Heinkel He 119
Ernst Heinkel was a devotee to the construction of high speed aircraft with sometimes using strange methods. Thus the construction of Heinkel He 119 can be explained, which was developed without any direct order by the German Ministry of Aviation (RLM). Initially conceived as a rapid long-distance reconnaissance aircraft with a crew of two, the aircraft, with a aerodynamically ideal fuselage, surpassed all speed records at at time.
The propeller hub passed on into the full-glass cell which bodied into the elliptically winged fuselage. Self- protection armament was not used in order to prevent any deterioration of the high quality aerodynamical fuselage. Furthermore, to eliminate frontal resistance the then, new, surface-vaporisation cooling was devised. The power plant was located immediately behind the cockpit the power plant; a powerful DB 606 aero engine, which consisted of two, twinned DB 601 engines. They propelled the air-screw by means of a stretched arbor under the cockpit. From the beginning, the equippage with floats was planned.
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In the summer of 1936, test flights of the first prototype started. The flight characteristics were very good, although the surface- vaporisation cooling caused problems. This forced Heinkel to install an additional fixed cooler in the nose. The cooling siutation normalized bur with a speed loss of roughly 80 km/h. In spite of this, the aircraft achieved 560 km/h. German officials opposed the development of the He 119 since they had not been asked for their agreement. Any participation in the development costs were denied by referring to the inexistence of self-defense weapons.
Heinkel installed a turret which did not please officials, with the consequence of Heinkel integrating weaprony dummies. Later on, they were removed and replaced by a bomb rack behind the power plant. During the following test flights, speed records of up to 575 km/h could be achieved. Thus, the He 119 was faster than any existing fighter of its time.
In October 1937, flight testing of the third prototype started, which was planned as a long-distance reconnaissance aircraft from the beginning. The aircraft achieved a top speed of 590 km/h with a ceiling of 4,500 km; its wings were slightly modified. Despite the fact that the cooling problem was perfectly solved, officials claimed the non-existing self-defense weapons again as a problem.
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The fourth prototype was conceived as a speed record aircraft with improved cooling and more powerful aero engines. On November 22, 1937, chief pilot Gerhard Nirtschke and Hand Dieterle took off for a record flight over a distance of 1,000 km with a payload of 1,000 kg. The choosen flight route was Hamburg-Stolpe- Hamburg. The aircraft which was named He 606, or He 111 U for security reasons, achieved an average speed of 504.988 km/h and surpassed the existing record. In early December 1937, another record flight followed, but this time it ended with a total crash during an emergency landing. During the measurement flights without any payload, the aircraft achieved top speed of up to 620 km/h.
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The fifth prototype was equipped with floats, its plan was to surpass the speed records for flying boats. The power plant was improved a second time, the fuselage had to be modified. This time the German Air Force was very interested in the aircraft and demanded the integration of self-defense weapons. A turret was installed and the aircraft transferred to Travemünde. Any record breaking flights of the He 199 were forbidden. During the first test flights the German Air force demanded the integration of bomb racks and a torpedo carriage. The flight characteristics were not lowered by thickening the fuselage behind the power plant. At the end of the in- total, successful, test flights, the fifth He 119 crashed in an emergency landing and was returned to the Heinkel works in 1942 for scrap. Despite of the good rating and excellent flight characteristics, series production never started.
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The three last prototypes were delivered in 1939 and served as long-distance reconnaissance aircraft and for power plant testing. The maximum speed of above 600 km/h was achieved at ease, with a payload of 1,000 kg. Officials, however, did not show any kind of interest and called for an export license of the last two prototypes to Japan. The Japanese government purchased the license for the record-breaking He 119 prototype. In 1940, prototypes number seven and eight together with chief pilot Gerhard Nitschke, went onboard an Italian warship to Japan. They were tested by the Imperial Japanese Navy, but a license agreement failed. Only the construction principle was used on the Yokosuka R2Y-1 Keiun, finalized in 1945.
