New Air Speed Record

Abstract

THE absolute air speed record of more than 463 miles an hour, set up by Herr Dieterle in Germany recently (reported in NATURE of April 15, p. 633), has now been broken. Herr Wendel, flying a Messer-schmitt Me.109. R-fighter fitted with a Mercedes-Benz engine and a V.I.M. metal airscrew, claims to have attained a speed of 755 kilometres (469-11 miles) an hour. Reports claim that this aircraft is a new type of fighter, and the published rating of the engine is 1,175 horse-power. A previous edition of this machine, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, with an engine of 950 horse-power, is credited with a maximum speed of 315 miles an hour, and this performance is about what might be expected for this class of fighter aeroplane with its necessary equipment. The great increase in speed of the new machine with so small an increase in rated power suggests that the term ‘fighter’ is a misnomer, and that the machine, while its design may be based on such a class, is almost certainly a specially fitted one which would be impracticable for the carrying of standard military equipment. Also the engine must have been giving considerably more than its rated power, which suggests that it was running under conditions that could not have been maintained in practical service work. Although this does not mean that the German Air Force now possesses a single-seater fighter of such a performance, the setting up of the record is an achievement upon which the German aircraft industry is to be deservedly congratulated.