Model Aircraft Museum, AMA - Airplanes and Rockets

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Construction Details of the Messerschmitt "Jaguar"
October 1941 Flying Aces

Flying Aces October 1941 - Airplanes and Rockets

These pages from vintage modeling magazines like Flying Aces, Air Trails, American Modeler, American Aircraft Modeler, Young Men, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, captured the era. All copyrights acknowledged.

When this detailed construction of the Messerschmitt "Jaguar" bomber appeared in the October 1941 issue of Flying Aces magazine, not many Americans suspected that within weeks the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor and draw the country formally into World War II. That included the other primary "Axis" power, Germany. Jaguars had been routinely dropping bombs all over Europe for years. News of the increasing aggressiveness of Hitler's hoards fill newspaper front pages and nightly news on radio (not many televisions at the time), but that was "over there," not on our shores. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes. As with so many other areas of technology, the Germans were very good aircraft designers and builders. The Jaguar was considered a medium range bomber. It had a wingspan of 55 feet, similar to the De Havilland Mosquito bomber with a 54 foot wingspan. By comparison, the Mitchell B−25 had a 67 foot wingspan.

Construction Details of the Messerschmitt "Jaguar"

by Leonard Wieczorek