The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

109 could out-dive the British fighters and that therefore his only chance of
escape was by quickly diving away. The Hurricane followed after him, but
could not catch up, having lost precious seconds.
The Me 109 also suffered little sideslip when banking, unlike the
Spitfire and Hurricane. Sideslip occurred because of the change of airflow
caused by the turn, which meant it would literally slide, or drop a bit of
altitude. But by keeping this to a minimum, an attacker could keep an
enemy aircraft in his sights with greater ease.
It is true that in the Daimler-Benz 601 the Me 109 had a beast of a
powerplant, but in addition to its supercharger and airscrew, it was the
thrust from this engine combined with superb airframe design and high
wing loading that gave the Me 109E such high speed and aggressive
handling. Wing loading refers to the weight of the aircraft divided by the
area of the wing, and on the Me 109E was 32 lb per square foot, while that
of the Spitfire Mk I was 25 lb per square foot – in other words, it was much
higher on the Me 109 than on the Spitfire. This was because the Me 109E
had comparatively small wings; the Spitfire had very thin wings, but their
elliptical shape gave them quite a large surface area. The advantage of small
wings is that speed is created by forward thrust countering drag; thus, the
smaller the wings, the less the drag, and this contributed to greater speed.
There is, however, a pay-off for having high wing loading, namely that
the aircraft will stall at higher speeds. A stall occurs when the airflow over
the wing reaches a stage where it no longer provides lift, at which point the
aircraft starts to drop out of the sky. This is not necessarily a problem when
operating at height, but it can be when taking off and landing, when the
aircraft would be necessarily travelling at low speeds. Inexperienced Me
109 pilots could find taking off particularly difficult because the propeller
would be rotating one way, creating enormous torque. This meant that lift
was being caused over one of the wings and prop-wash – airflow over the
wing caused by the propeller – over the other. This needed to be corrected
by use of the rudder and aileron, but if a pilot was not careful, he could
over-correct, the aircraft would roll, and he would crash into the ground.
When coming in to land, the high stalling speed was lowered by slats at
the front of the wing, which automatically extended from the leading edge
of the wings at around 110 mph, and flaps at the back, thus giving the wings
greater surface area and preventing the aircraft from stalling. Me 109 pilots,
however, could use this capability in combat to help them achieve a tighter