The Messerschmitt Me-155 B

The threat of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress appearing over Germany led to the development of a number of high altitude interceptors for the Luftwaffe. One of them was the Messerschmitt Me-155B. This aircraft was powered by the Daimler Benz DB-628 engine. Detail design started in 1942. The RLM feared that Messerschmitt was too busy to complete the design and put pressure on the company to transfer the design to Blohm & Voss in Hamburg.

Messerschmitt refused this and carried on with the design by itself. The first prototype of the Me-155 B was ready in February 1944 and it flew on the 17th of that month. Flight testing progressed rapidly and in September the RLM chose the ME-155 over the rival design by Focke Wulf, the Ta-152H.

The first production version, the Me-155 B-1 was delivered to the Luftwaffe in March 1945 and quickly made a name for itself among the allied bomber crews. the Me-155 was heavily armed and fast enough to evade the escorting P-51 fighters.

Despite the good performance of the Me-155 B, there were too few aircraft to stem the deadly bomber stream and the aircraft failed to turn the tide of defeat for the Luftwaffe.

The aircraft depicted is a Me-155B-3 fighter of JG 300 which was based in Dortmund in May 1945.

The Model

The Model is a 1/48 resin kit by MTS