All Thomas Gunn aircraft are hand carved in mahogany and take around 60 hours to manufacture, each comes with a full interior and all are limited editions.

LIMITED-EDITION! NINE MODELS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE! WE HAVE THEM ALL! AIKEN'S AIRPLANES EXCLUSIVE!

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War and was still in service at the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II in 1945. It was one of the most advanced fighters of the era, including such features as all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. It was powered by a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine. From the end of 1941, the Bf 109 was steadily being supplemented by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. The Bf 109 was commonly called the Me 109, most often by Allied aircrew and even amongst German air crews themselves, even though this was not an official German designation. The designation "Messerschmitt Bf 109" was issued by the Ministry of Aviation (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) and represents the firm that originally built them, the "Bavarian Aircraft Works", or Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) in German. The confusion arose because design work began in 1934 at the BFW firm and as was customary, the model was designated by the prefix Bf. On July 11, 1938 the company was renamed Messerschmitt AG due to Willy Messerschmitt becoming its new owner, and the prefix Me was applied to all new models after that date, whilst existing types retained their Bf prefix. Whilst the 109 was conceived as an interceptor, later models were developed to fulfil multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day-, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and as a reconnaissance aircraft. It was supplied to and operated by several states during World War II, it also served with several countries for many years after the war. The Bf 109 is the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 airframes produced from 1936 up to April 1945. The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring German fighter aces of World War II, who claimed 928 victories among them whist flying with Jagdgeschwader 52, mainly on the Eastern Front. The highest scoring fighter ace of all time, Erich Hartmann, flew the Bf 109 and was credited with 352 aerial victories. The aircraft was also flown by Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign who achieved 158 aerial victories. It was also flown by several other aces from Germany's allies, notably Finn Ilmari Juutilainen, the highest scoring non-German ace on the type, and pilots from Italy, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Through constant development, the Bf 109 remained competitive with the latest Allied fighter aircraft right through until the end of the war. Our hand carved 1/30 scale Mahogany aircraft is the 'Gustav' version flown by Hermann Graf (24 October 1912 - 4 November 1988) who became the first pilot in aviation history to claim 200 aerial victories. In about 830 combat missions he claimed a total of 212 aerial victories, almost all of which were achieved on the Eastern Front. Graf's success started after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he claimed his first aerial victory on 4 August 1941. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross after 45 victories on 24 January 1942. It was during the second summer of the eastern campaign; however, that his success rate dramatically increased. By 16 September 1942 his number of victories had increased to 172 for which he was honoured with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. At the time of its presentation to Graf, it was Germany's highest military decoration. On 26 September 1942 he shot down his 200th enemy aircraft. By then a national hero, Graf was withdrawn from combat operations and posted to a fighter pilot training school in France before being tasked with the setting up of a new special unit: Jagdgeschwader 50 (JG 50-Fighter Wing 50). Its mission was as a high-altitude unit to intercept the de Havilland Mosquito intruders. In November 1943 Graf returned to combat operations. He was appointed Geschwaderkommodore (Wing Commander) of Jagdgeschwader 11 (JG 11-11th Fighter Wing) and claimed his last and 212th aerial victory on 29 March 1944. He was severely injured during that encounter and, after a period of convalescence, became Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52-52nd Fighter Wing). He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to units of the United States Army on 8 May 1945, but were turned over to the Red Army. Graf was held in Soviet captivity until 1949. After the war he worked as an electronic sales manager and died after a long illness in his home town of Engen on 4 November 1988.

Info: BF-109 as flown by Hermann Graf Display Model, Aiken's Airplanes Exclusive! - Includes complimentary TG-AERO001A figure!