Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing

bomber aircraft 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 ...

for the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with the pioneering examples of a successful liquid-fueled rocket and a turbojet-powered aircraft in aviation history, with both Heinkel designs' first flights occurring shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

History

Following the successful career of Ernst Heinkel as the chief designer for the Hansa-Brandenburg aviation firm in World War I, Heinkel's own firm was established at Warnemünde in 1922, after the restrictions on German aviation imposed by the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...

were relaxed. By 1929, the firm's compressed air-powered catapults were in use on the German

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of ...

ocean-liners and to launch short-range mail planes from the liners' decks. The company's first post-World War I aircraft design success was the design of the all-metal, single-engined Heinkel He 70 ''Blitz'' high-speed mail plane and airliner for Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1932, which broke a number of air speed records for its class. It was followed by the two-engine

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a " wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after t ...

''Doppel-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 twin Günter brothers, Siegfried and Walter, and Heinrich Hertel. The firm's headquarters was in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state ...

later known as ''Heinkel-Nord'' (Heinkel-North), located in what used to be named the ''Rostock''- ''Marienehe'' neighborhood (today's ''Rostock''- ''Schmarl'' community, along the west bank of the Unterwarnow 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 second ''Heinkel-Süd'' engineering and manufacturing facility in Schwechat, Austria, after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germa ...

in 1938.

World War II

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-774-0011-34, Produktion von Flugzeug Heinkel He 111 P-4

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 operational

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range ( takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larg ...

, the Heinkel He 177, although this was never deployed in significant numbers. The German

equipped both of these bombers with the ''Z-Gerät'', ''Y-Gerät'', and ''Knickebein'', developed by Johannes 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, the Heinkel He 112 had been rejected in favour of the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

, and Heinkel's attempt to top Messerschmitt's design with the

Heinkel He 100 The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...

failed due to political interference within the

Reichsluftfahrtministerium The Ministry of Aviation (german: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrass ...

(RLM — Reich Aviation Ministry). The company also provided the Luftwaffe with an outstanding night fighter, the Heinkel He 219, which also suffered from politics and was produced only in limited numbers, but was the first Luftwaffe front-line aircraft to use retractable tricycle gear for its undercarriage design, and the world's first front-line military aircraft to use

ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rock ...

s. By contrast, the only

to enter service with the ''Luftwaffe'' during the war years – the Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' – turned out to be one of the most troublesome German wartime aircraft designs, plagued with numerous engine fires from both its inadequate engine accommodation design and its general airframe design being mis-tasked, for a 30-meter (100 ft) class wingspan design, to be built to be able to perform moderate-angle dive bombing attacks from the moment of its approval by the RLM in early November 1937, which would not be rescinded until September 1942. From 1941 until the end of the war, the company was merged with engine manufacturer

Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen, Germany. It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group. Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop the Heinkel-Hirth jet en ...

to form Heinkel-Hirth, giving the company the capability of manufacturing its own powerplants, including its ''Heinkel Strahltriebwerke'' turbojet engine manufacturing firm. The Heinkel name was also behind pioneering work in

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

and

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entir ...

development, and also the German aviation firm that attempted to popularize the use of retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ...

, a relative rarity in early WW II German airframe design. In 1939, flown by Erich Warsitz, the Heinkel He 176 and Heinkel He 178 became the first aircraft designs to fly under liquid-fuel rocket and

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, a ...

power respectively. Ruinen Heinkelwerk

Heinkel was the first to develop a jet fighter to prototype stage, the Heinkel He 280, the first Heinkel design to use and fly with retractable tricycle gear. In early 1942, the photographic interpretation unit at RAF 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. The

He 219 The Heinkel He 219 ''Uhu'' (" Eagle-Owl") is a night fighter that served with the German Luftwaffe in the later stages of World War II. A relatively sophisticated design, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including Lichtenstein ...

night fighter design was the first German frontline combat aircraft to have retracting tricycle gear, and the first operational military aircraft anywhere to use

s. 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 rival

Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: " Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: " Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Ge ...

. Very late in the war, a Heinkel single-jet powered fighter finally took to the air as the Heinkel He 162A ''Spatz'' (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.

Slave labour during World War II

Heinkel was a major user of Sachsenhausen concentration camp labour, using between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners on the He 177 bomber.

Post-war

Following the war, Heinkel was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft and instead built

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

s, motor scooters (see below), and the Heinkel microcar. The company eventually returned to aircraft in the mid-1950s, licence building F-104 Starfighters for the West German Luftwaffe. In 1965, the company was absorbed by Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which was in turn absorbed by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1980 and later became part of

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

. The company designed a VSTOL aircraft called the Heinkel He 231 (VJ 101A), intended to protect West Germany's airfields against Soviet attack.

Products

Aircraft

;HD - ''Heinkel Doppeldecker'' * Heinkel HD 14 * Heinkel HD 15 * Heinkel HD 16 * Heinkel HD 17 * Heinkel HD 19 * Heinkel HD 20 * Heinkel HD 21 * Heinkel HD 22 *

Heinkel HD 23 The Heinkel HD 23 was a carrier-borne fighter biplane designed in Germany at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the 1920s, for export to Japan. Two examples were delivered to Aichi is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. A ...

* Heinkel HD 24 seaplane trainer (1926) *

Heinkel HD 25 The Heinkel HD 25 was a two-seat shipboard biplane reconnaissance floatplane developed in Germany during the 1920s for production in Japan. Development It was intended to provide a spotter aircraft for warships, to take off from a short ramp si ...

Heinkel HD 26 The Heinkel HD 26 was a reconnaissance seaplane developed in Germany during the 1920s for production in Japan. It was intended as a smaller, single-seat counterpart to the HD 25, to provide a spotter aircraft for warships, to take off from a ...

* Heinkel HD 27 * Heinkel HD 28 * Heinkel HD 29 * Heinkel HD 30 * Heinkel HD 32 * Heinkel HD 33 * Heinkel HD 34 * Heinkel HD 35 * Heinkel HD 36 * Heinkel HD 37 fighter (biplane) *

Heinkel HD 38 The Heinkel HD 38 was a fighter aircraft developed in Germany in the late 1920s. It was a compact, single-bay biplane with staggered wings of unequal span, braced with N-type interplane struts, a refined version of the HD 37 that had been ...

fighter (biplane) * Heinkel HD 39 * Heinkel HD 40 * Heinkel HD 41 * Heinkel HD 42 seaplane trainer * Heinkel HD 43 fighter (biplane) * Heinkel HD 44 * Heinkel HD 45 * Heinkel HD 46 * Heinkel HD 49 * Heinkel HD 50 * Heinkel HD 55 reconnaissance flying boat * Heinkel HD 56 * Heinkel HD 59 * Heinkel HD 60 * Heinkel HD 61 * Heinkel HD 62 * Heinkel HD 63 *

Heinkel HD 66 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

;HE - ''Heinkel Eindecker'' *

Heinkel HE 1 The Heinkel HE 1 (aka Caspar S 1) was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane floatplane, designed in 1921 by German designer Ernst Heinkel at Caspar-Werke. The HE 1 was produced under licence in Sweden for the '' Marinen'' (Swedish Navy) in 1921 as ...

low-wing floatplane (monoplane) *

Heinkel HE 2 The Heinkel He 2, produced in Sweden as the Svenska S 3 and nicknamed the "Hansa", was a reconnaissance floatplane built in small numbers to equip the Swedish Navy in the 1920s. It was a refinement of the HE 1, sharing its same basic configurati ...

improvement on the HE 1 * Heinkel HE 3 *

Heinkel HE 4 The Heinkel HE 1 (aka Caspar S 1) was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane floatplane, designed in 1921 by German designer Ernst Heinkel at Caspar-Werke. The HE 1 was produced under licence in Sweden for the '' Marinen'' (Swedish Navy) in 1921 as ...

reconnaissance (monoplane) *

Heinkel HE 5 The Heinkel HE 5, produced in Sweden as the Svenska S 5 and nicknamed the "Hansa", was a reconnaissance floatplane built during the 1920s. It was a further development of the HE 1, sharing its same basic configuration as a low-wing, strut-braced ...

reconnaissance (monoplane) * Heinkel HE 8 reconnaissance (monoplane) * Heinkel HE 9 * Heinkel HE 12 * Heinkel HE 18 ;He - ''Heinkel'' (RLM designator) *

Heinkel He 45 The Heinkel He 45 was a light bomber produced in Germany in the early 1930s, one of the first aircraft adopted by the newly formed ''Luftwaffe''. Its appearance was that of a conventional biplane and included seating for pilot and gunner in tan ...

bomber + trainer *

Heinkel He 46 The Heinkel He 46 was a German World War II-era monoplane designed in 1931 for the close reconnaissance and army co-operation roles. While it served with the '' Luftwaffe''s front-line units only briefly at the start of World War II, the He 46 s ...

reconnaissance *

Heinkel He 49 The Heinkel He 49 was a German single-bay, single-seat biplane of mixed construction armed with two machine guns. Four variants were made, the He 49a, He 49b, He 49c and He 49d. Variants ''Data from: ;HD 49: original Heinkel designation for th ...

fighter (biplane) * Heinkel He 50 reconnaissance + dive bomber (biplane) * Heinkel He 51 fighter + close-support (biplane) * Heinkel He 57 ''Heron'' *

Heinkel He 58 The Heinkel HE 12 was a Pontoon (boat), pontoon-equipped mail plane built in Germany in 1929, designed to be launched by Aircraft catapult, catapult from a liner at sea. Development The concept was hit upon after Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) had ...

* Heinkel He 59 reconnaissance (biplane seaplane) * Heinkel He 60 ship-borne reconnaissance (biplane seaplane) *

Heinkel He 62 The Heinkel He 62 was a reconnaissance seaplane designed in Germany in the early 1930s. It was a conventional, single-bay biplane with unstaggered wings of equal span. The pilot and gunner sat in tandem, open cockpits. A few aircraft were supp ...

reconnaissance seaplane * Heinkel He 63 trainer biplane *

Heinkel He 64 The Heinkel He 64 was a sports plane built in Germany in 1933 to participate in the touring plane championships that year, designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter. Development The He 64 was a sleek, low-wing monoplane of conventional config ...

sports plane * Heinkel He 70 "Blitz" (Lightning), single-engine transport + mailplane, 1932 *

Heinkel He 71 __NOTOC__ The Heinkel He 71 was a German single-seat monoplane, a smaller version of the two-seat Heinkel He 64. A low-wing monoplane with a fixed conventional landing gear, the prototype first flew with an open cockpit and a Hirth HM 60 engi ...

single-seat monoplane * Heinkel He 72 ''Kadett'' (Cadet), trainer * Heinkel He 74 fighter + advanced trainer (prototype) *

fighter *

bomber * Heinkel He 112 fighter * Heinkel He 113 (fictitious alternative designation for He 100D-1) * Heinkel He 114 reconnaissance seaplane * Heinkel He 115 general-purpose seaplane * Heinkel He 116 transport + reconnaissance * Heinkel He 118 * Heinkel He 119 single-engine high-speed bomber (prototypes), reconnaissance aircraft, 1937 * Heinkel He 120 four-engine long-range passenger flying-boat (project), 1938 * Heinkel He 162 ''Spatz'' (sparrow), ''Volksjäger'' (People's Fighter) design competition choice, fighter (jet-engined) *

Heinkel He 170 The Heinkel He 70 ''Blitz'' ("lightning") was a German mail plane and fast passenger monoplane aircraft of the 1930s designed by Heinkel, Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, which was later used as a bomber and for aerial reconnaissance. It had a brief comme ...

* Heinkel He 172 trainer (prototype) * Heinkel He 176 pioneering liquid-fueled rocket-powered experimental aircraft (prototype) * Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffon), the Third Reich's only long-range

* Heinkel He 178 world's first jet-engined aircraft * Heinkel He 219 ''Uhu'' (Eagle-Owl), night-fighter * Heinkel He 220 four-engine long-range passenger flying-boat (project), 1939 * Heinkel He 270 * Heinkel He 274 high-altitude bomber, He 177 development, two prototypes completed post-war in France * Heinkel He 275 four-engine bomber; project only * Heinkel He 277 heavy bomber, paper-only '' Amerika Bomber'' He 177 development (by February 1943) with four

BMW 801 The BMW 801 was a powerful German air-cooled 14-cylinder- radial aircraft engine built by BMW and used in a number of German Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II. Production versions of the twin-row engine generated between 1,560 and 2,000 P ...

E radial engines, never built * Heinkel He 278 four-engine turboprop bomber; project only * Heinkel He 280 fighter (jet-engined) * Heinkel He 343 four-engined bomber (jet-engined project), 1944 *

Heinkel He 519 The Heinkel He 119 was an experimental single-propeller monoplane with two coupled engines, developed in Germany. A private venture by Heinkel to test radical ideas by the Günter brothers, the He 119 was originally intended to act as an unarm ...

, high-speed bomber (He 119 derivative; project only), 1944 * Heinkel Type 98 Medium Bomber - He 111 for service with the IJNAS * Heinkel A7He He 112 development for the IJAAS * Heinkel Navy Type He Interceptor Fighter He 100 development for the IJNAS P - ''Projekt'' * Heinkel P.1054 * Heinkel P.1062 * Heinkel P.1063 * Heinkel P.1064 * Heinkel P.1065 * Heinkel P.1066 * Heinkel P.1069 * Heinkel P.1070 * Heinkel P.1071 * Heinkel P.1072 * Heinkel P.1074 * Heinkel P.1075 * Heinkel He P.1076, A nearly conventional 1944 design, with slightly forward swept wings and contra-rotating propellers at the front. * Heinkel P.1077 ''Julia'' rocket-propulsion point-defense interceptor * Heinkel P.1078 *

Heinkel He P.1078A The Heinkel P.1078 (He P.1078) was a single seat interceptor developed for the Luftwaffe by Heinkel aircraft manufacturing company under the Emergency Fighter Program during the last years of the Third Reich. History As part of the Emergency Figh ...

, fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1078B, tailless fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1078C, tailless fighter (jet-engined) (project), 1944 * Heinkel He P.1079A, two-engine night-fighter (jet-engined) (project) * Heinkel He P.1079B/I, all-weather heavy fighter (flying wing design) (jet-engined) * Heinkel He P.1079B/II, all-weather heavy fighter (flying wing design) (jet-engined), 1945 * Heinkel Lerche *

Heinkel Wespe The Heinkel Wespe ( en, Wasp) was a project study by the German company Heinkel for a tail-sitting, vertical take off and landing-interceptor aircraft. The aircraft did not have conventional wings, but instead featured a large rotor. Completed in ...

Microcar

Heinkel introduced the "Kabine" bubble car in 1956. It competed with the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt KR200. It had a unit body and a

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either direct ...

single-cylinder engine.Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum: 1956 Heinkel Kabine
''www.microcarmuseum.com'', accessed 17 March 2021 Heinkel stopped manufacturing the Kabine in 1958 but production continued under licence, first by Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland and then by Trojan Cars Ltd., which ceased production in 1966.Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum: 1963 Trojan 200

Scooters

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 full fairing 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 , 9.5 bhp 4-stroke engine, it was capable of sustaining speeds of up to (official figures ), given time to get there. Heinkel also made a lighter scooter called the Heinkel 150.Heinkel 150
Faraway Montevideo Heinkel 150 site, ''www.faraway.htmlplanet.com'', accessed 17 March 2021

Mopeds

Heinkel built the Perle

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds ty ...

from 1954 to 1957.Biker Szene Interview with Ernst Heinkel's Son
/ref> The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels. This high level of sophistication came at a high cost.Wilson, H. "The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle" p. 77 Dorling-Kindersley Limited, 1995 CycleMaster PAGE 10. 1955 Earls Court Show: Debut of the ‘Mo-ped’ - "HEINKEL - Stand 96"
/ref> As with most mopeds, it had a

two-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...

with a displacement of 50cc that operated on a mixture of gasoline and lubrication oil.Die Heinkel-Perle von Dieter Lammersdorf
''www.heinkel-club.de'', accessed 17 March 2021 Approximately twenty-seven thousand Perles were sold.

References

External links

Heinkel Motor ScootersHeinkel Scale ModelsThe official Erich Warsitz Website (world's first jet pilot), inclusive rare videos and audio commentaries
* {{Authority control Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany Scooter manufacturers Companies involved in the Holocaust