TheHeinkel HD 26 was areconnaissanceseaplane developed in Germany during the 1920s for production in Japan. It was intended as a smaller, single-seat counterpart to theHD 25, to provide a spotter aircraft forwarships and to take off from a short ramp. The HD 26 was a conventionalbiplane withstaggered wings, twin floatundercarriage, and an opencockpit.
The pattern aircraft supplied by Heinkel was powered by a 300 hp Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine, but the single example of theAichi Navy Type 2 Single-seat Reconnaissance Seaplane built byAichi had an Aichi-built 420 hpBristol Jupiter VI instead. Launching ramps were built on thebattleshipNagato and thecruiserFurutaka for trials, but the HD 25 and HD 26 were already obsolete.[1]
