Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series
HA8757
Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 J-704, 7 Fliegerkompanie, Swiss Air Force, 1944 
 
General Background
The first German mass produced 109 fighter was the Bf-109E that has been mistakenly referred to as the Me-109. The Bf is the designator for the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) (Bavarian Aircraft Works) that produced the original aircraft. In 1938 Messerschmitt took over BFW but throughout WWII German handbooks and documents referred to the aircraft as the Bf-109. By the end of 1939 the Bf-109E (Emil) had replaced all other 109 variants and equipped 13 Gruppens with 40 aircraft each. The Bf-109 was the main single-engine aircraft until the Fw-190 came along.
 
The Aircraft
In 1940 the Swiss Air Force purchased 12 Me-109 G-6s from Germany and added 2 more captured aircraft. Messerschmitt Bf 109 G6 SAF J-704 Werk Nr 163245 Fliegerkompanie 7, joined the Swiss Air Force on May 26, 1944. The aircraft originally was Stkz RQ-BI. After two engine failure emergency landings, a lost canopy during flight and a crash into other aircraft on the ground. J-704 only had 57 hours flight time so it was repaired, repainted and fitted with a tall tail and withdrawn from service on February 2, 1947.