When a competition was announced to replace Germany’s Heinkel He51 bi-plane fighter there were several entrants but only two serious contenders, one was the Messerschmitt Bf-109 the other was the Heinkel He-112. Many felt the He112 was the better plane and there was surprise when the Bf-109 was chosen in 1935. Dr Goebbel’s Ministry of Propaganda proclaimed the Bf-109 a ‘wonder fighter’ and it made it’s first appearance at the 1936 11th Olympiad held in Berlin, which still included flying competitions. The appearance of the Bf-109 caused heads of Governments to sit up and take note; they must have fallen off their seats when in July 1937 three Bf-109’s dominated the 4th International Military Aircraft Competition, winning the Circuit of the Alps Race, the Alpenflug and the Dive and Climb Race. At the same event a Dornier Do 17 'BOMBER' won the Air Speed Circuit with a level speed of 264 mph, making it faster than Frances Dewoitine 510 'FIGHTER'. However neither the Bf-109’s or the Do-17 was a standard military aircraft. The Bf-109’s had their standard DB600 inverted V12 engines which produced 950 Hp replaced with specially modified DB601 engines capable of 1,650 Hp for short period bursts, there were also modifications to the wings and tail as well as a lower more streamlined cockpit canopy. It seems that by some ‘oversight’ Dr Goebbels forgot to mention these substantial modifications to the press, the public or the Competition Comittee. All was not smoke and mirrors though, when a pretty much standard Bf-109B fighter set a new absolute speed record of 379.6 mph over a 1.86 mile run. (taking the crown from Howard Hughes and his Hughes H-1 Racer). The Worlds fastest fighter gave Dr Goebbels great propaganda value as Germany geared up for war. Then Heinkel threw a fly in the ointment, having lost out to the Bf-109 for the replacement fighter contract, Heinkel modified the He-112 for speed. In 1938 the re-labelled He-100 V2 set a new Absolute Speed of 394 mph. Dr Goebbels could not allow a ‘reject’ to hold the world record in place of Germany’s frontline fighter and so ordered Messerschmitt to get the record back. So began work on the Me-209, primarily a straight race plane but announced as and intended to be an eventual replacement for the Bf-109. The first Me209 V1 flew on August 1st 1938 for seven minutes, with Hermann Wurster at the controls. If a test pilot could give six good reasons for scrapping a plane after it’s first flight, it should be scrapped. Wurster presented seventeen, any combination of four of which would probably lead to the death of a less experienced pilot and the loss of the plane. Dr Goebbels was not a test pilot and so insisted the project continue. Further development and testing went on until, on April 26th 1939, when Wurster set a new Absolute Speed Record of 469.2 mph. Dr Goebbels was elated, and immediately decreed that no further attempt on the speed record by anyone in Germany would be tolerated. As it was this record stood for 30 years until August 14th 1969, when American Darryl Greenamyer flew his heavily modified Grumman Bearcat at 482.4 mph. Attempts to arm the Me-209 caused problems; the wings contained coiled pipes for cooling the engine leaving no room for anything but the landing gear. 2 Mg 15 machineguns where fitted in the cowling causing huge stability problems. There followed an Me-209 V2, V3, and V4 with the cockpit moved forward, the wings lengthened, fusilage lengthened, wings enlarged, tail and rudder altered and enlarged. With each version things improved but the weight went steadily up. The appearance of the Me-209 V5, was a revelation, all the problems were solved and Messerschmitt had a good plane, however it was pretty much indistinguishable from a Bf-109, other than it was much heavier and slower than the Bf-109 B, and as frontline units were flying Bf-109 F’s by this time, pretty much a waste of time and effort.