This German four/five-seat bomber and torpedo dropper was in service from 1937-45 (Spain until 1965). Designed by the Günter brothers, who liked curving elliptical wings and tails, the He 111 made a name for itself in 1935 as a civil airliner, and later as a bomber that gained world records for high speed while carrying a heavy load. In 1938 the first mass-production versions, the four-seat He 111E and F, did very well in the Spanish Civil War, dropping heavy bomb loads and proving too fast for Republican fighters to catch easily. Thus the three hand-held machine guns carried by these aircraft appeared adequate. The E, used in large numbers by the prewar Luftwaffe, carried eight 551lb bombs, dropped tail-first from vertical cells in the beautifully streamlined fuselage to tumble end-over-end in a way that rivals said spoilt accuracy. But by the time World War II broke out the standard production model was quite different. The He 111P had broad straight-tapered wings, and an odd offset nose with no separate cockpit for the pilot. With two 1100hp DB 601A engines it was only slightly slower than the earlier models, at 247mph, but with full bomb load it was slower still. During most of the war the production version was the H-series with 1,350hp Jumo 211F engines. Despite the higher power these were so burdened by bombs, missiles and extra protection that few exceeded 220mph.
It was in the Battle of Britain that the He 111 was recognized as inadequate when intercepted by modern fighters. By May 1941 the RAF's radar-equipped Beaufighters could even shoot the waddling Heinkels down at night, though in the 1940 Blitz they devastated many of Britain's cities, especially in the Coventry raid aided by navigation device. In Russia in 1941 they were again able to bomb effectively, but despite being laden with extra guns and armor the He 111 was never again to be a real menace. Because the Luftwaffe had no replacement, the old Heinkel, called "The Spade" by its crews, stayed in production until the end of 1944, long after it had become obsolescent. About 7,300 were built, and most of the final batches were equipped to launch the "V-1" flying bomb against English cities after the original launch sites had been captured. There were many special versions, including torpedo carriers, magnetic-mine exploders and barrage-balloon cable-cutters, but the strangest was the He 111Z, for towing the Me 321 glider; it had two He 111's joined on a singel wing, with a fifth engine in the center.
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Origin:Ernst Heinkel AG; also built in France on German account by SNCASO; built under licence by Fabrica de Avione SET, Romania, and CASA, Spain.
Type:four-seat or five-seat medium bomber (later, torpedo bomber, glider tug and missile launcher).
Engines
He 111H-3) two 1,200hp Jumo 211D-2 12-cylinder inverted-vee liquid-cooled; (He 111P-2) two 1,100hp Daimler-Benz DB 601A-1 12-cylinder inverted-vee liquid-cooled.
Armament
P-2) 7.92mm Rheinmetall MG 15 machine gun on manual mountings in nosecap, open dorsal position and ventral gondola; (H-3) same, plus fixed forward-firing MG 15 or 17, two MG 15's in waist windows and (usually) 20mm MG FF cannon in front of ventral gondola and (sometimes) fixed rear-firing MG 17 in extreme tail; internal bomb load up to 4,410lb (2,000kg) in vertical cells, stored nose-up; external bomb load (at expense of internal) one 4,410lb (2,000kg) on H-3 or two 1,102lb (500kg) on others; later marks carried one or two 1,686lb (765kg) torpedoes, Bv 246 glide missiles, Hs 293 rocket missiles, Fritz X radio-controlled glide bombs or one FZG-76 ("V-1") cruise missile.
Speed:maximum speed (H-3) 258mph (415km/h); (P-2) 242mph (390km/h) at 16,400ft (5,000m) (at maximum weight neither version could exceed 205mph, 330km/h).
Climb:climb to 14,765ft (4,500m) 30-35min at normal gross weight, 50min at maximum..
Ceiling:service ceiling (both) around 25,590ft (7,800m) at normal gross weight, under 16,400ft (5,000m) at maximum.
Range:range with maximum bomb load (both) about 745 miles (1,200km).
Weight:empty (H-3) 17,000lb (7,720kg); (P-2) 17,640lb (8,000kg); maximum loaded (H-3) 30,865lb (14,000kg); (P-2) 29,762lb (13,500kg).
Wingspan
H-3) 74ft 13/4in (22.6m).
Length
H-3) 53ft 91/2in (16.4m).
Height
H-3) 13ft 11/2in (4m).
Crew:five/six.
History:first flight (He 111V1 prototype) 24 February 1935; (pre-production He 111B-0) August 1936; (production He 111B-1) 30 October 1936; (first He 111E series) January 1938; (first production He 111P-1) December 1938; (He 111H-1) January or February 1939; final delivery (He 111H-23) October 1944; (Spanish C.2111) late 1956.
Users:China, Germany (Luftwaffe, Lufthansa), Hungary, Iraq, Romania, Spain, Turkey.
