Heinkel He 116
The Heinkel He 116 Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a four -engine low-wing aircraft, which was to be used for post flight over long distances, possibly even to China and Japan. But then overcoming Pamir mountain ranges and a corresponding height performance was required. A later application was the mapping and surveying of the German territory.
Construction and Development
Development started at the request of Lufthansa in 1936, which still held at that time a connection to China through Persia and Afghanistan possible. Therefore, the machine should have not only a great range, but also in high performance Treibstoffzuladung over a height of 7,600 m. Suitable for this purpose engines in Germany were not available, but was planning a height Hirth engine of about 500 hp. The brothers Günter proposed a modified wing of their Heinkel He 70 Blitz with four engines, which - as in the He 70 - was covered with plywood. The new hull was made of duralumin dichtgenietet and got tight bulkheads to the case of a water landing for a time to be buoyant. The designers thought surely the only long-distance postal service of Lufthansa to South America.
When the first prototype He 116 V1 was completed in 1937, the planned altitude engines were not ready, and the prototype was Hirth HM 508C of only 270 hp. Despite this low power, the machine appeared to be appropriate and Lufthansa began in 1938 with trials of the V2 D- Lübeck Ajie ex Silesia and V4 D- ATIO Hamburg. The Hamburg crashed on May 27, 1938 on the beach of Langeoog in a reckless maneuver the pilots. Among the three dead was the top radio machinist Charles Kirchhoff is one of the most experienced Atlantic and long-haul aircraft of Lufthansa. The Lübeck was deployed on 21 October to January 1, 1939 at least four times on the postal service to South America between Frankfurt and Las Palmas.
The Japanese had also shown interest in the machine and one of the pre-production aircraft had been used on the Sahara Flight 1938, a Japanese crew. V5 and V6 J- bakd Nogi J- EAKF Tojo were transferred in April 1934, six days after Japan. The 15,251 km they put in 54 hours back 17 minutes flight time. They were then inserted into Manchukuo.
He 116 R
The third prototype V3 was converted to a long-distance record machine. The conversion extended to a larger wing with 75.6 m² and a span of 25 meters and significantly more fuel tanks in the fuselage. Since no amount power was needed for the record, HM favorable consumption values were 508H engines with only 240 hp but installed. As the low starting power and high fuel load considerably hampered the start, the renamed Hey 116R D- ARFD Rostock machine was equipped with four ejectable booster rockets. In the first experiment, a missile tore prematurely and damaged the wing considerably. After repairing the second record attempt took place on 30 June 1938. Were 10,000 kilometers on a closed course between Carl Hagen and Leba in the record time of 46 hrs 18 mins covered (216 km / h).
He 116 B
Although Hirth had now stopped its height motor development, the Air Force was interested in reconnaissance version. V7 and V8 were provided with a fully glazed nose, as well as the similar Heinkel He received 111. They were tested in 1938 with positive results; then six more machines were ordered, which were called V9 to V14. You should conduct long-range reconnaissance outside the range of fighter aircraft and was dispensed with a defensive armament. This concept was outdated at the outbreak of war and you put the machine from air service command 62 in Bad Zwischenahn especially for cartographic tasks over Germany a. For these machines, a variety of civilian identifiers are known.