Messerschmitt willy biography template

Born in Frankfurt in 1898, Willy Emil Messerschmitt was the son of a wine merchant. As a young boy, he became obsessed with aviation after seeing a Zeppelin airship.

Messerschmitt willy biography template

The young Messerschmitt helped out the German gliding pioneer Friedrich Harth and it was Harth who arranged for Messerschmitt to work with him at a military flying school during the First World War. Harth and Messerschmitt together designed the S8 glider which Harth kept airborne for 21 minutes in 1921, a world record for glider flight at the time.

The first all-Messerschmitt design, a tail-less glider called the S9, made its first flight in 1921.

It was followed by a series of powered gliders and small sports machines, all of which were dogged by technical failures and accidents. Even when Messerschmitt took to the air himself for the first time (in 1925) the M17 in which he was flying crashed, putting him in hospital for some time.

In the late 20s and early 30