The Messerschmitt Me 309 was a prototype of a German fighter aircraft, designed at the beginning of World War II, to succeed the Bf 109. The first flight took place on 18th July 1942. After four built prototypes, the project was cancelled due to disappointing performance and other problems.
History[]
At the beginning of World War II, the Bf 109 made its first dogfights with British Spitfire fighters, which showed to reach the performance of the Bf 109, so it was decided to start work on a successor for the Bf 109. However the Reich Ministry gave a successor less priority than Messerschmitt, so that development start was delayed until 1941.
Despite having some advanced features, the Me 309 could not meet the requirements, during its first it proofed to be slightly more capable than the Bf 109, but this was the case in a "clean and lean" configuration, but with the addition of armament, the speed dropped to an unacceptable level. Thus, development was cancelled, in favor of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.