Willy Messerschmitt

Willy Messerschmitt was a brutish, evil genius who relished the opportunities the Nazi war machine gave him to develop his death-dealing aircraft. This is the picture many people have of the man whose fighter planes posed such a threat to Allied forces in the Second World War.
It is an image firmly refuted by Frank Vann. The author — who, as a representative of Hawker Siddeley Aviation, had personal dealings with Willy Messerschmitt — reveals that while not all that he uncovered was to his liking, there are clear signs that here was a straightforward man with a strong work ethic, an active mind and an interesting, compassionate character.
Above all, Messerschmitt's love was aviation. His inventive genius was never at rest, but always seeking to improve performance and push forward the barriers of aviation knowledge. Despite working under increasingly difficult circumstances as the war turned against Germany, he maintained his position at the leading edge of aircraft development, particularly in the field of jet propulsion, and in speculative designs for supersonic flight.
Here for the first time is the full story of this outstanding aircraft designer and his planes, the disasters as well as the successes, right through to his postwar work for Spain, Egypt and Germany in the 1960s. Frank Vann first met Willy Messerschmitt while working in Munich on the international Airbus project. This and subsequent associations moved him to find out more about the aviation pioneer, which led to his spending five years on painstaking research in Germany and Britain, culminating in this outstanding book.



by Frank Vann
Published by PSL 1993 1st edition. 256pp illustrated, index. 16x24 slightly bumped spine, otherwise fine, d/j slightly worn at head and foot of spine.



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"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.

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