born June 26, 1898, Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
died Sept. 17, 1978, Munich, W.Ger.
German aircraft designer.
From 1926 he was chief designer and engineer at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in Augsburg, Ger., which in 1938 became Messerschmitt AG. In 1939 his first military aircraft, the Messerschmitt 109 (Me 109), set a speed record of 481 mph (775 km/hr). In World War II his factory produced 35,000 Me 109's for the German air force, as well as the Me 110 bomber, the Me 163 rocket-propelled plane, and the Me 262, the first combat jet. Under a postwar ban on aircraft production, his firm made prefab housing and sewing machines until 1958.