Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after

Ernst Heinkel Dr. Ernst Heinkel (24 January 1888 – 30 January 1958) was a German aircraft designer, manufacturer, ''Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' in Nazi Germany, and member of the Nazi party. His company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke produced the Heinkel He 178, th ...

. It is noted for producing

bomber aircraft A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircraf ...

for the

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 ...

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 ...

and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with the pioneering examples of a successful

liquid-fueled rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (''I''sp). This allows the volume of the propellant ta ...

and a turbojet-powered aircraft in aviation history, with both Heinkel designs' first flights occurring shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

History

Following the successful career of

as the chief designer for the

Hansa-Brandenburg Hansa und Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke (more usually just Hansa-Brandenburg) was a German aircraft manufacturing company that operated during World War I. It was created in May 1914 by the purchase of ''Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke'' by Cami ...

aviation firm in World War I, Heinkel's own firm was established at

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busie ...

in 1922, after the restrictions on German aviation imposed by the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

were relaxed. By 1929, the firm's compressed air-powered

catapults A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored ...

were in use on the German

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

ocean-liners and to launch short-range mail planes from the liners' decks. The company's first post-World War I aircraft design success was the design of the all-metal, single-engined

Heinkel He 70 The Heinkel He 70 ''Blitz'' ("lightning") was a German mail plane and fast passenger monoplane aircraft of the 1930s designed by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, which was later used as a bomber and for aerial reconnaissance. It had a brief commercial ca ...

''Blitz'' high-speed

mail plane A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail. Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...

and airliner for

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...

in 1932, which broke a number of air speed records for its class. It was followed by the two-engine

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after th ...

''Doppel-Blitz'', which became a mainstay of the Luftwaffe during World War II as a bomber. Heinkel's most important designers at this point were the twin

Günter brothers Gunter or Günter may refer to: * Gunter rig, a type of rig used in sailing, especially in small boats * Gunter Annex, Alabama, a United States Air Force installation * Gunter, Texas, city in the United States People Surname * Chris Gunter ( ...

, Siegfried and Walter, and

Heinrich Hertel Heinrich Hertel (13 November 1901 in Düsseldorf – 5 December 1982) "Heinrich Hertel", in ''“The shoulders on which we stand”-Wegbereiter der Wissenschaft: 125 Jahre Technische Universität Berlin'', Eberhard Knobloch, ed. (Springer-Verlag, ...

. The firm's headquarters was in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

later known as ''Heinkel-Nord'' (Heinkel-North), located in what used to be named the ''Rostock''- ''Marienehe'' neighborhood (today's ''Rostock''- ''Schmarl'' community, along the west bank of the

Unterwarnow Unterwarnow is the estuary of the Warnow River in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, northern Germany. Connected with the Baltic Sea in Warnemünde. On the coasts of the estuary, the city of Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University ...

estuary), where the firm additionally possessed a factory airfield along the coastline in the Rostock/Schmarl neighborhood roughly three kilometers (1.9 miles) north-northwest of the main offices, with a second ''Heinkel-Süd'' engineering and manufacturing facility in

Schwechat Schwechat () is a town southeast of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. The city is home to the refineries of the Austrian national oil company OMV. Geography Schwechat is named after the river Schwechat, whi ...

, Austria, after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

in 1938.

World War II

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-774-0011-34, Produktion von Flugzeug Heinkel He 111 P-4

The Heinkel company is most closely associated with aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. This began with the adaptation of the He 70 and, in particular, the He 111, to be used as bombers. Heinkel also provided the Luftwaffe's only operational

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...

, the

Heinkel He 177 The Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffin) was a long-range heavy bomber flown by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed, by both problems with the development of its ...

, although this was never deployed in significant numbers. The German

equipped both of these bombers with the ''Z-Gerät'', ''Y-Gerät'', and ''Knickebein'', developed by

Johannes Plendl Johannes "Hans" Plendl (6 December 1900 – 10 May 1991), German radar pioneer, was the scientist whose airplane navigation inventions made possible the early German bombing successes in World War II. Early life Plendl was born in 1900 in Munich, ...

, and thus they were among the first aircraft to feature advanced night navigation devices, common in all commercial airplanes today. Heinkel was less successful in selling fighter designs. Before the war, the

Heinkel He 112 The Heinkel He 112 is a German fighter aircraft designed by Walter and Siegfried Günter. It was one of four aircraft designed to compete for the 1933 fighter contract of the ''Luftwaffe'', in which it came second behind the Messerschmitt Bf 10 ...

had been rejected in favour of the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

, and Heinkel's attempt to top Messerschmitt's design with the

Heinkel He 100 The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...

failed due to political interference within the

Reichsluftfahrtministerium The Ministry of Aviation (german: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse ...

(RLM — Reich Aviation Ministry). The company also provided the Luftwaffe with an outstanding night fighter, the

Heinkel He 219 The Heinkel He 219 ''Uhu'' (" Eagle-Owl") is a night fighter that served with the German Luftwaffe in the later stages of World War II. A relatively sophisticated design, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including Lichtenstein S ...

, which also suffered from politics and was produced only in limited numbers, but was the first Luftwaffe front-line aircraft to use retractable

tricycle gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

for its

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

design, and the world's first front-line military aircraft to use

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the aircraft pilot, pilot or other aircrew, crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an ex ...

s. By contrast, the only

to enter service with the ''Luftwaffe'' during the war years – the

''Greif'' – turned out to be one of the most troublesome German wartime aircraft designs, plagued with numerous engine fires from both its inadequate engine accommodation design and its general airframe design being mis-tasked, for a 30-meter (100 ft) class wingspan design, to be built to be able to perform moderate-angle

dive bombing A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughou ...

attacks from the moment of its approval by the RLM in early November 1937, which would not be rescinded until September 1942. From 1941 until the end of the war, the company was merged with engine manufacturer

Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen, Germany. It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group. Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop the Heinkel-Hirth jet en ...

to form Heinkel-Hirth, giving the company the capability of manufacturing its own powerplants, including its ''Heinkel Strahltriebwerke'' turbojet engine manufacturing firm. The Heinkel name was also behind pioneering work in

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

and

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

development, and also the German aviation firm that attempted to popularize the use of retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

, a relative rarity in early WW II German airframe design. In 1939, flown by

Erich Warsitz Erich Warsitz (18 October 1906, Hattingen, Westphalia – 12 July 1983) was a German test pilot of the 1930s. He held the rank of Flight-Captain in the Luftwaffe and was selected by the Reich Air Ministry as chief test pilot at Peenemünde We ...

, the

Heinkel He 176 The Heinkel He 176 was a German rocket-powered aircraft. It was the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fueled rocket, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls. It was a private ...

and

Heinkel He 178 The Heinkel He 178 was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was the world's first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine. The He 178 was developed to test the jet propul ...

became the first aircraft designs to fly under liquid-fuel rocket and

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

power respectively. Ruinen Heinkelwerk

Heinkel was the first to develop a jet fighter to prototype stage, the

Heinkel He 280 The Heinkel He 280 was the first turbojet-powered fighter aircraft in the world. It was inspired by Ernst Heinkel's emphasis on research into high-speed flight and built on the company's experience with the He 178 jet prototype. A combination ...

, the first Heinkel design to use and fly with retractable tricycle gear. In early 1942, the photographic interpretation unit at

RAF Medmenham RAF Medmenham is a former Royal Air Force station based at Danesfield House near Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. Activities there specialised in photographic intelligence, and it was once the home of the RAF Intelligence Branch. During ...

first saw evidence of the existence of the 280 in aerial reconnaissance photographs taken after a bombing raid on the Rostock factory. Thereafter, the Allies began intensive aerial reconnaissance intended to learn more about the German jet aircraft programme. The

He 219 The Heinkel He 219 ''Uhu'' (" Eagle-Owl") is a night fighter that served with the German Luftwaffe in the later stages of World War II. A relatively sophisticated design, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including Lichtenstein S ...

night fighter design was the first German frontline combat aircraft to have retracting tricycle gear, and the first operational military aircraft anywhere to use

s. Heinkel's He 280, the firm's only twin-jet aircraft design to fly never reached production, however, since the RLM wanted Heinkel to concentrate on bomber production and instead promoted the development of the rival

Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germa ...

. Very late in the war, a Heinkel single-jet powered fighter finally took to the air as the

Heinkel He 162 The Heinkel He 162 ''Volksjäger'' (German, "People's Fighter") was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Developed under the Emergency Fighter Program, it was designed and built quickly ...

A ''Spatz'' (sparrow) as the first military jet to use retractable tricycle landing gear, use a turbojet engine from its maiden flight forward, and use an ejection seat from the start, but it had barely entered service at the time of Germany's surrender.

Slave labour during World War II

Heinkel was a major user of

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

labour, using between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners on the He 177 bomber.

Post-war

Following the war, Heinkel was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft and instead built

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

motor scooter A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame, a seat, and a platform for the rider's feet, emphasizing comfort and fuel economy. Elements of scooter design were present in some of the earliest motorcycles ...

s (see below), and the Heinkel microcar. The company eventually returned to aircraft in the mid-1950s, licence building

F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

s for the West German Luftwaffe. In 1965, the company was absorbed by

Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW) was a West German aerospace manufacturer. The company was formed by the 1964 merger of two German aerospace firms, Focke-Wulf and Weser Flugzeugbau GmbH (Weserflug). The formation of VFW was a natural outco ...

(VFW), which was in turn absorbed by

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) was a West German aerospace manufacturer. It was formed during the late 1960s as the result of efforts to consolidate the West German aerospace industry; aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt AG merged with the civi ...

in 1980 and later became part of

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

. The company designed a

VSTOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at al ...

aircraft called the

Heinkel He 231 The EWR VJ 101 was an experimental German jet fighter vertical takeoff/landing (VTOL) tiltjet aircraft. VJ stood for ''Versuchsjäger'', ( German for "Experimental Fighter"). The VJ 101 was one of the first V/STOL designs to have the potential ...

(VJ 101A), intended to protect West Germany's airfields against Soviet attack.

Products

Aircraft

;HD - ''Heinkel Doppeldecker'' *

Heinkel HD 14 The Heinkel HD 14 was a single-engine biplane torpedo aircraft developed by the German aviation company Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the 1920s, and produced in a single prototype, under license, from Swedish by Svenska Aero in Stockholm. Deve ...

Heinkel HD 15 The Heinkel HD 15 was a single-engine biplane seaplane, developed by the German aeronautical company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the late 1920s and remained at the prototype stage. Design The HD 15 was a hydroplane with a central hull, character ...

Heinkel HD 16 The Heinkel HD 16 was a single-engine biplane torpedo aircraft developed by the German aviation company Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the nineteen-twenties and produced under license by Svenska Aero in Stockholm, Sweden. Development The Heink ...

Heinkel HD 17 The Heinkel HD 17 was a military reconnaissance aircraft produced in Germany in the late 1920s. Design The Heinkel HD 17 was a conventional single-bay biplane with strongly staggered wings of unequal span braced with N-type interplane struts ...

Heinkel HD 19 The Heinkel HD 19 W (or Svenska Aero J 4) was a biplane seaplane fighter developed by Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke . Development The Heinkel HD 19 W was the only naval fighter to be delivered to the Svenska Flygvapnet. Formed in 1926, the Sven ...

Heinkel HD 20 The Heinkel HD 20 was a twin engine, three seat German biplane built in 1926 for civil survey work. Design and development The Heinkel HD 20 was one of the early products of post-World War I aircraft companies after the Allies aviation ban was ...

Heinkel HD 21 The Heinkel HD 21 was a trainer built in Germany during the 1920s. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings braced with N-type interplane struts. The main units of the fixed, tailskid undercarriage were linked by a cross-a ...

* Heinkel HD 22 * Heinkel HD 23 *

Heinkel HD 24 The Heinkel HD 24 was a training seaplane developed in Germany in the late 1920s. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with equal-span, staggered wings. The fuselage was braced to both the upper and lower wings with a number of struts on i ...

seaplane trainer (1926) * Heinkel HD 25 * Heinkel HD 26 *

Heinkel HD 27 The Heinkel HD 27 was a mail-carrying transport built in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most po ...

Heinkel HD 28 The Heinkel HD 28 was a reconnaissance seaplane developed in Germany in the 1920s for export to Japan. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with equal-span, unstaggered wings and three cockpits in tandem. The fuselage was braced to both t ...

Heinkel HD 29 The Heinkel HD 21 was a Trainer (aircraft), trainer built in Germany during the 1920s. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with Stagger (aviation), staggered wings braced with N-type interplane struts. The main units of the fixed, Convention ...

Heinkel HD 30 The Heinkel HD 30 was a biplane reconnaissance seaplane developed by Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke. Development The Heinkel HD 30 was similar in layout to the Heinkel HD 19, but differed from the latter in being larger and having a Gnome-Rhô ...

Heinkel HD 32 The Heinkel HD 32 was a trainer developed in Germany in the 1920s, a derivative of the HD 21. Like that aircraft, it was a conventional, single-bay biplane, but had only two cockpits rather than the three that the HD 21 had. The other significa ...

* Heinkel HD 33 *

Heinkel HD 34 The Heinkel HD 34 was a reconnaissance bomber built in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most popu ...

* Heinkel HD 35 *

Heinkel HD 36 The Heinkel HD 36 was a Trainer (aircraft), trainer developed in Germany in the 1920s at the request of the Swedish Air Force, which was in search of a new trainer aircraft. The newly formed air force had previously evaluated the Heinkel HD 35, H ...

Heinkel HD 37 The Heinkel HD 37 was a fighter aircraft, designed in Germany in the late 1920s, but produced in the USSR for Soviet Air Force service. It was a compact, single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span, braced by N-type interplane stru ...

fighter (biplane) *

Heinkel HD 38 The Heinkel HD 38 was a fighter aircraft developed in Germany in the late 1920s. It was a compact, single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span, braced with N-type interplane struts, a refined version of the HD 37 that had been eval ...

fighter (biplane) *

Heinkel HD 39 The Heinkel HD 39 was a special-purpose cargo aircraft developed in Germany in the 1920s to distribute the Berlin newspaper '' B.Z.''. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with staggered wings of equal span, and a fuselage that nearly filled ...

Heinkel HD 40 The Heinkel HD 40 was a special-purpose cargo aircraft developed in Germany in the 1920s to distribute the Berlin newspaper '' B.Z.''. The success of Heinkel's previous design for the publisher, the HD 39, led to the order of a similar aircraft ...

Heinkel HD 41 The Heinkel HD 41 was a reconnaissance developed in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populou ...

Heinkel HD 42 The Heinkel HD 42 50, later designated the Heinkel He 42 was a German two-seat biplane seaplane originally designed for the ''Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule'', and later built for the German ''Luftwaffe''. The aircraft was used until the end of W ...

seaplane trainer *

Heinkel HD 43 The Heinkel Doppeldecker 43 was a prototype German fighter aircraft of the 1930s. A single-engined, single-seat biplane, the HD 43 was designed to meet a secret German ''Reichswehr'' requirement for a single-seat fighter. It had two-bay wooden wi ...

fighter (biplane) *

Heinkel HD 44 The Heinkel HD 44 was a special-purpose light transport aircraft developed in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Ru ...

* Heinkel HD 45 * Heinkel HD 46 *

Heinkel HD 49 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

Heinkel HD 50 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

Heinkel HD 55 The Heinkel HD 55 was a biplane flying boat produced in Germany in the early 1930s for use as a reconnaissance aircraft aboard Soviet warships. The design was based on the HD 15 mail plane of 1927 and was a conventional design for its time, with ...

reconnaissance flying boat * Heinkel HD 56 * Heinkel HD 59 *

Heinkel HD 60 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

Heinkel HD 61 The Heinkel He 45 was a light bomber produced in Germany in the early 1930s, one of the first aircraft adopted by the newly formed ''Luftwaffe''. Its appearance was that of a conventional biplane and included seating for pilot and gunner in tand ...

* Heinkel HD 62 *

Heinkel HD 63 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

Heinkel HD 66 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

;HE - ''Heinkel Eindecker'' *

Heinkel HE 1 The Heinkel HE 1 (aka Caspar S 1) was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane floatplane, designed in 1921 by German designer Ernst Heinkel at Caspar-Werke. The HE 1 was produced under licence in Sweden for the '' Marinen'' (Swedish Navy) in 1921 as th ...

low-wing floatplane (monoplane) * Heinkel HE 2 improvement on the HE 1 *

Heinkel HE 3 The Heinkel HE 3 was a sports aircraft built in Germany in the early 1920s. It was a conventional, low-wing monoplane with seating for three people in two tandem cockpits. The wing was a cantilever design, an unusual and advanced feature for th ...

Heinkel HE 4 The Heinkel HE 1 (aka Caspar S 1) was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane floatplane, designed in 1921 by German designer Ernst Heinkel at Caspar-Werke. The HE 1 was produced under licence in Sweden for the '' Marinen'' (Swedish Navy) in 1921 as ...

reconnaissance (monoplane) *

Heinkel HE 5 The Heinkel HE 5, produced in Sweden as the Svenska S 5 and nicknamed the "Hansa", was a reconnaissance floatplane built during the 1920s. It was a further development of the HE 1, sharing its same basic configuration as a low-wing, strut-brac ...

reconnaissance (monoplane) *

Heinkel HE 8 The Heinkel HE 8 was a reconnaissance floatplane built in Germany in the late 1920s. It was developed at the request of the Danish Navy, which had noted the success of the HE 5 in Swedish service, and wished to purchase a similar aircraft as wel ...

reconnaissance (monoplane) *

Heinkel HE 9 The Heinkel HE 9 was a reconnaissance seaplane developed by the German aviation company Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke AG in the late 1920s. The aircraft was equipped with 660 liters (492 kW) BMW VI . The planned crew consisted of three people. On ...

Heinkel HE 12 The Heinkel HE 12 was a pontoon-equipped mail plane built in Germany in 1929, designed to be launched by catapult from a liner at sea. Development The concept was hit upon after Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) had carried a Junkers F.13 seaplane ab ...

* Heinkel HE 18 ;He - ''Heinkel'' (RLM designator) * Heinkel He 45 bomber + trainer *

Heinkel He 46 The Heinkel He 46 was a German World War II-era monoplane designed in 1931 for the close reconnaissance and army co-operation roles. While it served with the ''Luftwaffe''s front-line units only briefly at the start of World War II, the He 46 serve ...

reconnaissance *

Heinkel He 49 The Heinkel He 49 was a German single-bay, single-seat biplane of mixed construction armed with two machine guns. Four variants were made, the He 49a, He 49b, He 49c and He 49d. Variants ''Data from: ;HD 49: original Heinkel designation for the ...

fighter (biplane) *

Heinkel He 50 The Heinkel He 50 was a German World War II-era dive bomber, originally designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Serving in ''Luftwaffe'' prewar dive-bombing units, the He 50 served until almost the end of World War II as a night harassment bomb ...

reconnaissance + dive bomber (biplane) *

Heinkel He 51 The Heinkel He 51 was a Nazi Germany, German single-seat biplane which was produced in a number of different versions. It was initially developed as a Fighter aircraft, fighter; a seaplane variant and a Ground-attack aircraft, ground-attack ...

fighter + close-support (biplane) *

Heinkel He 57 The Heinkel He 57 was a single engine amphibious flying boat built in 1929. Development The sole He 57 {factory designation HE.57) was built by the Ernst-Heinkel-Flugzeugwerken at Warnemunde in 1929. It was displayed at the Paris Aero Show i ...

''Heron'' * Heinkel He 58 *

Heinkel He 59 The Heinkel He 59 was a twin-engined German biplane designed in 1930, resulting from a requirement for a torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft able to operate on wheeled landing gear or twin-floats. Development In 1930, Ernst Heinkel bega ...

reconnaissance (biplane seaplane) *

Heinkel He 60 The Heinkel He 60 was a German single-engined biplane reconnaissance seaplane designed to be catapulted from ''Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) warships of the 1930s. Development and design The Heinkel He 60 was designed by Heinkel engineer Reinho ...

ship-borne reconnaissance (biplane seaplane) *

Heinkel He 62 The Heinkel He 62 was a reconnaissance seaplane designed in Germany in the early 1930s. It was a conventional, single-bay biplane with unstaggered wings of equal span. The pilot and gunner sat in tandem, open cockpits. A few aircraft were supp ...

reconnaissance seaplane *

Heinkel He 63 The Heinkel He 63 was a trainer biplane built in Germany in the early 1930s. It was a largely conventional design with single-bay wings, fixed tailskid undercarriage, and two open cockpits in tandem. An unusual feature of the design was the h ...

trainer biplane *

Heinkel He 64 The Heinkel He 64 was a sports plane built in Germany in 1933 to participate in the touring plane championships that year, designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter. Development The He 64 was a sleek, low-wing monoplane of conventional configura ...

sports plane *

"Blitz" (Lightning), single-engine transport + mailplane, 1932 *

Heinkel He 71 __NOTOC__ The Heinkel He 71 was a German single-seat monoplane, a smaller version of the two-seat Heinkel He 64. A low-wing monoplane with a fixed conventional landing gear, the prototype first flew with an open cockpit and a Hirth HM 60 engine ...

single-seat monoplane *

Heinkel He 72 The Heinkel He 72 ''Kadett'' ("Cadet") was a German single-engine biplane trainer of the 1930s. Development The ''Kadett'' was designed in 1933 to meet an official requirement for a basic trainer. It was a single-bay biplane of fabric-covered ...

''Kadett'' (Cadet), trainer * Heinkel He 74 fighter + advanced trainer (prototype) *

fighter *

bomber *

fighter *

Heinkel He 113 The Heinkel He 113 was a fictitious German fighter aircraft of World War II, invented as a propaganda and possibly disinformation exercise. Development In 1940, Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels publicised the fact that a new fighter ...

(fictitious alternative designation for He 100D-1) *

Heinkel He 114 The Heinkel He 114 was a sesquiwing reconnaissance seaplane produced for the ''Kriegsmarine'' in the 1930s for use from warships. It replaced the company's He 60, but did not remain in service long before being replaced in turn by the Arado Ar 1 ...

reconnaissance seaplane *

Heinkel He 115 The Heinkel He 115 was a three-seat World War II ''Luftwaffe'' seaplane. It was used as a torpedo bomber and performed general seaplane duties, such as reconnaissance and minelaying. The aircraft was powered by two 960 PS (947 hp, 720&n ...

general-purpose seaplane *

Heinkel He 116 The Heinkel He 116 was an extremely long-range mail plane designed to deliver airmail between Germany and Japan. Several examples were built for this role, as well as a small batch to be used in the long-range reconnaissance role. Development an ...

transport + reconnaissance *

Heinkel He 118 The Heinkel He 118 was a prototype German monoplane dive bomber design that lost out to the Junkers Ju 87 ''Stuka'' in the 1930s, and was never ordered by the ''Luftwaffe''. Design Designed by the Günter brothers, the He 118 followed many of t ...

Heinkel He 119 The Heinkel He 119 was an experimental single-propeller monoplane with two coupled engines, developed in Germany. A private venture by Heinkel to test radical ideas by the Günter brothers, the He 119 was originally intended to act as an unarmed ...

single-engine high-speed bomber (prototypes), reconnaissance aircraft, 1937 *

Heinkel He 120 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

four-engine long-range passenger flying-boat (project), 1938 *

''Spatz'' (sparrow), ''Volksjäger'' (People's Fighter) design competition choice, fighter (jet-engined) *

Heinkel He 170 The Heinkel He 70 ''Blitz'' ("lightning") was a German mail plane and fast passenger monoplane aircraft of the 1930s designed by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, which was later used as a bomber and for aerial reconnaissance. It had a brief commercial c ...

Heinkel He 172 The Heinkel He 72 ''Kadett'' ("Cadet") was a German single-engine biplane Trainer (aircraft), trainer of the 1930s. Development The ''Kadett'' was designed in 1933 to meet an official requirement for a basic trainer. It was a single-bay biplane ...

trainer (prototype) *

pioneering liquid-fueled rocket-powered experimental aircraft (prototype) *

''Greif'' (Griffon), the Third Reich's only long-range

world's first jet-engined aircraft *

''Uhu'' (Eagle-Owl), night-fighter *

Heinkel He 220 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

four-engine long-range passenger flying-boat (project), 1939 * Heinkel He 270 *

Heinkel He 274 The Heinkel He 274 was a German heavy bomber design developed during World War II, purpose-designed for high-altitude bombing with pressurized crew accommodation. Due to the Allied advance through Northwest Europe, the prototypes were abandone ...

high-altitude bomber, He 177 development, two prototypes completed post-war in France * Heinkel He 275 four-engine bomber; project only *

Heinkel He 277 The Heinkel He 277 was a four-engine, long-range heavy bomber design, originating as a derivative of the Heinkel He 177, He 177, intended for production and use by the Nazi Germany, German Luftwaffe during World War II. The main difference was in ...

heavy bomber, paper-only ''

Amerika Bomber The ''Amerikabomber'' () project was an initiative of the German Ministry of Aviation (''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'') to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the ''Luftwaffe'' that would be capable of striking the United States (specifical ...

'' He 177 development (by February 1943) with four

BMW 801 The BMW 801 was a powerful German air-cooled 14-cylinder-radial aircraft engine built by BMW and used in a number of German Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II. Production versions of the twin-row engine generated between 1,560 and 2,000 PS ( ...

E radial engines, never built *

Heinkel He 278 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

four-engine turboprop bomber; project only *

fighter (jet-engined) *

Heinkel He 343 The Heinkel He 343 was a quadjet bomber project designed by the German aircraft manufacturer Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke during the final years of the Second World War. It was intended to perform aerial reconnaissance and fighter-bomber operatio ...

four-engined bomber (jet-engined project), 1944 * Heinkel He 519, high-speed bomber (He 119 derivative; project only), 1944 *

Heinkel Type 98 Medium Bomber The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after th ...

- He 111 for service with the

IJNAS The was the air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The organization was responsible for the operation of naval aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. The Japanese military acquired their first aircraft in 1910 a ...

Heinkel A7He The Heinkel He 112 is a German fighter aircraft designed by Walter and Siegfried Günter. It was one of four aircraft designed to compete for the 1933 fighter contract of the ''Luftwaffe'', in which it came second behind the Messerschmitt Bf 10 ...

He 112 development for the

IJAAS The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...

Heinkel Navy Type He Interceptor Fighter The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...

He 100 development for the IJNAS P - ''Projekt'' * Heinkel P.1054 * Heinkel P.1062 * Heinkel P.1063 * Heinkel P.1064 * Heinkel P.1065 * Heinkel P.1066 * Heinkel P.1069 * Heinkel P.1070 * Heinkel P.1071 * Heinkel P.1072 * Heinkel P.1074 * Heinkel P.1075 *

Heinkel He P.1076 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

, A nearly conventional 1944 design, with slightly forward swept wings and

contra-rotating propellers Aircraft equipped with contra-rotating propellers, also referred to as CRP, coaxial contra-rotating propellers, or high-speed propellers, apply the maximum power of usually a single piston or turboprop engine to drive a pair of coaxial propell ...

at the front. *

Heinkel P.1077 The Heinkel P.1077 (or He P.1077) was a single seat interceptor design developed for the Luftwaffe by Heinkel under the Emergency Fighter Program during the last year of the Third Reich. This rocket-powered project was originally known as He P.1 ...

''Julia'' rocket-propulsion point-defense interceptor *

Heinkel P.1078 The Heinkel P.1078 (He P.1078) was a single seat interceptor developed for the Luftwaffe by Heinkel aircraft manufacturing company under the Emergency Fighter Program during the last years of the Third Reich. History As part of the Emergency Fig ...

* Heinkel He P.1078A, fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1078B, tailless fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1078C, tailless fighter (jet-engined) (project), 1944 *

Heinkel He P.1079A The Heinkel He P.1079 was a projected German V-tail all weather jet fighter designed by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the closing stages of World War II. The aircraft was only a design; it was not produced. Design and development In 1945, the Air Min ...

, two-engine night-fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1079B/I, all-weather heavy fighter (flying wing design) (jet-engined) * Heinkel He P.1079B/II, all-weather heavy fighter (flying wing design) (jet-engined), 1945 *

Heinkel Lerche The Heinkel Lerche ( en, Lark) was the name of a set of project studies made by German aircraft designer Heinkel in 1944 and 1945 for a revolutionary VTOL fighter and ground-attack aircraft. The ''Lerche'' was an early coleopter design. It would ...

Heinkel Wespe The Heinkel Wespe ( en, Wasp) was a project study by the German company Heinkel for a tail-sitting, vertical take off and landing-interceptor aircraft. The aircraft did not have conventional wings, but instead featured a large rotor. Completed in ...

Microcar

Heinkel introduced the "Kabine"

bubble car Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are often ...

in 1956. It competed with the BMW

Isetta The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became kno ...

and the

Messerschmitt KR200 The Messerschmitt KR200, or ''Kabinenroller'' (Cabin Scooter), is a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt from 1955 until 1964. History ...

. It had a

unit body A vehicle frame, also historically known as its ''chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a ...

and a

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

single-cylinder engine A single-cylinder engine, sometimes called a thumper, is a piston engine with one cylinder. This engine is often used for motorcycles, motor scooters, go-karts, all-terrain vehicles, radio-controlled vehicles, portable tools and garden machinery ...

.Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum: 1956 Heinkel Kabine
''www.microcarmuseum.com'', accessed 17 March 2021 Heinkel stopped manufacturing the Kabine in 1958 but production continued under licence, first by Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland and then by Trojan Cars Ltd., which ceased production in 1966.Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum: 1963 Trojan 200

Scooters

Heinkel introduced the "Tourist"

in the 1950s which was known for its reliability. A large and relatively heavy touring machine, it provided good weather protection with a full fairing and the front wheel turning under a fixed nose extension. The "Tourist" had effective streamlining, perhaps unsurprising in view of its aircraft ancestry, and although it had only a , 9.5

bhp BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

4-stroke engine, it was capable of sustaining speeds of up to (official figures ), given time to get there. Heinkel also made a lighter scooter called the Heinkel 150.Heinkel 150
Faraway Montevideo Heinkel 150 site, ''www.faraway.htmlplanet.com'', accessed 17 March 2021

Mopeds

Heinkel built the Perle

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typic ...

from 1954 to 1957.Biker Szene Interview with Ernst Heinkel's Son
/ref> The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...

, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the

swingarm A swingarm, or "swinging arm" (UK), originally known as a swing fork or pivoted fork, is a single or double sided mechanical device which attaches the rear wheel of a motorcycle to its body, allowing it to pivot vertically. The main component of ...

, and interchangeable wheels. This high level of sophistication came at a high cost.Wilson, H. "The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle" p. 77 Dorling-Kindersley Limited, 1995 CycleMaster PAGE 10. 1955 Earls Court Show: Debut of the ‘Mo-ped’ - "HEINKEL - Stand 96"
/ref> As with most mopeds, it had a

two-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

with a displacement of 50cc that operated on a mixture of gasoline and lubrication oil.Die Heinkel-Perle von Dieter Lammersdorf
''www.heinkel-club.de'', accessed 17 March 2021 Approximately twenty-seven thousand Perles were sold.

References

External links

Heinkel Motor ScootersHeinkel Scale ModelsThe official Erich Warsitz Website (world's first jet pilot), inclusive rare videos and audio commentaries
* {{Authority control Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany Scooter manufacturers Companies involved in the Holocaust

History

World War II

Slave labour during World War II

Post-war

Products

Aircraft

Microcar

Scooters

Mopeds

See also

References

External links