Heinkel He 70
| Heinkel He 70F | |
| Description |
|---|
| Role | Reconnaissance Bomber |
| Crew | 2 |
| First Flight | December 1, 1932 |
| Manufacturer | Heinkel |
| Dimensions |
|---|
| Length | 12 m | 39 ft 4.5 in |
| Wingspan | 14.80 m | 48 ft 6.75 in |
| Height | 3.1 m | 10 ft 2 in |
| Wing Area | N/A |
| Weights |
|---|
| Empty | 2360 kg | 5,203 lb |
| Loaded | 3460 kg | 7,630 lb |
| Powerplant |
|---|
| Engine | BMW VI 7.3 12-cylinder water-cooled vee |
| Power | 750 hp |
| Performance |
|---|
| Maximum speed | 360 km/h | 224 mph |
| Range | 900 km | 559 miles |
| Service ceiling | N/A |
| Armament |
|---|
| One 7.92mm MG 15 machine gun aimed from rear cockpitSix 110 lb. (50 kg) or twenty four 22 lb. (10 kg) bombs internally |
| He 70 |
|---|
| |
The
Heinkel He 70 Blitz was designed in the early 1930s to serve as a fast
mailplane for
Deutsche Lufthansa. Although useful, it had a relatively brief commercial career before it was replaced by types which could carry more
passengers. As a combat aircraft it was a not a great success because it rapidly became outdated. Nevertheless, the He 70 was a brilliant design for its day, setting no fewer than eight world speed records by the beginning of 1933. The main characteristics of its revolutionary design were its elliptical
wing, which the Günther brothers had already used in the Bäumer Sausewind sports plane before they joined Heinkel, and its small, rounded
control surfaces.
The He 70 is known mainly as the direct ancestor of the famous
Heinkel He 111 which used its distinctive oval wings and streamlined fuselage in a twin-engine configuration. One can also see the close similarity of the designs in the tail section and cockpit of the early He 111. The He 111, which began service with the
Luftwaffe in 1936, went on to become the major bomber type in the early years of
World War II.
Heinkel's pioneering design was also a model for the
Heinkel He 112 fighter which competed unsuccessfully against the
Messerschmitt Bf 109 to become the Luftwaffe's first monoplane fighter. The He 112 was nonetheless built in small numbers and its performance proved once again the strength of the He 70's original design. The fighter was basically a scaled down version of the He 70 and shared its all-metal construction and inverted gull-wings.
The He 70 was exported to Japan for study and inspired the
Aichi D3A (Val) carrier-launched light bomber. This plane too shared the He 70's distinctive low-mounted oval wings and was only one of several collaborations between Heinkel and the Japanese aviation industry.
While the He 70 saw only limited service in training capacities during World War II, it was the Luftwaffe's first
Schnellbomber and served as the antecedent for the majority of bombers involved in both the
Battle of Britain and the
Attack on Pearl Harbor.
The He-70K, a fast reconnaissance airplane variant equipped with a licence-made (originally French) 1000bhp
radial engine was used by the Royal
Hungarian Air Force in early WWII during 1941-42. The main weakness of the He 70 design soon became obvious. The He 70 airframe was made out of so-called "electron metal", a very light, yet strong alloy of
magnesium, which burns spontaneously in air when heated, and is only exhausted when covered in sand. A single hit from a light machine gun usually set the entire plane ablaze, killing the crew. The Hungarian He-70K fleet was promptly retired and replaced with vintage, high-wing He-46 monoplanes until modern Me-109 fighter-recce and specialized FW-189 "Uhu" medium altitude observation aircraft could be introduced.
Military Operators
* Germany, Hungary, Spain.
