The Heinkel He 64 was a sports plane 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 populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1933 to participate in the touring plane championships that year, designed by

Siegfried and Walter Günter Siegfried Günter (8 December 1899 – 20 June 1969) and Walter Günter (8 December 1899 – 21 September 1937) were German twin brothers and pioneering aircraft designers. Walter was responsible for the world's first rocket-powered and tu ...

Development

The He 64 was a sleek, low-wing

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 ...

of conventional configuration with fixed, tailskid undercarriage. The pilot and passenger sat in tandem under a streamlined

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

. Six examples were entered in the championships, which represented almost every example of the type built, the only exception being the first

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 ...

, which had crashed.

Operational history

The He 64s shone in speed-related trials, taking the first three places in the 7,363 km (4,601 mi) ''Europa Rundflug'' ("Rally over Europe"), and the first five places in top speed trials. They also had high positions in minimal speed trial. Although no He 64 had won in any of the other categories, these wins were sufficient to gain pilot

Fritz Morzik __NOTOC__ Friedrich-Wilhelm Morzik (10 December 1891 – 17 June 1985) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Morzik was a winner in the first Internat ...

an overall tied second place in the contest. One He 64C was imported into the United Kingdom in 1933 for flap research, at first with

Handley Page Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation a ...

then with the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

until 1935. This aircraft later flew in

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until 1952.

Variants

;He 64a:The prototype of the He 64 family. ;He 64b:Initial production version ;He 64c:Later production offering a variety of powerplants, including the

de Havilland Gipsy III The de Havilland Gipsy is a British air-cooled four-cylinder in-line aircraft engine designed by Frank Halford in 1927 to replace the ADC Cirrus in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth light biplane. Initially developed as an upright 5 litre (300 ...

Hirth HM 504A-2 The Hirth HM 504 is a four-cylinder air-cooled inverted inline engine. The HM 504 was a popular engine for light aircraft of the 1930s-1940s, and it was used to power a number of Germany's trainer aircraft of World War II. The engine featured a ...

and

Hirth HM 506 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 eng ...

;He 64d:Two examples of a high speed version were built, powered by the standard

Argus As 8R The Argus As 8 was a four-cylinder, air-cooled, inverted inline aircraft engine produced in Germany by Argus Motoren in the 1930s. Variants ;As 8A:Initial production version maximum for 5 minutes, continuous. ;As 8B:A more powerful variant de ...

but with elliptical planform wings similar to those fitted to the He 70 and no

Handley Page slat Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a result of angle of attack and speed ...

s. The maximum speed was increased to .

Specifications (He 64b)

References

Bibliography

* * Heinze, Edwin P.A
"The New Heinkel He 64".
''Flight'': 848-50, 9 September 1932. Retrieved: 24 April 2008. * Nowarra, Heinz. ''Die deutsche Luftrüstung 1933-1945''. Bonn: Bernard and Graefe, 1983, pp. Teil 2, 173–175. * Taylor, Michael J.H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Studio Editions, 1989, pp. 501. .

External links

Heinkel He-64
{{RLM aircraft designations 1930s German sport aircraft He 064 Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1933