The Heinkel He 74 was a light
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
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 populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
in the early 1930s. It was a conventional,
single-bay
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 a ...
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 ...
with
staggered, unequal-span wings braced with an I-type
interplane strut
In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...
. The pilot sat in an open
cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
, and the
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 ...
was of the fixed, tailskid type.
It was designed in response to a
RLM requirement for a ''Heimatschutzjäger'' - a light fighter aircraft suitable for purely defensive duties and which would have a secondary role as an advanced
trainer for fighter pilots. Although it was not strictly a requirement of the specification, firms submitting designs were urged to use a
monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
layout.
During trials in 1934, the He 74 outperformed its competitors, but in the end, the RLM awarded it third place, behind the
Focke-Wulf Fw 56
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...
and
Arado Ar 76, believing that since the fighters then being developed were all monoplanes, this configuration was essential for an advanced trainer as well.
Specifications
References
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*
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External links
Luftwaffe Resource Centre
(Russian)
{{RLM aircraft designations
1930s German military trainer aircraft
He 074
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1933