 | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1922 |
| Founder | Ernst Heinkel |
| Defunct | 1965 |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW) |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Robert Lusser |
| Services | Aircraft engines |
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke (German pronunciation:[ˈhaɪŋkəlˈfluːktsɔʏkˌvɛʁkə]) was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named afterErnst Heinkel. It is noted for producingbomber aircraft for theLuftwaffe inWorld War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with the pioneering examples of a successfulliquid-fueled rocket and aturbojet-powered aircraft in aviation history, with both Heinkel designs' first flights occurring shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe.
Following the successful career ofErnst Heinkel as the chief designer for theHansa-Brandenburg aviation firm in World War I, Heinkel's own firm was established atWarnemünde in 1922, after the restrictions on German aviation imposed by theTreaty of Versailles were relaxed. By 1929, the firm's compressed air-poweredcatapults were in use on the GermanNorddeutscher Lloyd ocean-linersSS Bremen andEuropa to launch short-range mail planes from the liners' decks.[1]
The company's first post-World War I aircraft design success was the design of the all-metal, single-enginedHeinkel He 70Blitz high-speedmail plane and airliner forDeutsche Luft Hansa in 1932, which broke a number of air speed records for its class. It was followed by the two-engineHeinkel He 111Doppel-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 twinGünter brothers, Siegfried and Walter, andHeinrich Hertel.
The firm's headquarters was inRostock later known asHeinkel-Nord (Heinkel-North), located in what used to be named theRostock-Marienehe neighborhood (today'sRostock-Schmarl community,along the west bank of theUnterwarnow 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 secondHeinkel-Süd engineering and manufacturing facility inSchwechat, Austria, after theAnschluss in 1938.
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 operationalheavy bomber, theHeinkel He 177, although this was never deployed in significant numbers. The GermanLuftwaffe equipped both of these bombers with theZ-Gerät,Y-Gerät, andKnickebein, developed byJohannes Plendl, 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, theHeinkel He 112 had been rejected in favour of theMesserschmitt Bf 109, and Heinkel's attempt to top Messerschmitt's design with theHeinkel He 100 failed due to political interference within theReichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM — Reich Aviation Ministry). The company also provided the Luftwaffe with an outstanding night fighter, theHeinkel He 219, which also suffered from politics and was produced only in limited numbers, but was the first Luftwaffe front-line aircraft to use retractabletricycle gear for itsundercarriage design, and the world's first front-line military aircraft to useejection seats. By contrast, the onlyheavy bomber to enter service with theLuftwaffe during the war years – theHeinkel He 177Greif – turned out to be one of the most troublesome German wartime aircraft designs, plagued with numerousengine fires from both its inadequate engine nacelle design and its general airframe design being mis-tasked. The 30-meter (100 ft) class wingspan design was to be built to be able to perform moderate-angledive bombing attacks from the moment of its approval by theRLM in early November 1937, until this was rescinded in September 1942.[2]
From 1941 until the end of the war, the company was merged with engine manufacturerHirth to formHeinkel-Hirth, giving the company the capability of manufacturing its own powerplants, including itsHeinkel Strahltriebwerke turbojet engine manufacturing firm.
The Heinkel name was also behind pioneering work injet engine androcket development, and also the German aviation firm that attempted to popularize the use of retractabletricycle landing gear, a relative rarity in early WW II German airframe design. In 1939, flown byErich Warsitz,[3] theHeinkel He 176 andHeinkel He 178 became the first aircraft designs to fly under liquid-fuel rocket andturbojet power respectively.
Heinkel was the first to develop a jet fighter to prototype stage, theHeinkel He 280, the first Heinkel design to use and fly with retractable tricycle gear. In early 1942, the photographic interpretation unit atRAF Medmenham 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.[4]
TheHe 219 night fighter design was the first German frontline combat aircraft to have retracting tricycle gear, and the first operational military aircraft anywhere to useejection seats. 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 rivalMesserschmitt Me 262. Very late in the war, a Heinkel single-jet powered fighter finally took to the air as theHeinkel He 162ASpatz (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.
Heinkel was a major user ofSachsenhausen concentration camp labour, using between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners on the He 177 bomber.[5]
Following the war, Heinkel was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft and instead builtbicycles,motor scooters (see below), and theHeinkel microcar. The company eventually returned to aircraft in the mid-1950s, licence buildingLockheed MartinF-104 Starfighters for theWest German Luftwaffe. In 1965, the company was absorbed byVereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which was in turn absorbed byMesserschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1980 and later became part ofAirbus.
Entwicklungsring Süd, a research and development conglomeration in a joint venture withBölkow andMesserschmitt, designed theEWR VJ 101A/He 231, aVSTOL prototype, intended to protect West Germany's airfields againstSoviet attack.[6]
P -Projekt
Heinkel introduced the "Kabine"bubble car in 1956. It competed with theBMWIsetta and theMesserschmitt KR200. It had aunit body and afour-strokesingle-cylinder engine.[7]
Heinkel stopped manufacturing the Kabine in 1958 but production continued under licence, first by Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland and then byTrojan Cars Ltd., which ceased production in 1966.[7][8]
Heinkel introduced the "Tourist"motor scooter in the 1950s which was known for its reliability. A large and relatively heavy touring machine, it provided good weather protection with a fullfairing 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 174 cc (10.6 cu in), 9.5bhp 4-stroke engine, it was capable of sustaining speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) (official figures 58 miles per hour (93 km/h)), given time to get there.
Heinkel also made a lighter 150 cc (9.2 cu in) scooter called the Heinkel 150.[9]
Heinkel built the Perlemoped from 1954 to 1957.[10] The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloyunit frame, rearsuspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with theswingarm, and interchangeable wheels. This high level of sophistication came at a high cost.[11][12] As with most mopeds, it had atwo-stroke engine with a displacement of 50cc that operated on a mixture of gasoline and lubrication oil.[13] Approximately twenty-seven thousand Perles were sold.[10]
THE HEINKEL K2 catapult installed upon the North German Lloyd liner "Bremen," which figured prominently in the establishment of the recent trans-Atlantic mail record, is the result of two years of experimentation and development by Dr. Ernst Heinkel, its designer.
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