The Hispano Aviación Buchon is a licence-built version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 developed in Spain during and after World War II.
In 1942, the Spanish government arranged a manufacturing licence with Messerschmitt AG to build the Bf 109G-2, although the DB 605A engines, propellers, instruments and weapons were to be supplied from Germany. This proved impossible as Germany was incapable of meeting its own needs, let alone Spain's, and only 25 airframes (without their tails) and less than half the necessary drawings were actually delivered.[1] Consequently, Hispano Aviación replaced the DB 605A engine with the 1,600 hp HS 89-12Z and the project was renamed Bf 109J by Messerschmitt.[2] The HS 89-12Z engine performed a successful flight in a Bf 109E used as a flying testbed in Barcelona in 1944, and the first HA-1109-J1L made its maiden flight on 2 March 1945 in Seville, using a VDM propeller and lash-up engine mounting.[3] The remaining 24 airframes were flown during 1947–9 with Escher-Wyss props, but never became operational. In May 1951, a developed version, the HA-1112-K1L, improved the Hispano-Suiza, HS 17-12Z engine installation, and carried either one or two Breda machine guns and Pilatus eight-packs of 80mm rockets. Its three-bladed de Havilland Hydromatic propeller earned it the nickname Tripala ("three blades").[3] It first flew in 1951, and although 200 were planned only 65 were built. The Hispano engine was an upright V12 instead of the inverted V12 Daimler-Benz DB 601 & 605 engines used in the Bf 109 but, being of compact design, it fitted the airframe of the Bf 109 well and was able to credibly represent the Bf 109 in the German 1957 film Der Stern von Afrika (The Star of Africa) about Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille. The original design, starting with the Bf 109F, had an asymmetrical tail-fin aerofoil with a left deflection to counteract the torque from the Daimler-Benz's clockwise rotation. Because this was left unchanged in the Buchón despite the Hispano V12 having a counter-clockwise rotation, the tail and the engine together induced a right swing on takeoff tha
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Keywords: aeroplane, battle, britain, fighter, military, war, warbird, ww2
