Heinkel He 116

1937

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Heinkel He 116

Developed in 1936 as a mailplane for Deutsche Lufthansa, the Heinkel He 116 made use of design features of the He 70 and He 111, particularly the elliptical wing and tail surfaces. The aircraft was to have been powered originally by four 373kW Hirth engines, but these were not available in time and the 179kW Hirth HM 508 engine was substituted. Eight civil aircraft were built with the designation He 116A-0, the first making its maiden flight in the summer of 1937. Two of them were purchased by Manchurian Air Transport and made their 15,337km delivery flights from Berlin to Tokyo between 23 and 29 April 1938, in a time of 54 hours 17 minutes. Another was modified for record-breaking, with 179kW Hirth HM 508H engines, a wing of increased span and area and provision for rocket-assisted take-off equipment. Designated He 116R, it set a distance record of 10,000km in 48 hours 18 minutes, beginning on 30 June 1938. An He 116B long-range reconnaissance version was also developed, the last two civil aircraft serving as prototypes, and a total of six was built.

3-View 
Heinkel He 116A three-view drawing (566 x 623)

Specification 
 MODELHe-116
 CREW3
 ENGINE4 x Hirth HM 508C, 200kW
 WEIGHTS
  Take-off weight7130 kg15719 lb
  Empty weight4050 kg8929 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan22.0 m72 ft 2 in
  Length13.7 m45 ft 11 in
  Height3.3 m11 ft 10 in
  Wing area62.9 m2677.05 sq ft
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed375 km/h233 mph
  Cruise speed355 km/h221 mph
  Ceiling6600 m21650 ft
  Range w/max.fuel3500 km2175 miles

Comments
Barrett, 28.10.2008 05:08

Here we see the original eliptical wing used by both the 116 and 111. The 111 later switched to a swept-back wing with a straight trailing edge.

reply

Tom Odendahl, e-mail, 18.02.2008 06:44

I have an ARCO Publishing Company book called "HEINKEL an aircraft album," by P.St. John Turner dated 1970 that has a photo of the type. It has a stepped nose, not the glazed, smooth-contour nose shown above. That matches a drawing I saw in WW II era magazine my father had that showed the stepped nose characteristic. The magazine, which was dog-eared by the time I saw it in the 1960s, has disappeared. It was avery mysterious airplane. I remember the magazine made a big deal of how smallthe aircraft was despite its 4 engines. The book doesn't provide any special or different info from the profile above, unless there is a significant difference between 10,000 km and 6,214 miles

reply

Kees Martens, e-mail, 08.11.2007 20:48

I never heard of this one! - Has anyone more info? What could be the source of this information?

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