Guys, a while ago I was at a friend's work where he is an airframe fitter. They had a 108 Taifun there for restoration. I was lucky enough to stick my head inside the fuse and look down to the tail from the inside, and was amazed at what a simple structure it was. It was made from rolled sheets with a 90 deg lip on the front edge and a slight recess rolled in from the front of the lip back about an inch so that the rolled section in front could overlap and be riveted to it, with the lip taking the place of a bulkhead. From a distance the fuse shaped looked all nice compound curves, but in fact as it was made in short sections, with each section just rolled from sheet with the only real "forming" done to make the lip and recess, the fuse was actually a series of straight "developments". BTW, this was the original fuse, so it's not a cheap restoration.

Given that the 109 is a direct descendent of the 108, and the fuse looks very similar, I'm assuming the fuse of the 109 is done exactly the same way? Is there anyone out there who has actually been over a 109 that can confirm or deny this? BTW, I recently saw some pics of a 109 under restoration, and one pic was of one of these fuse sections and the sheet looked very "fresh" ie no rolling marks or evidence of any reworking on it's surface which to me indicates that it was indeed wrapped around a front and rear former and had the lip rolled at the front edge.

Thanks all!

Stu,

You are mostly correct in that there was no conventional "framework" seperate from the skin of the rear fuselage. Yes the skin was formed in such a manner as to leave a "lip" that was riveted to the ajoining member to form the fuslage. However these individual sections (left and right) were "Stamped" to form the shape of the fuselage. Not speaking for the 108 - I have been in a 109 and seen this for myself as well as countless written descriptions that confirm the manufacturing process as such. But for sure the 109 has a definante compound surface all the way back rather than the "straight developments" as you reffered to with the 108. I know that the origonal sections were Stamped over solid metal forms much like a car fender section is done today in order to achieve the flowing compound shape that is evident in all remaining examples of the 109.

Thanks, Patrick! That's exactly what I needed to know.

Hi

Check this site. Hope you connect.

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/index1024.htm.

If you get in, there will more info than you can imagine.

Steve

I just clicked on the address, and it didn,t work. You may have to try an alternate method to find it.

Its worth it.

steve

here is the link
http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/index1024.htm

Here are some shots that might help.
Jason
http://www.flugwerk.de/new/me109/index.shtm

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com

try this- it worked for me

Woah! Extremelllllllly slow!

Great links! I guess the answer is on the Flugwerk 109 restoration page which says "One of the most critical items to rebuild a Me 109 structure is the aft fuselage. Massive machinery and tooling is required to stretch-form the skins ( a method uniquely utilized on all WWII Messerschmitt designs ) and to form the integral ribs right out of the skin's sheet metal. Repeated heat treatment is necessary to keep the aluminum alloy sheet metal in a manageable state and highly skilled workmanship has to be done, in order to finally assemble a complete aft-fuselage." However, when you look at the pics of the aft fuselage, the panels look straight, even though they're most likely not. I'll shoot an email off to them to get a real answer.

Thanks to everyone!

Here's the reply I got -

Dear Sir,

yes you are right in your assumption that the Me 109 aft fuselage is actually a poly-edged shape and not a continuous curved line. The sections are deep drawn ( stress formed over forming blocks ) and have a fwd and an aft flange worked out of the skin. These "ribbed" sections are joined by sections rolled from flat-stock sheets...
Actually ( if you look on top of the fuselage ) the fuselage widens or narrows in steps at each joint between these sections.

Best regards

Claus Colling

So now we know the 109's aft fuselage is, as I suspected, straight sections. Makes 3D modelling of it much easier, and it means I can make a plug from cross sections only and cover it with developed litho plate panels. I suspect if you made one with straight sections and one with compund curvature and put them side by side you'd probably not pick them apart if you didn't know.