The Heinkel HD 42 50, later designated the Heinkel He 42 was a German two-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

originally designed for the ''

Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule The Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule (DVS), German Air Transport School, was a covert military-training organization operating as a flying school in Germany. It began during the Weimar Republic in Staaken, Berlin in 1925 and its head office was tran ...

'', and later built for the German ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

''. The aircraft was used until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a trainer for maritime pilots.

Design and development

In 1929, Heinkel developed a biplane, the HD 42, for use with the covert military-training organization ''

'' (DVS). Its

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

was constructed out of a welded steel tube truss and had a rectangular cross-section with a rounded top. The engine covers were made out of light-weight metal, while the rest of the fuselage was covered in fabric. The aircraft was equipped with floats. The HD 42 model received good feedback from the Swedish Navy, who had purchased the aircraft, as well as from the famous pilot

Gunther Plüschow Gunther Plüschow (February 8, 1886 – January 28, 1931) was a German aviator, aerial explorer and author from Munich, Bavaria. His feats include the only escape by a German prisoner of war in World War I from Britain back to Germany; he was ...

(who was the first airman to fly over the Patagonian mountains of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

). The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

was equipped with a BMW Va engine, but the later versions came with a

Junkers L5 The Junkers L 5 was a six-cylinder, water-cooled, inline engine for aircraft built in Germany during the 1920s. First run in 1925, it was a much enlarged development of the Junkers L2. Design and development The Junkers L5 was a development of J ...

G engine. Ten aircraft had been manufactured by 1932, when a new version, the He 42C was rolled out. Series production began with the He 42D model (14 manufactured) which were intended for the German Air Force, which at the time was illegal. A further 189 He 42Es were built in 1934 and these aircraft were used by various flying schools until the end of

Variants

;HD 42:Prototype aircraft ;He 42C: ;He 42D:First series produced model, 14 built ;He 42E:Second series produced model, 189 built

Operators

; *''

Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force ( bg, Военновъздушни сили, Voennovazdushni sili) is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and p ...

'' ; *''

Swedish Air Force The Swedish Air Force ( sv, Svenska flygvapnet or just ) is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. History The Swedish Air Force was created on 1 July, 1926 when the aircraft units of the Army and Navy were merged. Because of the es ...

'' ; *''

Royal Romanian Naval Aviation The Romanian Naval Aviation was the air arm of the Royal Romanian Navy. It was founded in 1920 as ''Escadrila de hydroplane'' (Seaplane Squadron) and operated Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 floatplanes and Hansa-Brandenburg FB flying boats. These were foll ...

''Cristian Crăciunoiu, Jean-Louis Roba, ''Aeronautica română în al doilea război mondial'', Modelism, 2003, p. 259 (contains translations in English)

Specifications (He 42C-2)

References

{{RLM aircraft designations 1930s German military trainer aircraft Biplanes He 042 Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1929

Design and development

Variants

Operators

Specifications (He 42C-2)

See also

References