100 FLYPAST December 2018
FROM THE WORKSHOP MESSERSCHMITT BF 109G
A Tale ofThree
Gustavs
Richard Paver reports on the completion of the Air Fighter Academy’s
three Bf 109Gs to airworthy status
G
ermany’s Air Fighter
Academy (AFA) has
made rapid progress in
restoring a specialised collection
of World War Two and pre-war
German aircraft.
During April this year it
arranged for flight testing to
start on its Bf 109G-12 and Bf
109G-6. Just four months later,
the warbird operator began to
assess the flying qualities of its
Bf 109G-14, which had been fullyrestored by Rare Bird Aviation,
based at Meidl Airfield near
Sopron, Hungary, close to the
Austrian border. The project was
completed in February this year,
when the G-14 was delivered by
road to AFA’s facility, Hangar 10,
at Heringsdorf, Pomerania.
The permit to commence
test flights was applied for and
awarded in July 2018, thereby
enabling the programme to
begin the following month. TheG-14 restoration is based on the
identity of a Bf 109G-14, Wk Nr
462707 ‘Black 2’ of JG 300,
shot down during combat with
B-17s on November 21, 1944,
near Hanover. The wreckage
was discovered and excavated
in 1997, and during the recovery
operation the remains of the
G-14’s pilot, Obfhr Karl-Heinz
Schirmacher (who was killed
when the aircraft crashed), were
retrieved and subsequently