Messerschmitt, Willy

Messerschmitt, Willy

(born June 26, 1898, Frankfurt am Main, German Empire—died Sept. 17, 1978, Munich, W.Ger.) German aircraft designer. From 1926 he was chief designer and engineer at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in Augsburg, Ger., which in 1938 became Messerschmitt AG. In 1939 his first military aircraft, the Messerschmitt 109 (Me 109), set a speed record of 481 mph (775 km/hr). In World War II his factory produced 35,000 Me 109's for the German air force, as well as the Me 110 bomber, the Me 163 rocket-propelled plane, and the Me 262, the first combat jet. Under a postwar ban on aircraft production, his firm made prefab housing and sewing machines until 1958.

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Messerschmitt, Willy 

Born June 26, 1898, in Frankfurt am Main. German aircraft designer and industrialist.

Messerschmitt designed many airplanes, helicopters, and gliders to meet a wide range of requirements. His best-known planes are the Me-109, the basic fighter plane of the German Air Force from 1935 to 1945; the multipurpose Me-110; and the Me-262, one of the first jet fighter planes. After World War II (1939–45), Messerschmitt emigrated to Spain, where he was a consultant on the designing of several airplanes. Upon returning to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959, he again set up his firm and resumed the licensed production of airplanes. Messerschmitt is the honorary president of the Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blom concern and holds a significant amount of its stock (21 percent in 1973).