Balsa Model Messerschmitt BF109

The Messerschmitt BF 109 might have been the plane that never was. In 1934 the German Air Ministry issued specifications for a new fighter monoplane, but a feud between Willy Messerschmitt and the Secretary of State for Aviation, Erhard Milch prevented the plane from intitial development. The BF 109 was to become one of the Royal Air Force's major opponents in the Second World War, so it is ironic that the prototype had a 695 hp British Rolls-Royce engine when it made its debut in September 1935.