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Aviation History
1939
1939-1- - 0823.PDF
FLIGHT, September 21, 1939 THOSE HEINKEL BOMBERS *J±"~ ^gmmmm* •^mmM^"0'^ ^•'<m\MptOtS§T0*^' Exclusive Details oj the Efficient He 11 is. By H. F. KING I F England is attacked by the German Luftwaffe Heinkel twin-engined bombers of the genus He in will prob ably compose a large proportion, if not the majority, of the striking force. The Heinkel He in bombers have distinguished fore bears, and in the matters of aerodynamic and structural efficiency must be considered thoroughbreds. They are made, to the designs of Professor Dr.-Ing. Ernst Heinkel, by the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke G.m.b.H. at the big new factory at Oranienburg, near Berlin, at the old Heinkel plant at Marienehe, not far from Rostock, and, in all prob ability, in certain other works. Of the Oranienburg factory, Mr. S. Paul Johnston, editor of our American contemporary Aviation, wrote in January this year: "... it is probably the finest and best equipped of any aircraft factory in the world to-day. It was built from scratch about a year and a half ago really to produce airplanes—and it certainly can, and does. It is now entirely on Heinkel He in bombers with Jumo 211 direct- injection engines." The design of the He m bomber is based on that of a transport machine which was built "at the suggestion of Luft Hansa " in 1935. This shapely low-wing monoplane was originally powered with two 660 h.p. B.M.W. VI glycol-cooled vee-twelves, though the installation of more powerful supercharged inverted engines was envisaged. With the B.M.W.s the top speed was about 214 m.p.h., and with the early type of Daimler-Benz DB600 rather more than 250 m.p.h. Actually, the design of the He in followed that of the single-engined He 70, which, at the time of its introduction and for some years afterwards, was claimed to be, aerodynamically, A recent picture ot one of the short-nosed Heinkel He ins being refuelled during manoeu vres. The motor which drives the fuel pump is in the tent on the left. the most efficient aeroplane ever to take the air. As a commercial machine on Luft Hansa routes the He in was used only to a limited extent, but it was not long before the news found its way out of Germany that the type was in production as a high-speed bomber. Per formance figures for the military version were withheld, but it was obvious that they could be little inferior to those of the transport version with the same power plants, for excrescences were kept down to a minimum. The first military edition of the He in was designated the He 111K, and this type was delivered in very large numbers to the Luftwaffe. During the Spanish War units of He ins formed part of the Condor Legion, and are said to have acquitted themselves well. Rather "more than a year ago a modified version was introduced, having a re designed nose and certain other alterations. This model is now widely used, and forms the subject of the large Flight drawing accompanying this article. The official designation of this design is not known, though it may be the Type H or the Type J to which a reference has appeared in the Heinkel house journal. A specially prepared version of the He in (He 111U), flown by Flugkapitan Nitschke and Flugzeugfiihrer Dieterle on November 22, 1937, covered 621 miles with a load of 2,200 lb. at a speed of 313 m.p.h.
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