Bf 109K Kurfurst (Elector) (letter I was not used by the Ministry of Aviation, and J was assigned to a modification of a fighter with a Hispano-Suiza engine), was a modified version of the Bf 109G-10, which received a number of factory-installed kits used on series G aircraft and some aerodynamic improvements.
The first pre-production Bf 109K-0 - appeared in September 1944 and differed from the last modification of the G series by the increased hood height, an elongated spinner and two trim tabs on the rudder. The plane was equipped with the so-called Galland lantern, a wooden keel, a retractable tail wheel on an elongated strut. Armament consisted of a 30 mm MK 108 motor cannon and two MG 151 151 cannons on the fuselage, half open. If the pre-production Bf 109K-0 were equipped with DB 605DB engines with afterburner GM 1, then the serial ones received DB 605ASCM or DB 605DCM - the latter with GM 1. The first aircraft left the assembly line in October 1944. These were the Bf 109K-2 and K-4, differing only in the cabin pressurization on the latter.
The last aircraft of the K-4 series received a 30-mm MK-103 cannon instead of the MK-108 propulsion cannon, but the 65-mm cover that covered the gun barrel made replacing the latter in the field with a non-trivial task. The MK-103 cannon was also installed on the Bf 109K-6, the main task of which was the fight against bombers, for which it carried two more 30-mm MK-103 in underwing gondolas, however, the fuselage MG.151 were again replaced by 13-mm machine guns MG.131. Deliveries of the Bf 109K-6 to fighter groups began in January 1945, but before the collapse of the Third Reich, only a few of these machines arrived - given that its takeoff weight (3600 kg) made it so poorly controlled, it actually was happiness for the Luftwaffe pilots in the face of complete air superiority of the Allies. Subscribe! #Bf-109k4 #history #WWII