Aa liquid-cooled inverted V12, ~1,159 hp (1,175 PS, 864 kW)

Let's start with the plane Bubi flies and we look after: the Bf 109 E-4! 'E' comes from 'ABCDE...' but the first four main variants weren't nearly as widely produced.

Weight: ~2,660 kg loaded (5,864 lb)
Length: ~8.64 m (28 ft 4 in)
Height: ~2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: ~9.87 m (32 ft 4 in)
Wing Area: ~16.7 sq m (179.8 sq ft)

Top Speed: ~348 mph at ~14,560 ft (560 kmh at 4,438 m), ~290 mph at sea level (467 kmh)
Armament: x2 20 mm MG FF/M cannons in wings (60 rounds per gun), x2 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns in upper engine cowl (1,000 rounds per gun)
Wing Loading: ~159.3 kg/sq m (32.6 lb/sq ft)
Rate of Climb: ~3,510 ft/min (17.8 m/s)
Number Produced: ~250

The 'E' model was the first model to be produced en masse!

Now onto German fighters in general: while other fighters came into service as the war progressed, the Bf 109 remained within the Luftwaffe in great numbers as a backbone for the Jagdwaffe!

From Russia to Africa to France and even to Norway, the Bf 109 was wherever the Luftwaffe was present!

The Bf 109 was one of the main workhorses of the German Luftwaffe alongside the later Fw 190. We're lucky to have both of these amazing fighters at Ooarai!

This model, the Bf 109E, was the model in widespread service at the start of the war. It easily outperformed the aircraft of most other nations at the time, as its new and very powerful DB 601 engine allowed the lightweight frame to accelerate very easily. This, combined with its relatively high wing loading, made the 109 a very unique fighter to fight with! I'll talk about how the designers came to this design feature sometime later. But let it be known that it absolutely destroyed other aircraft at lower altitudes, and it could hold its own at higher altitudes as well! It seemed there was always a way for the 109 to prevail!

With regards to the DB 601, there was a lot of effort required to fit this newest fuel-injected masterpiece into the small airframe of the Messer. Now to use a larger engine, there needs to be a greater radiator surface area to help dissipate the greater heat, but the designers determined using a chin radiator would reduce the expected performance benefit. So they then got the brilliant idea to use two radiators mounted in the wings instead! They had to redesign the entire wing to be able to fit them, but it proved to be worth it! Positioning the radiators further back helped to counterbalance the extra weight from the engine along with getting the extra cooling area needed. It also was more aerodynamic! This arrangement would be retained for all future 109 models!

The use of the Daimler-Benz engine finally allowed the Bf 109 to realize its true potential, and it became a huge force to reckon with!

One thing of note is that the DB 601 was an inverted V engine! It's not like a normal engine where the V is upright! This was done because it's impossible to knock out an inverted V engine from below. It wasn't considered a problem for it to be knocked out from above as the pilot could see enemies diving toward them and correspondingly react. This isn't possible with attacks from below, so with a normal engine, it can be knocked out from underneath before the pilot can even react! All German aircraft using a V engine used one of an inverted type for this reason!

Also, the fuel injection system the engine had was very forward-thinking! Germany had already determined by 1938 that all engines created beyond that point would have fuel injection. Because a fuel-injected engine can retain its power during any kind of maneuver, it really gives an advantage against carbureted engines that mainly equipped other nation's fighters at the time!

But as performance increased, the designers felt the plane should have heavier armament as well. While heavier armament had been tried on previous models, it really started becoming successful on the E model. The E models could mount in the wings either two extra MG 17s, or, like on Ooarai's E-4, two of the bigger MG FF cannons in addition to the two MG 17s already in the cowl. To be specific, the E-4 uses the MG FF/M version.

Now you may be thinking, "What the hell is the difference between the MG FF and MG FF/M?" Well, to be honest, not much. The MG FF/M had a modified breech, but this proved to be all the difference. The breech was modified so the gun could fire the powerful Minengeschoß rounds, which was a first for the 109 series! The shell itself was created using drawn steel, like how brass cartridges are made, instead of being cast like usual back then. This method allowed for the walls to be thin, but very strong. The main benefit was that this allowed for a larger cavity to pack a larger explosive charge than was otherwise possible. These shells were extremely powerful for their caliber! They had a high likelihood of eliminating an enemy with a snapshot, which was a difficult feat to accomplish with any other gun at the time!

But the gun was large. It must be noted that the Bf 109 was not originally designed to carry heavy armaments, or rather any armament at all, within the wings. To fit the gun, a large hole had to be cut in the spar.

Anyways, moving on, the Bf 109 was one of the fighters developed during the 1930s. During this time, fighter development was progressing at an extremely rapid pace. The designers accordingly tried to make the Bf 109 into a highly advanced design, even by mid-30s standards!

For starters, the 109 was designed with several access panels all around, and it was fitted with numerous methods for quickly detaching parts, such as toggle latches and quick-release fittings. This is why we can remove the entire engine unit in such a short time if we need to! This concept would be taken a step further later in the war, so don't forget it!

Also, the 109 was a very lightweight fighter! This was because of the massive effort taken to make the design as lightweight as possible. One example lies in two large complex brackets mounted to the firewall. These brackets combined the lower engine mounts and landing gear pivot points into one unit. Another example is the large forging mounted on the firewall as well. This housed the main spar pickup points, and this had the effect of concentrating most of the wing loads on the firewall! This wasn't a common practice at the time! This advanced design allowed the 109's structure to be made lighter and less complicated!

One advantage that was directly caused by this design was that the landing gear was attached to the fuselage. This meant the wings could be removed for servicing without any other equipment to support the fuselage! This is why our Bf 109 was found the way it was. This design also allowed for even further simplification of the wing design! It all comes full circle and just keeps going and going!

But Messerschmitt didn't stop there! No, they went even farther! They chose to design the wing using only a single spar. This was during an era where most planes were using two-spar wings. They positioned the spar further aft than was usual, and this had the effect of creating a stiff D-shaped torsion box. This was actually a stiffer design than the two-spar wings, yet the design still managed to be lighter!

Now, the Bf 109 was kept in service for the war's entirety despite many other fighters joining the Jagdwaffe. There are many reasons for this.

One reason why it was kept in service for so long was because it had a lot of development potential! The 109 was able to be constantly adapted to remain a competitive fighter, resulting in a few more major models after the E model: the F, G, and K models! Note there was no J model, and the H model was very limited in production. The H model was a break from previous designs, so I won't mention it here.

The Messer was also eventually made to be widely adaptable for many situations! This started with the E model! The Emil was the first model with the ability to mount air-to-ground ordnance. It was able to carry a cluster of four 50 kg bombs or a single 250 kg bomb, which allowed it to strike ground targets when needed! That made it very versatile!

... Eh? That's obvious? No! It's not!

Before the 109, not many fighters were multipurpose! There were typically separate aircraft for fighting other aircraft and attacking ground targets. Nobody else had an aircraft that could effectively do both at the time! To name an example, take the Ki-10! That aircraft was purely meant for fighting other fighters, as its armament was too light for any practical strafing, nor was the plane capable of carrying any other weaponry. With the Bf 109, that's not the case! If we need it to take down enemy fighters, we can do that! If we're called upon for ground support, we can also do that!

That versatility was taken to an extreme in the Fw 190. That plane could carry even heavier armaments and ordnance. The versatility of these German fighters effectively replaced dedicated attack aircraft like the Ju 87 and Hs 129 from the second half of the war onwards! Other countries also followed with this model, especially America and Britain.

This versatility is also seen in many modern fighters! So don't forget it!

XXXXXXXXXX

Now, onto the subject of modern fighters, we need to talk about the Mitsubishi F-2 that Captain Honda flies. The F-2 has a lot of unique features that make it extremely high-tech!

Mitsubishi F-2A
Country of Origin: Japan/America
Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Lockheed Martin
Crew: 1 Pilot
Engine: General Electric F110-IHI-129 turbofan, ~29,400 lbf thrust with afterburner (130.7 kN)

Weight: ~14,970 kg loaded (33,003 lb)
Length: ~15.52 m (50 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: ~11.13 m (36 ft 6 in)
Height: ~4.96 m (16 ft 3 in)
Top Speed: ~1,320 mph at altitude (2,124 kmh, Mach 2.0)

Armament 20 mm JM61A1 cannon in fuselage, plus a maximum weapons load of 8,085 kg mounted externally
Wing Loading: ~430 kg/sq m (88 lb/sq ft)
Rate of Climb: ~50,197 ft (255 m/s)

One of the most notable things right off the bat about the F-2 is its co-development between America and Japan! The fighter was designed using America's General Dynamics F-16 as a base, but this new fighter introduced some new features!

One of these was a new wing design, which was previously tried in the Agile Falcon development of the F-16. But larger wings would have led to problems with weight gain, and that would've had a bad impact on performance. To counter this, the designers made the wings using a graphite-epoxy composite and co-cured them in an autoclave. This had the effect of making the wings lighter than they would be otherwise! It also helped improve range, and it also had a few stealth benefits!

Also a new feature was the use of an active electronically scanned array radar, or an AESA radar! The F-2 was the first fighter to mount such a radar! Compared to the older PESA radars, an AESA radar is far more elaborate! It can emit multiple radio beams at multiple frequencies at the same time! This means AESA radars can spread their signal emissions across a much wider range of frequencies, which makes the radar more difficult to detect against background noise. This allows the radar to emit powerful beams while still remaining stealthy itself!

Another advantage is that an AESA radar is far more versatile! Because it can emit multiple beams as well as receive multiple, these radars can be used for other purposes too! With a bit of effort, an AESA radar can form a very high bandwidth data link. This allows information to be constantly updated with ease! It's much like having an airborne WiFi access point!

Yeah, even in modern times, aircraft can carry a vast array of weapons for different purposes. We can see this descended from the Bf 109, and the concept is still evolving! The future of multirole is using radars in conjunction with weapons, and that can be seen here in the Mitsubishi F-2!

XXXXXXXXXX

Behind all of these fighters are very elaborate histories! Well, I'll see ya later, eh!

Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

XXXXXXXXXX

The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer," the information proposed, or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. The information belongs to a myriad of sources. Any references made belong to their respective owners.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Please note, however, that questions asked without being signed in will not be answered. The author would prefer to address questions outside of the story, and leaving questions while signed in provides that ability.