page_title: Light fighter
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Light fighter / History / WWII / Germany
caption_attribution_description: A German Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4/Trop of Jagdgeschwader 27 (27th Fighter Wing) in flight, off the North African coast in the summer of 1941.
context_page_description: A Light fighter or lightweight fighter is a fighter aircraft towards the low end of the practical range of weight, cost, and complexity over which fighters are fielded. The light or lightweight fighter retains carefully selected competitive features, in order to provide cost-effective design and performance.
  A well-designed lightweight fighter is able to match or better a heavier type plane-for-plane in many missions, and for lower cost. The lightweight class can therefore be strategically valuable.
  In attempts to scale this efficiency to still lower cost, some manufacturers have in recent years adopted the term “light fighter” to also refer to light primarily air-to-ground attack aircraft, some of which are modified trainer designs.
  From 1926 the light fighter concept has been a regular thread in the development of fighter aircraft, with some notable designs entering large-scale use.
context_section_description: The German Messerschmitt Bf 109 entered service in 1937 and became the most-produced fighter in history, with nearly 34,000 built. The design philosophy of the Bf 109 was to wrap a small airframe around a powerful engine using Messerschmitt's "lightweight construction" principle, which aimed to minimize the weight and number of separate parts in the aircraft. By concentrating wing, engine and landing gear weight in the firewall, the structure of the Bf 109 could be made relatively light and simple. The Bf 109 was the second-smallest major fighter aircraft of World War II and the lightest in the European theater. The "E" version used in the Battle of Britain had an empty weight of 2,010 kg (4,431 lb). The more heavily armed and powerful G version used later in the war had an empty weight of 2,700 kg (5,900 lb). In comparison, its main fighter opponents weighed 2,100 kg (4,640 lb) to 5,800 kg (12,800 lb).
caption: The German Bf 109 was the second smallest major fighter of WWII, and produced in greater numbers than any fighter in history.
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