Quote:
Originally Posted by Herra Tohtori
Both designations exist and have been used in official German documents.
Before the war, the aircraft type codes were designated by their manufacturer rather than designer. The 109 was designed by Willy Messerschmitt (primary designer, obviously) but originally manufactured by Bayeriche Flugzeugwerke AG, which made it's designation "Bf-109". Same applied to the Bf-110 which was also designed in the inter-war period.
When Willy Messerschmitt founded Messerschmitt AG in 1938, he tried to get the designation changed to Me-109 and Me-110, and sometimes got his wish through, but there was no consistent policy on whether the 109 and 110 should be called Bf or Me. When Messerschmitt started producing new planes (Me-310, Me-410, Me-262 etc.) the tendency in RLM was to mark the 109 and 110 also as "Me-109" and "Me-110".
Of course, these aircraft - especially the 109 - were manufactured by several companies (Bayeriche Flugzeugwerke AG, Messerschmitt AG, Erla Maschinenwerk G.m.b.H.) just like several companies in the US manufactured planes such as F4F (Grumman, General Motors) and F4U (Vought, Brewster, Goodyear), and these sometimes had their own designations on different versions: General Motors Wildcats were marked as FM-1 and FM-2; Goodyear Corsairs were FG and Brewster Corsairs F3A.
I don't really see what the formatting of the name matters as long as we're talking of the same aircraft...
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I tend to agree that once everyone knows what we're talking about the official designations can be relaxed somewhat. For example, we can talk about a "109" instead of a "Bf 109". However, if you're going to go to the extent of actually criticizing someone for not strictly adhering to accepted form, then I think it is just a little rich to then refer to another aircraft type using a designation that isn't strictly correct either. The fact that the abbreviation "Me 109" is included in some official German publications is interesting but only to the extent that it demonstrates that officials and employees make mistakes and are guilty of sloppiness, just like everyone else. Once Bayerische Flugzeugwerke became Messerschmitt A.G., and all new aircraft types were designated with the abbreviation "Me", it is hardly surprising that some people started to describe Bf 109s as Me 109s. Understandable perhaps, but certainly not correct. As far as it is known, all 109 identification plates carry the designation "Bf 109", the correct designation for this type.