Me 109F development

[Tom D]

Franek,

In Monogram's Close-Up 9, "Bf 109 F," by Thomas H. Hitchcock,it is stated on page 1 "Development of the Bf 109 F began some four years earlier, in 1938...., and on page 2 "By January 1939 design of the Bf 109 F had been establlished and plans were made to test as many of the features on existing airframes," and on page 4 "....the Messerschmitt works at Regensburg began tooling up for production of the Bf 109 F series," page 6 ".By late summer 1940 .... plans were finalized to commence production of the first series of of the Friedrich, the Bf 109 F-1, by October 1940, ....began leaving Messerschmitt's Regensburg factory late in November 1940."

I could not find much on the F-0, other than "... a preproduction batch of some twenty-five Bf 109 F-0 aircraft (W.Nr. 5601 to 5625) were completed over the next several months.... (page 4). "....Messerschmitt did not intend that the preproduction Bf 109 F-0s would be handed over to the Luftwaffe for operations....."

Tom