The Messerschmitt Me 109TL is one of those aircraft that appeared in the early days of World of Warplanes and was almost forgotten....
Originally, it was introduced as a tier IX German Fighter, above the Me 262 and below the Me 262 HG III. Some archived reviews from testing back then praised the aircraft for being nearly unstoppable, when flown correctly and downright deadly when flighted.
However, a few months before the official launch of the game, the Me 109 TL was switched out for the Me 262 HG II and it's fate remained a bit of a mystery (along with a few other tester favorites that have yet to make a return appearance).
There was a real plane, called the Bf 109 TL, well, almost....
In January 1943, the Bf 109TL concept was offered as a fallback option if the Me 262 did not come to production (at the time only three prototypes of the Me 262 had been completed and tested) or as a complementary fighter to operate alongside the Me 262, if production went forward.
The TL was a cobbled together project, the fuselage would come from the Bf 109H, cockpits from the Bf 109E/G, the wing to be sourced from the later aborted Me 409 project and the tricycle undercarriage came from the tested and abandoned Me 309. The same Junkers Jumo 004B-1 and/or BMW 003A jets from the Me 262 would also to be used. Proposed armament was to be 2X 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons and 2X MK 103 cannons mounted in the nose.
Despite design modifications and initial testing, the project was abandoned in March 1943, to focus on the final details of the Me 262. No known mockups, models or prototypes are know to exist today.
Although the real Bf 109 TL was lost to to annals of time, the Me 109 TL was brought back to life in World of Warplanes two years ago now and I have been having fun with it ever since....
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