The Messerschmitt 109 fighter series was initiated in the mid-19305 by a company named the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. Professor Willy Messerschmitt became their chief designer during this period but the company was not named for him at the time. According to the usual system of providing an abbreviated label for an aircraft derived (there were rare exceptions) from the manufacturer's name, the 109 and 110 series of fighters are usually known today, quite correctly, as the Bf 109 and Bf 110. Later on the company name changed to Messerschmitt and the later aircraft equally correctly became the Me 163, Me 262 and Me 410, to name only the most prominent. However, to anyone who was around at the time when the aircraft were at war the early ones too were always labelled 'Me' so the best known fighters, to all of us then, were the Me 109 and Me 110.
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