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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/98 MESSERSCHMITT HISTORY: CIVIL PROJECTS by Marton Szigeti The year of 1922 began rather favorably for Willy Messerschmitt, then aged 24, and his 42 year old business partner Friedrich Harth. After almost ten years of joint glider research the newly designed type S 10 training glider was supposed to be the breakthrough. To achieve this Harth and Messerschmitt founded their own flying school on the Wasserkuppe. The first trainee was Wolf Hirth who was to become famous himself later on. Differences between Harth and Messerschmitt during the Rh_n competition in 1922 led to an open argument which ended their partnership. Harth spent the night provocativly in the shack of the Weltensegler company, the direct competitors! But soon the success of the S 10 gave the quarrel the appearance of matter of secondary importance. Messerschmitt created new ideas together with Wolf Hirth and put his plans into action as well. He summarized his views in a manifesto dated 1922: "It is of less use to incorporate present aviation technologies into commercial avaition. Also it is useless to promote the building of gliders, since rigid-winged sailplanes are nothing more than gliders and therefore do not have any justification. It appears that Willy Messerschmitt was not interested in the practical usage of his sailplanes but only in the scientific component of the construction. He reveals his aims in his manifesto as well: "The main reason for glider trials is the application on powered flight. What applies to a sailplane also applies to a powered aircraft. Therefore a good glider will be a good powered plane after the necessary modifications. At this early stage Messerschmitt already foresaw the development of lighweight planes and sailplanes with auxiliary engines. The rather disappointing results of the 1923 Rhön competition led to a first crisis of German gliding. Meanwhile the demand for a small plane to carry out research on dynamic gliding flight continued to grow. Consequently Messerschmitt decided to quit his sailplane actions and to dedicate himself fully to powered flight. His flying school was closed and the barrack was subsequently destroyed in 1924. He sold his last glider S 14 to the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Förderung von Flugsport und Flugtechnik in Unterfranken e. V." in Würzburg and got in contact with the military for the first time. This association was a civil cover of the Reichswehr which had started in 1924 to recruit young aviation minded people under the cover of the Sportflug GmbH as well. At the same time the military founded a secret flight center in Lipzek, Russia, and began to train pilots in Germany. The not very cost-effective and outdated aircraft were supposed to be replaced by more modern types. Messerschmitt proved his talent as designer with the powered glider S 15 and the modified S 16a and S 16b which he built for the Reichwehr and sold them to the Würzburg association. In autumn 1924 he developed the two-seat lightplane M 17 out of the S 16b by order of the Unterfr_nkische Sportflug GmbH Wrzburg, the former Wrzburg association. The M 17 deviated from Harth's principle and finally was the true lightweight aircraft Messerschmitt wanted to create since 1922. Several successes of the aircraft at different air meetings led to a small series production in Bamberg between 1925 and 1926. The constant cooperation with the military made possible an increase both in terms of personnel and the company as a whole. In the summer of 1925 the director of the "Sportflug GmbH für Mittelfranken und Oberpfalz", Theo Croneiß, approached Messerschmitt with a fundamentally new idea. Cronei(section), a former fighter pilot of the First World War, was a member of the Wrzburg association until he opened his own branch for the Reichswehr in Frth. Theo Cronei(section) was thinking of a regional airline service in northern Bavaria to establish a solid financial base to support the Sportflug GmbH. Messerschmitt was assigned to construct a small four-seat airliner built out of metal at a unit cost of no more than 25000 reichsmark which equalled one third of the then ususal prices. With this challenge Messerschmitt moved into foreign terrain dominated by Dornier, Junkers and Rohrbach. Compared to Messerschmitt those companies were industrial giants. Theo Croneiß first flew the small airliner M 18a, developed out of the lightplane M 17, on June 15th 1926. This opened the way to the founding of a new airline. Croneiß created the Nordbayrische Verkehrsflug GmbH on July the26th. Because of a lack of funds Messerschmitt participated in the company by donating his first M 18 to the young airline. A few months before Lufthansa was created by the amalgation of Junkers Luftverkehrs AG and Deutsche Aero-Lloyd AG. The new airline was to try to get the uncomfortable competitors out of business during the following years. The successful operations on short trips led to a follow-on contract of a second M 18b by the Nordbayrische. The M 18b incorporated many new features and had to undergo a new certification process. The overall success was primarily caused by the unsurpassed profitability which was seen as a threat by the highly subvented Lufthansa. Twelve months after the beginning of operations the Nordbayrische had four M 18's in service. Messerschmit reached his capacity limits when he started series production of the M 18. Without foreign financial help he was not able to expand his business. Negotiations with the state ministry of finances culminated in the merger of his company with the Bayrische Flugzeugwerken BFW in Augsburg. Messerschmitt lead an autonomous branch in the company. Immediately after Messerschmitt's move to Augsburg BFW started to produce a further twelve M 18b's for the Nordbayrische. At the same time Messerschmitt had a new project on the drawing board. The M 20 was planned to carry eight to ten passengers over medium distances of 800 kilomerters. In principle the M 20 should be repeating the achievements of the M 18 at a larger scale to leave the competitors behind. On the other hand the only logical customer was Lufthansa. But its director Milch was not very happy with the connection of Messerschmitt/Croneiß/Nordbayrische Verkehrsflug. Nevertheless under pressure of the state ministry of traffic Lufthansa was forced to order two trial M 20 aircraft from BFW. The M 20 was prepared for its first flight on Ferbruary 26th 1928. Hans Hackmack, an old friend of Messerschmitt, took care of the first flight that would end in a desaster. At an altitude of 80 meters parts of the fabric covering the wing came loose. Hackmack decided to abandon the plane by parachute but unfortunately was killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed. This became a welcome reason for Milch to cancel the Lufthansa order. BFW decided with full risk to finish the second example of the M 20 and proved its airworthiness on August 3rd 1928. With a lot of skill Lufthansa was persuaded to take over the aircraft. Even more luck was necessary for the almost ruined BFW to log some more orders for an improved variant of the M 20. Although 15 examples were sold during the next few years the tensions between Milch and Messerschmitt were still existing. Maybe the lack of interest in the later designs M 24 (airliner with eight seats) dated 1929 and the fast post plane M 28 dated 1931 resulted of the differences between these two persons. BFW made their main business with sport and training aircraft like the U 12 and the M 23. Messerschmitt built a modified type M 18d for his friend and sponsor Theo Croneiß and his airline, now called Deutsche Verkehrsflug AG in 1930. Several examples of the M 18d were built, but the chapter of airliners came to a close for Messerschmitt. Later the aviation pioneer would achieve worldwide fame with his fighterplanes. From page 74 of FLUG REVUE 7/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 7/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated June 9, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany