Willy Messerschmitt

Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt was born on 26 June 1898 in Frankfurt am Main, the son of Ferdinand Messerschmitt (1858–1916) and his second wife, Anna Maria Schaller (1867–1942). He was raised in Bamberg where his parents ran a large wine shop and wine bar. Messerschmitt had an interest in aviation from a young age, building his own model airplanes and his own gliders which he would test with his friends.

As a 13-year-old school boy, Messerschmitt befriended sailplane pioneer Friedrich Harth, who would become an important influence in his life. Harth joined the Imperial German Army after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and while he was away at war, Messerschmitt continued work on one of Harth's designs, the S5 glider, until himself signing up for military service in 1917. Following the war, the two were reunited and continued to work together while Messerschmitt commenced study at the Munich Technical College and Harth built aircraft at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW – Bavarian Aircraft Works). The S8 glider they designed and built together in 1921 broke a world duration record (albeit unofficially) and they went into partnership for a while running a flying school. The same year, the first plane entirely designed by Messerschmitt flew – the S9 glider.

In 1923, Messerschmitt graduated from university, but he and Harth had a falling out and went their separate ways. Messerschmitt founded his own aircraft company at Augsburg which at first built sailplanes, but within two years had progressed via motor gliders to small powered aircraft - sports and touring types. These culminated in the Messerschmitt M 17 and Messerschmitt M 18 designs, which Messerschmitt sold to BFW in 1927, when the Bavarian state government encouraged a merger between the two companies. These were followed by the Messerschmitt M20 light transport in 1928, which proved a disaster for BFW and Messerschmitt himself. Two Deutsche Luft Hansa M20s were involved in serious crashes very soon after purchase, and this led the airline to cancel their order for the type. This caused a serious cashflow problem for the company and led to its bankruptcy in 1931. The M20 crashes also created a powerful enemy for Messerschmitt in that of Erhard Milch, the future deputy head of the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) and chief of development for the Luftwaffe, who had lost a close friend Hans Hackmack in one of the crashes.

Trial and postwar career

Following World War II in 1945, Messerschmitt was classified as a "fellow traveler" of the Nazis and tried by a denazification court for the use of forced labor in the production of his aircraft. Milch had procured large numbers of forced labourers for the Luftwaffe due to his connections with the SS and utilised them in the mass production of aircraft. Messerschmitt was accused of relocating some production to the Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Gusen concentration camps, where the forced labour was sourced from, though the true extent of his involvement is unclear.

In 1948, Messerschmitt was convicted of collaborating with the Nazi regime and was released after two years in prison, resuming his position as head of his company. Since Germany was forbidden to manufacture aircraft until 1955, he turned his company to manufacturing prefabricated buildings, sewing machines, and small cars – most notably the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. Exporting his talents to Francoist Spain, he designed the Hispano HA-200 jet trainer for Hispano Aviación in 1952 before eventually being allowed to return to aircraft manufacturing in Germany to licence-produce the Fiat G.91 and then Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for the West German Air Force. He designed the later Helwan HA-300, a light supersonic interceptor, for the Egyptian Air Force. This was his last aircraft design.

Messerschmitt saw his company through several mergers, first with Bölkow in 1968 and then Hamburger Flugzeugbau in 1969, at which point it became Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (which itself became part of EADS now named Airbus) with him as chairman until 1970 when he retired.

Messerschmitt died on 17 September 1978 in a Munich hospital in undisclosed circumstances.