The story of the Messerschmitt Me 109s ultimate development, the Blohm & Voss BV 155, begins in 1942 with plans to split the Me 109 family into three branches a standard fighter, a high-altitude fighter and a carrier-based fighter. Initially these were known as the Me 409 but later became the Me 155 A, B and C. The project was given to the French to develop, where it stalled. But when Germany got its first taste of what the USAAFs bomber force was capable of suffering huge damage to its war-critical industries as a result of massed raids on its factories and cities work on the Me 155 B was recommenced as a matter of urgency. With the Me 262 consuming most of Messerschmitts design capacity, the project was then passed on to a sub-contractor: Blohm & Voss. Richard Vogt, B&Vs chief designer, quickly realised that Messerschmitt had made very little progress on the design and was forced to begin again almost from scratch. In just over a year, a prototype was built and flown but the war ended before production could begin.
Design and development of an extreme high-altitude fighter for the Luftwaffe during WW2.
