The state-of-the-art wind tunnel at the Herman Goering Aviation Research Institute, near Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in Lower Saxony, was one of Germany’s most closely shrouded military sites.
Spread over 1,000 acres, the Institute’s 60 buildings were low-rise, nestling under the treeline, and well camouflaged from the air. As a result, until the end of the war, the facility and its 1,500 workers remained undiscovered (and were never bombed) by the Allies.
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter we see being tested here was known to British and German fliers more simply as the Me 109. Designed by Willy Messerschmitt, Robert Lusser, and Walter Rethel, and launched in 1936, it first saw service during the Spanish Civil War and was to become the stalwart of Goering’s Luftwaffe, and the foil to the British Spitfire. In total, some 34,000 Me 109s entered service, making it the most produced combat aircraft in history.
> The state-of-the-art wind tunnel at the Herman Goering Aviation Research Institute, near Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in Lower Saxony, was one of Germany’s most closely shrouded military sites.
> Spread over 1,000 acres, the Institute’s 60 buildings were low-rise, nestling under the treeline, and well camouflaged from the air. As a result, until the end of the war, the facility and its 1,500 workers remained undiscovered (and were never bombed) by the Allies.
> The Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter we see being tested here was known to British and German fliers more simply as the Me 109. Designed by Willy Messerschmitt, Robert Lusser, and Walter Rethel, and launched in 1936, it first saw service during the Spanish Civil War and was to become the stalwart of Goering’s Luftwaffe, and the foil to the British Spitfire. In total, some 34,000 Me 109s entered service, making it the most produced combat aircraft in history.
https://www.military-history.org/articles/behind-the-image-wind-tunnel-testing-messerschmitt-bf-109-1940.htm
https://www.military-history.org/articles/behind-the-image-wind-tunnel-testing-messerschmitt-bf-109-1940.htm