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#Post#: 11417--------------------------------------------------
Plane of the Week: Heinkel He-112
By: vonofterdingen Date: May 26, 2020, 5:29 pm
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I will continue the gullwing theme this week with the Heinkel
He 112. It is not a widely known aircraft and was only recently
introduced to our game by the modding community. It’s a looker
though, and probably would be much more famous today had it not
lost a design contest to the now iconic Messerschmitt ME-109.
From Wikipedia:
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
109. Small numbers were used for a short time by the Luftwaffe
and some were built for other countries, around 100 being
completed.
In the early 1930s, the German authorities started placing
orders for new aircraft, initially training and utility
aircraft. Heinkel, as one of the most experienced firms in the
country, received contracts for a number of two-seat aircraft,
including the He 45, He 46 and He 50. The company also worked on
single-seat fighter designs, which culminated in the He 49 and
later with the improved He 51.
When the He 51 was tested in combat in the Spanish Civil War,
it was shown that speed was far more important than
maneuverability. The Luftwaffe took this lesson to heart and
started a series of design projects for much more modern
aircraft.
In October 1933, Hermann Göring sent out a letter requesting
aircraft companies consider the design of a "high speed courier
aircraft" – a thinly veiled request for a new fighter. Each
company was asked to build three prototypes for run-off testing.
By spring 1935, both the Arado and Focke-Wulf aircraft were
ready, the BFW arriving in March, and the He 112 in April.
In early May 1934, despite Germany being under a prohibition
from the development of new military aircraft, the
Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) issued a request for a new
single-seat monoplane fighter under the guise that the proposal
was for creating a new 'sports plane'. The Technisches Amt
outlined specifications, for the supply of a new fighter
aircraft, that submissions for the competition had to meet
certain characteristics, including; a) have an all metal
construction, b) have a monoplane configuration, c) have
retractable landing gear, d) be capable of achieving a top speed
of at least 400 km/h (250 mph) at an altitude of 6,000 m (20,000
ft), e) endure ninety minutes at full throttle at 6,000 m
(20,000 ft) f) reach an altitude of 6,000 m (20,000 ft) in seven
minutes and have a service ceiling of 10,000 m (33,000 ft) g) be
able to be fitted with a Junkers Jumo 210 engine h) be armed
with either two 7.92mm fixed machine guns or one 20mm cannon and
i) have a wing loading of less than 100 kg/m^2.[3][4]
In February 1934 three companies, Arado, Bayerische
Flugzeugwerke (BFW) and Heinkel, were awarded contracts to
develop prototypes for the competition with a fourth company,
Focke-Wulf, being awarded the contract more than six months
later in September 1934. The prototypes that were eventually
submitted for the competition were the Arado Ar 80, Focke-Wulf
Fw 159, Heinkel He 112 and the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Heinkel
had begun development of their submission in late 1933 in
anticipation of the announcement. At the helm of their design
project were the Günter brothers, Siegfried and Walter,
designers of the He 111, who were then working on the design for
the He 112. The first prototype had its first flight in
September 1935.
The primary source of inspiration for the He 112 was their
earlier He 70 Blitz ("Lightning") design. The Blitz was a
single-engine, four-passenger aircraft originally designed for
use by Lufthansa, and it, in turn, was inspired by the famous
Lockheed Model 9 Orion mail plane. Like many civilian designs of
the time, the aircraft was pressed into military service and was
used as a two-seat bomber (although mostly for reconnaissance)
and served in this role in Spain. The Blitz introduced a number
of new construction techniques to the Heinkel company; it was
their first low-wing monoplane, their first with retractable
landing gear, their first all-metal monocoque design, and its
elliptical, reverse-gull wing would be seen on a number of later
projects. The Blitz could almost meet the new fighter
requirements itself, so it is not surprising that the Günters
would choose to work with the existing design as much as
possible.
Ernst Heinkel's He 112 submission was a scaled-down version
of the He 70, a fast mail-plane, sharing numerous features with
it including; an all-metal construction – including its oval
cross-section fuselage and two-spar monoplane wings which were
covered with flush-head rivets and stressed metal skin-, similar
inverted semi-elliptical gullwings and retractable landing gear.
The wide-track of the undercarriage, a result of having outward
retraction from the low point of the wing's gull-bend, granted
the aircraft excellent ground handling for take-off and landing.
The open cockpit and fuselage spine behind the headrest mounted
into the deep-section fuselage offered the pilot a good view
when taxiing and were included to provide excellent vision and
make the biplane-trained pilots feel more comfortable.
At the competing aircraft's demonstration flight for the RLM
in October 1935, the thick high-lift aerofoil and open cockpit
of the He 112 generated more drag than its contemporary
opponent, the Bf 109, causing its performance to suffer despite
being equipped with an identical engine. Whereas the Bf 109
prototype was able to clock in a top speed of 467 km/h (290
mph[10]), the He 112 could only manage 440 km/h (273 mph). The
other competing aircraft, the Arado Ar 80 and the Focke-Wulf Fw
159, had been plagued with problems from the outset and were
outclassed by both the Bf 109 and the He 112 resulting in them
being eliminated from any serious consideration. At the end of
the demonstrations, Messerschmitt and Heinkel were awarded
contracts to produce ten prototypes for further testing and
competitive trials.
At this point, the He 112 was the favorite over the "unknown"
Bf 109, but opinions changed when the Bf 109 V2 arrived on 21
March. All the competitor aircraft had initially been equipped
with the Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, but the Bf 109 V2 had the
Jumo. From that point on, it started to outperform the He 112 in
almost every way, and even the arrival of the Jumo-engined He
112 V2 on 15 April did little to address this imbalance.
The He 112 had better turn performance due to its larger
wing, but the Bf 109 was faster at all altitudes and had
considerably better agility and aerobatic abilities. During spin
tests on 2 March, the Bf 109 V2 showed no problems while the He
112 V2 crashed. Repairs were made to the aircraft and it was
returned in April, but it crashed again and was written off. The
V1 was then returned to Heinkel on 17 April and fitted with the
V2's clipped wings.
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Meanwhile, news came in that Supermarine had received a
contract for full-scale production of the Spitfire. The Spitfire
was far more advanced than any existing German aircraft and this
caused a wave of concern in the high command of the Luftwaffe.
Time now took on as much importance as any quality of the
winning aircraft itself, and the RLM was ready to put any
reasonable design into production. That design was the Bf 109,
which in addition to demonstrating better performance, was
considerably easier to build due to fewer compound curves and
simpler construction throughout. On 12 March RLM produced a
document called Bf 109 Priority Procurement which indicated
which aircraft was now preferred. There were some within the RLM
who still favored the Heinkel design, and as a result the RLM
then sent out contracts for 10 "zero series" aircraft from both
companies.
Testing continued until October, at which point some of the
additional zero series aircraft had arrived. At the end of
September, there were four He 112s being tested, yet none was a
match for the Bf 109. From October on, the Bf 109 appears to
have been selected as the winner of the contest. Although no
clear date is given, in Stormy Life Ernst Udet himself delivered
the news to Heinkel that the Bf 109 had entered series
production in 1936. He is quoted as saying, "Pawn your crate off
on the Turks or the Japanese or the Romanians. They'll lap it
up." With a number of air forces looking to upgrade from
biplanes and various designs from the early 1930s, the
possibility for foreign sales was promising.
When it was clear the 112 was losing the contest to the Bf
109, Heinkel offered to re-equip V6 with 20 mm cannon armament
as an experimental aircraft. She was then broken down and
shipped to Spain on 9 December and assigned to
Versuchsjagdgruppe 88, a group within the Legion Condor devoted
to testing new aircraft and joined three V-series Bf 109s which
were also in testing.
Wilhelm Balthasar, later a Battle of Britain ace pilot used
it to attack an armoured train and an armoured car. Other pilots
flew it, but the engine seized during landing in July and she
was written off.
During World War II, when Allied forces landed in North
Africa, Spanish forces in Morocco intercepted stray aircraft of
both Allied and German forces. None of these incidents resulted
in losses. In 1943, one He 112 of Grupo 27 attacked the tail-end
aircraft of 11 Lockheed P-38s forcing it down in Algeria after
they re-entered French territory having crossed into Spanish
Morocco. By 1944, the aircraft were largely grounded due to a
lack of fuel and maintenance.
With Romania now firmly in the German sphere of influence,
her efforts to re-arm for the coming war were suddenly strongly
backed. The primary concern was the air force, the FARR. Their
fighter force at the time consisted of just over 100 Polish PZL
P.11 aircraft, primarily the P.11b or the locally modified f
model, and P.24E. Although these aircraft had been the most
advanced fighters in the world in the early 1930s, by the late
1930s, they were hopelessly outclassed by practically
everything.
In April 1939, the FARR was offered the Bf 109 as soon as
production was meeting German demands. In the meantime, they
could take over 24 He 112Bs that were already built. The FARR
jumped at the chance and then increased the order to 30
aircraft.
Late in April, a group of Romanian pilots arrived at Heinkel
for conversion training, which went slowly because of the
advanced nature of the He 112 in comparison to the PZL. When the
training was complete, the pilots returned home in the cockpits
of their new aircraft. The aircraft, all of them B-1s or B-2s,
were "delivered" in this manner starting in July and ending in
October. Two of the aircraft were lost, one in a fatal accident
during training in Germany on 7 September, and another suffered
minor damage on landing while being delivered and was later
repaired at SET in Romania.
When the first aircraft started arriving, they were tested
competitively against the locally designed IAR.80 prototype.
This interesting and little known aircraft proved to be superior
to the He 112B in almost every way. At the same time, the test
flights revealed a number of disadvantages of the He 112,
notably the underpowered engine and poor speed. The result of
the fly-off was that the IAR.80 was ordered into immediate
production, and orders for any additional He 112s were
cancelled.
By 15 September, enough of the aircraft had arrived to
re-equip Escadrila 10 and 11. The two squadrons were formed into
the Grupul 5 vânătoare (5th Fighter Group), responsible for the
defense of Bucharest. In October, they were renamed as the 51st
and 52nd squadrons, still forming the 5th. The pilots had not
been a part of the group that had been trained at Heinkel, so
they started working their way toward the He 112 using Nardi
F.N.305 monoplane trainers. Training lasted until the spring of
1940, when a single additional He 112 B-2 was delivered as a
replacement for the one that crashed in Germany the previous
September.
During the troubles with Hungary, the 51st was deployed to
Transylvania. Hungarian Ju 86s and He 70s started making
reconnaissance flights over Romanian territory. Repeated
attempts to intercept them failed because of the He 112's low
speed. On 27 August, Locotenent Nicolae Polizu was over
Hungarian territory when he encountered a Caproni Ca.135bis
bomber flying on a training mission. Several of his 20 mm rounds
hit the bomber, which was forced down safely at the Hungarian
Debrecen airbase – home of the Hungarian He 112s. Polizu became
the first Romanian to shoot down an aircraft in aerial combat.
When Germany prepared to invade the USSR in 1941, Romania
joined it in an effort to regain the territories lost the year
before. The FARR was made part of Luftflotte 4, and in
preparation for the invasion, Grupul 5 vânătoare was sent to
Moldavia. At the time, 24 of the He 112s were flyable. Three
were left at their home base at Pipera to complete repairs, two
others had been lost to accidents, and the fate of the others is
unknown. On 15 June, the aircraft were moved again, to
Foscani-North in northern Moldavia.
With the opening of the war on 22 June, the He 112s were in
the air at 1050 supporting an attack by Potez 63s of Grupul 2
bombardment on the Soviet airfields at Bolgrad and Bulgărica.
Although some flak was encountered on the way to and over
Bolgrad, the attack was successful and a number of Soviet
aircraft were bombed on the ground. By the time they reached
Bulgărica, fighters were in the air waiting for them, and as a
result the 12 He 112s were met by about 30 I-16s. The results of
this combat were mixed; Sublocotenent Teodor Moscu shot down one
of a pair of I-16s still taking off. When he was pulling out, he
hit another in a head-on pass and it crashed into the Danube. He
was set upon by several I-16s and received several hits, his
fuel tanks were punctured but did not seal. Losing fuel rapidly,
he formed up with his wingman and managed to put down at the
Romanian airfield at Bârlad. His aircraft was later repaired and
returned to duty. Of the bombers, three of the 13 dispatched
were shot down.
Over the next few days, the He 112s would be used primarily
as ground-attack aircraft, where their heavy armament was
considered to be more important than their ability to fight in
the air. Typical missions would start before dawn and would have
the Heinkels strafe Soviet airbases. Later in the day, they
would be sent on search and destroy missions, looking primarily
for artillery and trains.
Losses were heavy, most not due to combat, but simply because
the aircraft were flying an average of three missions a day and
were not receiving adequate maintenance. This problem affected
all of the FARR, which did not have the field maintenance
logistics worked out at the time. On 29 July, a report on the
readiness of the air forces listed only 14 He 112s in flyable
condition, and another eight repairable. As a result, the
aircraft of the 52nd were folded into the 51st to form a single
full strength squadron on 13 August. The men of the 52nd were
merged with the 42nd who flew IAR.80s, and were soon sent home
to receive IAR.80s of their own. A report from August on the He
112 rated it very poorly, once again noting its lack of power
and poor speed.
For a time, the 51st continued in a front-line role, although
it saw little combat. When Odessa fell on 16 October, the
Romanian war effort ostensibly ended, and the aircraft were
considered to be no longer needed at the front. 15 were kept at
Odessa and the rest were released to Romania for training duty
(although they seem to have seen no use). On 1 November, the
51st moved to Tatarka and then returned to Odessa on the 25th,
performing coastal patrol duties all the while. On 1 July 1942,
the 51st returned to Pipera and stood down after a year in
action.
On 19 July one of the He 112s took to the air to intercept
Soviet bombers in what was the first night mission by a Romanian
aircraft. As the Soviets were clearly gearing up for a night
offensive on Bucharest, the 51st was then re-equipped with Bf
110 night fighters and became the only Romanian night fighter
squadron.
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In game…
I enjoy flying this plane in early war scenarios. It is
reasonably fast and maneuverable, and has a useful mix of cannon
and machine guns. It can be fitted with a small bomb load for
ground targets. There are some Romanian campaigns available for
the He-112, such as Poltava’s Romanian Barbarossa and my own
Invasion of Yugoslavia (DCG). The Heinkel will hold its own
against fighters of this period, including early Hawker
Hurricanes. The arrival in game also got the attention of some
great skin artists, so you will also find some wonderful German,
Romanian, and Bulgarian skins available for this plane.
#Post#: 11423--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Heinkel He-112
By: Beowolff Date: May 27, 2020, 10:10 am
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YES! What a beautiful plane! I like it a lot, as you said for
early fighting... I remember always thinking this little bird
was sweet and wondering why the Germans didn't do more with it.
It seemed to get short-shift from everyone which is a shame.
Very nice read here, Von! Thank you!
S!
Beo
#Post#: 11428--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Heinkel He-112
By: larsresult Date: May 27, 2020, 12:37 pm
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Political manoeuvres by Willy Messerschmitt made the Bf109 the
winner for the main contract. He emphasised the fuel tanks were
more vulnerable for one thing, but overall the He112 was a
better aircraft for the period. Not sure if it had the
development potential as the Bf109 had.
Who knows what the Battle of Britain would have looked like with
He112 escorts instead of Bf109s. Hard to imagine but with this
sim it can be done!
#Post#: 11432--------------------------------------------------
Re: Plane of the Week: Heinkel He-112
By: JG51_Ruski Date: May 28, 2020, 10:27 am
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Thank you Von for another good read and an insight to another
plane I never knew about
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