The Henschel Hs 127 was a German

bomber 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 air ...

that was built as two prototypes, but cancelled without entering mass production. In 1935, the RLM (''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'' - German Ministry of Aviation) published requests for a fast tactical bomber. Junkers, Focke-Wulf, Messerschmitt and Henschel all submitted designs. According to RLM specifications, the plane was to be able to maintain a speed of 500 km/h (313 mph) for 30 minutes, take-off to a height of 20 m (65 ft) in not more than 750 m (2,460 ft), and carry one defensive

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

and 500–800 kg (1,100-1,760 lb) of bombs. The crew was to consist of a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, a bombardier/

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

and a gunner. Focke-Wulf soon withdrew from participation, so three projects were presented: the future Hs 127, the

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

and the

Messerschmitt Bf 162 The Messerschmitt Bf 162 was a light bomber aircraft designed in Germany prior to World War II, which flew only in prototype form. Design and development The Bf 162 was designed in response to a 1935 RLM (''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'', Reic ...

. Prototypes were ordered of all three, with new

Daimler-Benz DB 600 The Daimler-Benz DB 600 was a German aircraft engine designed and built before World War II as part of a new generation of German engine technology. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Heinkel He ...

engines to be installed on all three types. The maiden flight of the Hs 127 V1 was at the end of 1937. The plane was smaller and lighter than the Ju 88 and had a very good top speed of 565 km/h (353 mph), but the Ju 88 was chosen because of its bigger bomb load. In May 1938, the contract for Hs 127 development was cancelled by the RLM and the third prototype was not finished. The Hs 127 was a 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 con ...

with

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

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 aircraf ...

. Its two-spar wing had an all-metal covering and was equipped with flaps. Its retractable gear had shock-absorbers to facilitate operations from poor airstrips. All three crew members sat in the nose.

Specifications

See also

References

Further reading