Heinkel He 114

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He 114
Heinkel He 114 of the Romanian Air Force
General information
TypeReconnaissance floatplane
National originGermany
ManufacturerHeinkel
Primary usersGermany
History
Introduction date1939
First flight1936
Retired1945 (Luftwaffe)
1960 (Romania)
1949 (Sweden)
1954 (Spain)

The Heinkel He 114 was a sesquiplane reconnaissance seaplane produced for the Kriegsmarine in the 1930s for use from warships. It replaced the company's He 60, but it did not remain in service long before being replaced by the Arado Ar 196, Germany's standard observation seaplane.

Design and development

While the fuselage and flotation gear of the He 114 were conventional, it used a sesquiplane wing, with a much smaller lower wing. The upper wings were attached to the fuselage with cabane struts, and the lower wings were of reduced span but a similar chord.

Operational history

The German battleship Gneisenau with a He 114 on its catapult in 1939

The He 114 was never a great success, was not built in large numbers, and served with the Luftwaffe for only a short time. While the He 60 had handled very well on the water but been sluggish in the air, the He 114's handling while afloat was poor and its performance in the air scarcely better than the aircraft it replaced.

A total of 24 aircraft were exported to Romania, where the last 8 remained in service until 1 May 1960. In July 1943 Spain acquired 12 aircraft of the A and C variants, they were retired in 1954.

On 1 November 1939 Sweden ordered 12 aircraft of the B-1 variant. The aircraft were planned to be delivered in December the same year but was soon rescheduled to Spring the following year. In April 1940 Sweden increased the order by 24 aircraft, Heinkel responded by informing that the original order would not be delivered as the German government had enacted a ban on military materiel export to Sweden. When the ban was lifted, the 12 aircraft originally intended for Sweden had already been taken into service of the Luftwaffe. By the end of 1940 Germany gave notice that it could deliver 12 aircraft, Sweden accepted but Germany soon cancelled the order. The purchase could, however, be realized in 1941 and 12 used He 114 arrived in Sweden dismantled in boxes in the spring of the same year. The airplanes were assembled and given a complete overhaul before entering service at Roslagens flygflottilj (F2) in Hägernäs under the designation S 12 (S being an abbreviation for 'reconnaissance aircraft' in Sweden).

The hilfskreuzer Atlantis, Pinguin and Widder were equipped with two He 114 each. They made extensive use of these aircraft during their raiding careers in 1940-41, until the aircraft were lost or worn out. Some were replaced by Arado's brought by supply ships whilst they were still at large.[1]

Surviving aircraft

In 2012, two divers discovered the wreckage of a Heinkel 114 at the bottom of Lake Siutghiol, in Romania. Near the Heinkel were also sections of two other seaplanes: a Blohm & Voss BV 138 (initially thought to be a Savoia-Marchetti S.55) and a Junkers W 34 (discovered in 2013). The wrecks were recovered by Romanian Navy divers in October 2012,[2][3] and are stored at the National Museum of the Romanian Navy.[4]

Variants

He 114A-0
10 pre-production aircraft, powered by a 656 kW (880 hp) BMW 132Dc engine.
He 114A-1
Training version, powered by a 656 kW (880 hp) BMW 132Dc engine, 33 built.
He 114A-2
Main production shipborne version.
He 114B-1
Export version of the He 114A-2 for Sweden, 12 built.
He 114B-2
Export version of the He 114A-2 for Romania, six built.
He 114B-3
Export version for Romania, 12 built.
He 114C-1
Reconnaissance biplane for the Luftwaffe, 14 built.
He 114C-2
Unarmed shipborne (Kriegsmarine commerce raider) version, four built.

Operators

 Germany
 Romania
 Spain
 Sweden

Specifications (He 114A-2)

Data from Warplanes of the Luftwaffe.,[5] Heinkel: Chronik und Typenblätter der Firma Heinkel-Flugzeugbau[6]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 2
  • Length: 11.65 m (38 ft 3 in)
  • Wingspan: 13.6 m (44 ft 7 in)
  • Height: 5.23 m (17 ft 2 in)
  • Wing area: 42.3 m2 (455 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 2,300 kg (5,071 lb)
  • Gross weight: 3,670 kg (8,091 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × BMW 132K 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, 716 kW (960 hp)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 335 km/h (208 mph, 181 kn)
  • Range: 920 km (570 mi, 500 nmi)
  • Service ceiling: 4,900 m (16,100 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 5.5 m/s (1,080 ft/min) [7]
  • Time to altitude: 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in 4 minutes 30 seconds
  • Wing loading: 86.8 kg/m2 (17.8 lb/sq ft)
  • Power/mass: 0.20 kW/kg (0.12 hp/lb)

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heinkel He 114.

Notes

  1. ^ Muggenthaler 1977, pp. 27, 61, 68.
  2. ^ Bozîntan, Florentina (10 December 2013). "Hidroavion din Al Doilea Război Mondial, descoperit în lacul Taşaul". Cuget Liber. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  3. ^ "2012- Descoperirea in lacul Siutghiol a 2 hidro avioane din al doilea razboi mondial". clubmarineexplorer.eu (in Romanian). 2 January 2024.
  4. ^ Florentina Bozîntan (18 October 2020). ""Comorile" de pe fundul lacului Siutghiol. "Hidroavioanele erau atracție pentru turiști!"". cugetliber.ro (in Romanian).
  5. ^ Donald 1994, p.107.
  6. ^ Ernst Heinkel (1996). Heinkel: Chronik und Typenblätter der Firma Heinkel-Flugzeugbau (in German). Munich: Aviatic-Verlag. p. 98. ISBN 9783925505089.
  7. ^ Smith and Kay 1972, p.268.

Bibliography

  • Axworthy, Mark (September–October 1999). "Flank Guard: Romania's Advance on Stalingrad, Part Two". Air Enthusiast (65): 72–75. ISSN 0143-5450.
  • Cortet, Pierre (March 2000). "Rétros du Mois" [Retros of the Month]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (84): 7. ISSN 1243-8650.
  • Donald, David, ed. Warplanes of the Luftwaffe. London: Aerospace, 1994. ISBN 1-874023-56-5.
  • Muggenthaler, August K. (1977). Das waren Die Deutschen Hilfskreuzer 1939-1945. Bewaffnete Handelsschiffe im Einsatz (in German). Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-87943-261-9.
  • Munson, Kenneth (1978). German Aircraft Of World War 2 in colour. Poole, Dorset, UK: Blandford Press. ISBN 0-7137-0860-3.
  • Smith J. R. and Kay, Anthony. German Aircraft of the Second World War. London: Putnam & Company, 1972. ISBN 0-370-00024-2.
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