Messerschmitt rivets

[George Hopp]

Hi, Jerry and Judy, good to hear from you.

To check the rivet head sizes I went down to the Air Museum this morning and checked over the 109F and the Spitfire IX beside it. The problem with the 109F, of course, is that it has been restored, and so re-riveted. On one fuselage segment, I saw a line of 9mm rivets partially covered by filler, and beside it a nice line of 6mm rivets. Inboard on the wing, I got, close to the spar, heads between 8mm and 10mm; outboard I got mainly lines of 7mm heads. On the rear half of the wing I got lines of 8-9mm; but in many places, also lines of 6mm heads. On the lower cowling, 6mm; on the fin, 6.5mm; and on the horizontal stabilizer, 7mm. Under and behind the cockpit, 8mm; top of the wing radiator upper flap, 8mm; and on the top flap surface, 8.5mm. Olong the upper fuselage there were 8mm rivets along one stringer but 6mm ones along another.

On the Spitfire IX, the rivets were much more uniform. On the wing leading edge they were 8.5mm, but in all other areas they were about 5-6mm.

This pretty well agrees with the 1945 report.