|
Blohm & Voss Bv.155
The origins of the Blohm & Voss Bv 155 lay in a meeting held at the Messerschmitt's Augsburg plant in May 1942 to discuss the "Special High Altitude Fighter". Both Messerschmitt and Fock-Wulf expressed interest in developing a special high altitude fighter, Messerschmitt had already done some design work on a related project. Messerschmitt's preliminary study, known as the Bf 109 ST, had been allocated the official RLM 8-series aircraft designation Me 155. The number 155 had previously been assigned to the Klemm firm but since it had not taken up the number the RLM reassigned it to Messerschmitt. At the same time, numbers 152, 153 and 154, which had also been allocated to Klemm but not used, were re-assigned to Focke-WuIf. The original Me 109 ST was advanced in three variants; A, B & C (version A) called for a carrier/aircraft fitted with the DB 605, while (version B) called for a similar fighter powered by the high altitude DB 628. In order to relieve his already over committed design bureau and to speed development, Messerschmitt decided to transfer the Me 155B to Paris. Due to various problems work progressed only slowly throughout the remainder of 1942. By early 1943 things were starting to go wrong with the project. Fock-Wulf were progressing well with their Ta 152, little had been achieved with the Me 155B. During the first half of 1943, Messerschmitt's design engineers had evolved basic parameters of an (extreme high altitude fighter) design study under the company designation Me P1091. By mid 1943 the Messerschmitt people were pursuing the Me 209H in competition with the Ta 152H and turning there Me P1091 in to the Me 155B.
|
