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 August 1939. In January 1943, as part of an effort to increase fighter production, Messerschmitt licensed an SS-owned company, DEST, to manufacture Bf 109 parts at Flossenbürg concentration camp using the expertise of Messerschmitt engineers and the labor of inmates. Because the prisoners were not paid, the enterprise was highly profitable for both Messerschmitt and the SS. After a USAAF bombing raid damaged the Messerschmitt factory at Regensburg in August 1943, some Bf 109 production was relocated to Gusen in Austria, the most brutal Nazi labor camp. Aircraft parts were manufactured by prisoners, whose average life expectancy was six months.