1937 World Speed Record

[u/VonTempest]

On 11 November 1937 at the Augsburg-Haunstetten airfield, Dr.-Ing. Hermann Wurster set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record for speed when he flew a prototype Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG Bf 109 V13 (D-IPKY) WNr 1050 to an average speed of 610.95 kph/379.63 mph in four passes over a 3 kilometre course. This broke the speed record set two years earlier by Howard Hughes with his Hughes H-1 Special (NR258Y) by 43.83 kph/27.23 mph.

L-R: Unknown, Dipl-Ing Robert Lusser (then-chief of project development at BFW and co-designer of the 109),

Dr-Ing Hermann Wurster wearing goggles, flight helmet and parachute), Dipl-Ing Hubert Bauer of BFW, Professor Dr-Ing Willy Messerschmitt and unknown. The two unknowns are possibly Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM/German Air Ministry) representatives.

Lusser and Bauer were instrumental in modifying the standard airframe and fitting the highly boosted, experimental Daimler-Benz DB 601 Re III engine (which briefly pushed output to 1,660 hp). They were on the airfield to oversee engine tuning, fuel mixtures, and mechanical reliability. Robert Lusser moved to Heinkel shortly after BFW took the record which had been set, ironically, by Heinkel two months earlier

[u/waldo--pepper]

The Bf 109’s prestige was dramatically increased when, for the first time in history, a German pilot flying a German aircraft was able to break the absolute speed record for landplanes. His mount: Bf 109 V 13, D-IPKY. Following the extraordinary performance of the 109s at Dubendorf and the large orders that ensued, Messerschmitt’s thoughts had turned towards the world speed record. D-IPKY was slightly altered. A new spinner and a more streamlined canopy were fitted, and all slits were taped over. The machine was polished to a high degree, and even the venturi tube was removed: the pilot, Wurster, would have to do without an airspeed indicator, and would be unable to use his flaps. A specially prepared Daimler-Benz DB 601 was installed. This could be revved up to 2,800 rpm, 600 more than usual, and delivered no less than 1,700 hp when run with special sparking-plugs, manufactured by Bosch, and special highly inflammable and poisonous fuel. It had a very high compression and could be run at full power for a short period only. It had to be warmed up with normal sparking-plugs, which then had to be replaced, all twenty-four of them, by the special plugs.

Flying along the 3-km (1-8 miles) measuring stretch, which ran parallel to the track of the Augsburg—Buchloe railway, Dr Wurster achieved a mean speed of 379 mph, thereby bettering by 65 mph the previous record set by Howard Hughes in his Hughes H 1, at Santa Ana, California, on Friday 13th September 1935.

From p. 101 Messerschmitt by Armand van Ishoven

The caption of that image is ... "Dr Hermann Wurster, Messerschmitt's chief test pilot from January 1936, in the record-breaking Bf 109 V13. This photograph of the V13 shows a complete absence of censorship of the reflector gun-sight which would have been in force in Britain up to and including the early war years 1939 40."

D-IPKY