Intake burnt, oil gasket leak.

Originally Posted by Moggy

However, did you know that if the 109 had the same fuel system as the Hurricane and Spitfire...it would of had greater engine power? The Merlin puts it fuel through the supercharger thus cooling the air and providing greater horsepower. The 109 with it's direct fuel injection didn't and thus loses out on the extra power. 1 less reason to fly 109s

This is explained by Sir Stanley Hooker in the excellent BBC documentary Spitfire! Two seconds to kill. If you're in the UK, you can view it here (watch from about 26:00 in);

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleo...in/11405.shtml

Oh puh-lease Moggy

You really expected to hear Sir Stanley Hooker saying "actually...erm... our engines were a bit like cottage farm compared to the German ones, but hey, we had a little gizmo that they didn't have!"

Allowing to fly a plane with an engine that didn't permit negative G manouvres was simply criminal, but that's all they had, so let's not get carried away with your love for the Spit and Hurri, you can't change the fact that the DB601 was a superior engine,period.

I reckon that the struts for the tail horizontal surfaces on the Me109 as opposed to the clean Spit and Hurri tail section makes more of an interesting story, there's actually an espionage tale about it too, with a German agent was trying to steal the secret of the tail structure in the UK. I remember overhearing the conversation some years ago, but cant remember the details.