Monday, February 24, 2014

Military Illustrated Modeller 03/2014

The Avia S199 was a propeller-driven fighter aircraft built after World War II by the two aircraft factories in Czechoslovakia. Avia continued building the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 after the war under the Avia S-99 name, but soon ran out of the 109's Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine after many were destroyed during cn explosion at a warehouse in Krâsné Brezno. The S-199 continued to use the Bf 109 G airframe but, with none of the original engines available, an alternative engine had to be used. It was decided that as a replacement for the original engine, the aircraft would use the same Junkers Jumo 211 F engine and propeller as the Heinkel He 111 bomber. The resulting combination of parts was an aircraft with extremely poor handling qualities. The substitute engine with the propeller locked the responsiveness of the Daimler-Benz unit and the torque created by the massive paddle-bladed propeller made control very difficult. This, in combination with the 109's narrow-track undercarriage, made landings and take-offs extremely hazardous. The Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine allowed for a centrally mounted cannon that fired through the propeller spinner. This was not possible with the Junkers Jumo 211, so the S-199 used a version of the Luftwaffe's Rüstsatz VI modification kit, which consisted of a pair of MG 151 cannon, one each in a gun pod, one beneath each wing. This further impaired the aircraft's performance. A final hidden danger lay in the gun synchroniser for the cowl-mounted MG 131 machine guns that did not work as it was meant to, leading a few Israeli aircraft to shoot off their own propellers.

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