Messerschmitt Bf 109 was called the Me 109R, suggesting it was just another variant of the standard fighter, but in fact it was a racing aircraft having little in common with the Bf 109. It was powered by the DB 601ARJ, producing 1,156 kW (1,550 hp), but capable of reaching 1,715 kW (2,300 hp). This world record for a piston-engined aircraft was to stand until 1969, when Darryl Greenamyer's modified Grumman F8F Bearcat, "Conquest I", broke it with a 777 km/h (483 mph) record speed. When the Bf 109 was designed in 1934, by a team led by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser,
Messerschmitt Bf 109 outstanding rate of climb was superior to many Allied adversaries including the P-51D Mustang, Spitfire Mk. XIV, and Hawker Tempest Mk. V. After the war, the 109 was built in Czechoslovakia, as the Avia S-99 and S-199, and in Spain as the Hispano Aviación Ha 1109 and 1112 Total Bf 109 production was 33,984 units; Wartime production (September 1939 to May 1945) was 30,573 units. Fighter production totalled 47% of all German aircraft production, and the Bf 109 accounted for 57% of all German fighter types produced. A total of 2,193 Bf 109 A–E was built prewar, from 1936 to