"Jukka O. Kauppinen" wrote:

decides the fight! Alas for the luftwaffe the Bf109 wings were not designed
for guns etc so were not terrifically robust, the pilots were often more
worried about the wings falling off than blacking out......

Incorrect.

Having guns or not doesn't have anything to do with the strenght of the
wings. 109s from A-E had wing weapons, again one of the K models was
designed for wing weapons. The wings were also one single structure,
which made it possible to make them very strong.

[...]

Given that 109s were routinely dived at 800-900 km/hour speeds that
certainly shows that if there was some weaknesses in the plane, wings
werent' them.

It's not so much the case the wings were actually breaking off the
Bf 109 [E] during hard maneuvering, but a psychological belief that
it could happen due to the very well known high wing loading.

You've quoted some 109 pilots that indicated this belief wasn't a
concern to them, but I've heard/read the story enough to think there
must be some basis for it in fact.

At least during the BoB period (109 Emil).


SMH