This is a repaint for the payware FlyingIron Simulations Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6. This repaint depicts the award-winning restored Bf 109G-6 'Gustav' WkNr. 410077, registered as N42109, owned and operated by Dr. Bruce 'Doc' Winter of San Antonio, TX. (Note: This repaint features historical tail markings. An optional censored/partial tail markings file version is included.)

~ History ~

Bf 109G-6 WkNr. 410077 was built at Messerschmitt's Erla factory in September 1943 and bore the fuselage delivery code 'RK-LY'. It was delivered to IV./JG 54, known as the Grünherz ("Green Hearts"), on the Eastern Front. Markings on the fuselage indicate that it was the personal aircraft of the technical officer of the staff flight, therefore it is presumed that its original pilot was Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) Joseph Gröene. In February 1944, while flying combat over Soviet territory, the '109 was forced down after succumbing to battle damage, with bullet strikes to the wings, tail and engine. The pilot was able to land on the frozen surface of Lake Swiblo, near the Estonian-Russian border, and is believed to have likely fled westward back to the German line. Following the spring thaw, the '109 slipped to the bottom of the lake where it remained for the next 46 years. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and trade opened to the west, a huge market for WWII artifacts, namely aircraft, quickly sprung up. One of the first combat aircraft recovered was WkNr. 410077. Retrotechnika, a small Moscow-based company, conducted the recovery in 1990, and it was disassembled and trucked to Monino Airfield where it was stored pending a buyer. The '109 was one of several Russian-recovered wrecks that were acquired by Ed Zelesky of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, in the mid-1990s. Then, in 1999 it was sold on to David Prewett of West Heidelberg, Australia. It was briefly placed on the Australian Civil registry as VH-BFG, while Prewett began acquiring parts needed to restore the fighter, including a suitable DB 605 engine (as its original engine had combat damage and was seized), but little to no restoration work was performed. The project was then sold to Axel Urban in Munich, Germany in 2005, where it was placed into storage pending a decision on who/where to have it restored, which never came to pass. In 2012, looking for the best available original Bf 109 to restore, Dr. Bruce 'Doc' Winter, of San Antonio, Texas, acquired 410077 and had it shipped to Midwest Aero Restorations in Danville, Illinois.

An ophthalmologist, former US Navy F/A-18 pilot and current USAF Heritage Flight civilian pilot, Doc Winter had previously worked with Midwest Aero Restorations when they restored his award-winning, wartime-accurate P-51D "Happy Jack's Go Buggy". With the '109 arriving at Midwest in 2012, work began on tooling-up for the ground-up restoration, and parts began to be sourced from around the world in order to make the aircraft complete. The DB 605 engine was sent to Mike Nixon's company, Vintage Aero Engines, in California for overhaul (the only engine shop in the US with DB engine overhaul experience). Midwest Aero would restore the wings and a number of other components in-house, while the fuselage was sent to Hartmair Leichtbau in Germany for rebuild. From the start of the project the decision was made that there were to be no compromises when it came to making it a fully accurate German Bf 109. This included using newly-manufactured metric rivets, made to the original wartime German specs, all original-type German hardware and fittings (no AN fittings), and original German grade sheet metal. Although a considerable amount of the structure and skins had to be replaced, quite a large amount of original material remains in the rebuilt aircraft. Everything in the aircraft was restored to 100% period-correct appearance and fit-out, including the fuel tank installation with wooden support structure, oxygen bottles, instruments, gunsight, radios, and demilled cannon and machine guns. In addition to Midwest Aero's extensive research, help also came from many Bf 109 experts from around the world, including Craig Charleston in the UK, Markus and Michael Rinner in Austria, Gregor Guttenberg from Arsenal-45 in Germany, the late Karl Bircsack from the International Aviation Museum Foundation in Hungary, Andreas Haferkorn from the Messerschmitt Foundation in Germany, and Erik Meier from MeierMotors in Germany. The propeller was supplied by Skycraft in the UK.

When it came time to paint the aircraft, Bf 109 livery experts Floyd Werner, Lynn Ritger and Mark Sheppard were consulted in order to accurately recreate the original wartime paint scheme. The result is an accurate recreation of the aircraft's original paint scheme based on the remains of paint that had survived, as well as filling in all of the gaps by referencing paint schemes worn by other late-war 4100-series Erla-built Bf 109s. The overall paint scheme is made up of the standard day fighter colors of RLM 74 grey-green and RLM 75 grey-violet upper camouflage applied over RLM 76 light blue. They only stopped short of applying the winter camouflage white paint, that had been sprayed over the standard paint at the time the aircraft was lost in the winter of 1944 (they might just add the whitewash at some point in the future). There are a few unique details about the paint scheme on 410077. For instance, typically JG-54 '109s had the yellow fuselage band behind the cross, where as on 410077 the yellow band was located on the panel aft of the cross. It also didn't have the 'sawtooth' camouflage pattern on the wings as has normally been expected for a '109 manufactured in 1943. Also, the yellow under the nose, which normally was applied to the entire lower engine cowl, had been masked off at the bend in the cowling so that only the lower portion of the cowl was RLM 04.

Now the world's most original and accurately-restored airworthy Bf 109, it was registered as N42109 and made its first post-restoration test flight on May 23, 2022, at Danville, Illinois, piloted by Steve Hinton. Soon thereafter, its happy owner, Doc Winter, was flying his '109. At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022, the Bf 109 won the highly-coveted World War Two Grand Champion Award, with Midwest Aero Restorations receiving the Golden Wrench award for their quality of workmanship.

~ Details of Repaint ~

- Every effort was made to accurately recreate the paint scheme, in exacting detail, as applied on the real world restored Bf 109G-6 WkNr.410077 (N42109).
- Colors matched to paint used on restoration, which is regarded as highly accurate shades of the original wartime German colors; RLM 02 grey (primer), RLM 04 yellow (markings), RLM 70 black-green (prop), RLM 74 grey-green (camouflage), RLM 75 grey-violet (camouflage), RLM 76 light blue (over all base color).
- All new stencils applied across the airframe, matching the authentic stencils applied on the restored aircraft.
- Access panel for machine gun pressurization tank added on rear starboard fuselage.
- Tail wheel white walls, matching the restoration and original wartime German tail wheel tires.
- A few details added to cockpit textures to match restoration.

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Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 WkNr. 410077 (N42109)

Repaint of the award-winning restored Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 Gustav WkNr. 410077, reflecting historical accuracy and detailing. This add-on features a meticulous recreation of the original paint scheme and markings of the real-world aircraft, N42109. Version 1.4 update includes enhancements such as improved textures and added manufacturer data plates, offering a realistic flight experience. Experience the worlds most original and accurately-restored Bf 109, honored with the World War Two Grand Champion Award at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022.

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