Messerschmitt M 31

The Messerschmitt M 31, also called the BFW M.31, was a radial-engined German two-seat sports plane of 1932 with a low cantilever wing, open cockpits and a fixed undercarriage, of which only one was built. It was one of the series of low-wing sports monoplanes Willy Messerschmitt produced at Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, and like the M.27 it had the same wingspan as the M.23c. It was a tandem two-seat monoplane with a low cantilever wing and braced tailplane, a fuselage below the decking more rounded than on earlier types and built from two longitudinal panels per side, and an unspatted fixed undercarriage. A neatly cowled five-cylinder BMW Xa radial of 45 kW drove a two-blade propeller, and some considered it the most elegant of the series. It first flew in 1932 and was shown at the German Aerosport exhibition of 1933, but no orders were placed and only the prototype was built.