THE JET AGE RESERVE COLLECTION

GERMAN AIRCRAFT AT DISPERSAL

As the 150mm depth of the shelves precluded most 1/72 scale twin (and larger single) engined aircraft, the opportunity was taken to field some of the small models that have had little or no public airing since the Jet Age Museum left Staverton in 2000. For an overview of the Jet Age Reserve Collection aircraft at dispersal and in-depth discussion of some of the American built aircraft involved click on the picture above.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stosser ( Goshawk ), first flown in November 1933, was developed as a small home-defence fighter but its main role was as an advanced fighter trainer. About 1,000 were produced by 1940. It was also the first ever aircraft designed by the famous Kurt Tank and also his first for Focke-Wulf.

The company was founded in Bremen on 23 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Heinrich Focke, Georg Wulf and Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann ( not to be confused with Dr. rer. nat. Werner Naumann, state secretary in Joseph Goebbel's Propagandaministerium).

Almost immediately, Professor Focke and his colleagues renamed their company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG and later Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH. Initially it produced several commercial aircraft, typically with thick wings mounted high over bulky fuselages, and it was testing one of these that Georg Wulf died on 29 September 1927.

In 1931, under Nazi government pressure, Focke-Wulf merged with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke and headhunted the Berlin based firm's resourceful engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank to become to lead its technical department. He immediately started work on the Fw44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch).

The first fully controllable helicopter (as opposed to autogyro) was the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, demonstrated by test pilot Hanna Reitsch in 1936 in Berlin. In 1937 shareholders ousted Heinrich Focke, and he founded, with Gerd Achgelis, Focke Achgelis to specialise in helicopters.

Meanwhile Tank had designed and produced the four engined passenger-carrying Fw 200 Kondor (Condor) which could fly the Atlantic non-stop. It was later used as a bomber and the personal transport of Adolf Hitler.

Kurt Tank's Fw 190 Würger (Butcher-bird), designed from 1938 on and produced in quantity from early 1941 to 1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe.

Designed by twin brothers Walter and Siegfried Gunter, the Heinkel 112 was one of four planes designed to compete for the Luftwaffe's 1933 fighter contract, which was eventually be won by the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Small numbers were used for a short time by the Luftwaffe and small runs were completed for several other countries, but less than one hundred Heinkel 112 were completed in total. It remains one of the most obscure German production fighter designs.

In the early 1930s the German authorities started placing orders for new aircraft, initially training and utility aircraft. Heinkel, as one of the most experienced firms in the country, received contracts for a number of two seat aircraft including the He 45, He 46 and He 50. The company also worked on single seat fighter designs, which culminated in the He 49, and later with the improved He 51.

When the He 51 was tested in combat in the Spanish Civil War, it was shown that speed was far more important than maneuverability. The Luftwaffe took this experience to heart, and started a series of design projects for much more modern aircraft. One of these projects, Rüstungsflugzeug IV, called for a day fighter with a top speed of 400 km/h at 6,000 m (250 mph at 19,500 ft) which it could maintain for 20 minutes out of a total endurance of 90 minutes. It also needed to be armed with at least three machine guns with 1,000 rounds each, or one 20 mm cannon with 200 rounds. The specification required that the wing loading should be below 100 kg/m² - a way of defining the plane's ability to turn and climb. The priorities for the plane were level speed, climb speed, and then maneuverability in that order.

In October 1933 Nazi Luftwaffe supremo Hermann Goring sent out a letter requesting aircraft companies consider the design of a "high speed courier aircraft" – a thinly veiled request for a new fighter. In May 1934 this request was made official and the Technisches Amt sent out a request for a single seat interceptor for the Rüstungsflugzeug IV role, this time under the guise of a "sports aircraft". The specification was first sent to the most experienced fighter designers - Heinkel, Arado, and Focke-Wulf.

The request was later sent to newcomer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Manufacturers, or BFW), on the strength of their Bf 108Taifun advanced sports plane design. Each company was asked to build three prototypes for competitive testing. By the spring of 1935 both the Arado and Focke-Wulf planes were ready, the BFW arriving in March, and the He 112 in April.

Heinkel's design was created primarily by Walter and Siegfried Günter, whose designs would dominate most of Heinkel's work. They started work on what was initially known as Projekt 1015 in late 1933 under the guise of the original courier airplane, based around the BMW XV radial engine. Work was already underway when the official request went out on May 2, and on May 5 the design was renamed the He 112.

The primary source of inspiration for the He 112 is their earlier He 70 Blitz (Lightning) design. The Blitz was a single engine, 4-passenger plane originally designed for use by German national airline Lufthansa, and it in turn was inspired by the famous Lockheed Model 9 Orion mail plane. Like many civilian designs of the time the plane was pressed into military service, and was used as a two seat bomber / reconnaissance type and served in this role in Spain.

The Blitz introduced a number of new construction techniques to the Heinkel company. It was their first low wing monoplane, their first with retractable gear and their first all-metal monocoque design. Its elliptical, reverse-gull wing planform would also be seen on a number of later projects. The Blitz could almost meet the new fighter requirements itself, so it is not surprising that the Günters would choose to work with the existing design as much as possible.

In many ways the resulting 112 design was a scaled down He 70. Like the He 70 the 112 was constructed entirely of metal, using a two spar wing and a monocoque fuselage with flush mounted rivets. The gear retracted outward from the low point of the wing's gull-bend, which resulted in a fairly wide 9 m track, giving the plane excellent ground handling. Its only features from an older era were its open cockpit and fuselage spine behind the headrest, which were included to provide excellent vision and make the biplane trained pilots feel more comfortable.

The first prototype, He 112 V1, was completed on 1 September 1935 but as the envisaged Junkers Jumo 210 engine was unavailable a 695 hp Rolls-Royce Kestrel Mk IIS was fitted. Initial test flights at the factory revealed that drag was much higher than expected and that the plane was not going to be as fast as originally predicted. The V1 was sent off to be tested by the German Air Ministry (RLM) in December at Travemünde.

The second prototype, V2, was completed on 16 November 1935 with the planned 640 hp Jumo 210C engine and a three bladed propeller, but was otherwise identical to the V1.

Meanwhile the data from the V1 factory flights was studied to discover where the unexpected drag was coming from. The Günter brothers identified the large and thick wing as the main culprit and V2 was kept at the factory and modified with a thinner, clipped wing, which was expected to improve the speed of the plane by 25 to 30 km/h (15 to 18 mph) and allow it to compete with the BFW built Messerschmitt 109. This made the Heinkel 112 creep over the wing loading requirements in the specifications, but with the 109 way over the limit this wasn't seen as a problem and the V2 was sent off for testing.

The V3 took to the air in January 1936. Minor changes included a larger radiator, fuselage spine and vertical stabilizer, but it was otherwise largely the same as the clipped wing V2. Other changes included a single cover over the exhaust ports instead of the more common "stack", and it also included modifications to allow the armament to be installed in the cowling. It was expected to join the V2 in testing, but instead was assigned back to Heinkel in early 1937 for tests with rocket propulsion. During a test the rocket exploded and the plane was destroyed, but in an amazing effort the V3 was rebuilt with several changes including an enclosed cockpit.

The Heinkel 112 V1 arrived at Travemunde on 8 February 1936 with the other three competitors landing by the beginning of March. Right away the Focke-Wulf Fw 159 and Arado Ar 80 proved to be lacking in performance and - plagued with problems - were eliminated from serious consideration.

At this point the Heinkel 112 was still the favorite over the "unknown" Me Bf 109, but opinions changed when the 109 V2 arrived on 21 March 1936. All the competitor aircraft had initially been equipped with the Rolls Royce Kestrel, but the 109 V2 had the Jumo. From that point on it started to outperform the Heinkel 112 in almost every way, and even the arrival of the Jumo engined 112 V2 on 15 April 1936 did little to address this imbalance.

As would be expected the Heinkel 112 had better turn performance due to its larger wing, but the 109 was faster at all altitudes and had considerably better agility and aerobatic abilities. During spin tests on 2 March 1936 the 109 V2 showed no problems while the 112 V2 crashed. Repairs were made to the plane and it was returned in April, but it crashed again and was written off. The V1 was then returned to Heinkel on 17 April 1936 and fitted with the V2's clipped wings.

Meanwhile news arrived from Britain that Supermarine had received a contract for full scale production of the Spitfire, a far more advanced than any existing German aircraft.

This caused a wave of concern in the higher command of the Luftwaffe. Time now took on as much importance as any quality of the plane itself, and the RLM was ready to put any reasonable design into production. That reasonable design was the Bf 109, which in addition to demonstrating better performance was considerably easier to build due to less compound curves and simpler construction throughout. On the 12 March 1936 the Commission wrote up the outcome of their meetings in a document called "Bf 109 Priority Procurement". There were some within the RLM who still favored the Heinkel design, and as a result the RLM then sent out contracts for 15 "zero series" planes from both companies.

Testing continued until October, at which point some of the additional zero series planes had arrived. At the end of September there were four He 112s being tested, yet none was a match for the 109.

From October on the Bf 109 appears to have been selected as the winner of the contest. Although no clear date is given, in the book "Stormy Life" it is Styka mastermind Ernst Udet himself that delivers the news to Heinkel that the 109 had entered series production in 1936. He is quoted as saying Pawn your crate off on the Turks or the Japs or the Rumanians. They'll lap it up. Perhaps he was not so far wrong, with a number of air forces looking to upgrade from biplanes and various designs from the early 1930s, the possibility for foreign sales was promising.

Heinkel had expected orders for additional aircraft beyond the initial three prototypes, and was able to respond quickly to the new contract for the 15 zero series aircraft. The new planes would be given the series designation He 112A-0. The first of these new planes, the V4, was completed in June 1936. It included the more powerful 210Da engine with a two speed supercharger that brought the power to 690 hp (507 kW) for takeoff. The only other change was a slight reduction in the size of the vertical stabilizer.

In July both the V5 and V6 were completed. V5 was built identically to the V4 with the 210Da engine, and it also sported two fuselage mounted 7.92 mm MG17 machine guns. The V6 on the other hand was completed as the pattern plane for the A series production run, and thus included the 210C engine instead of the more powerful but less available Da. The only other change was a modification to the radiator, but this modification would not appear on later A-0 series models. V6 suffered a forced landing on 1 August 1936 and was repaired and joined V4 for testing in October.

The last of the prototype A-0 series was the V8, which was completed in October 1936. It switched engines entirely and used the Daimler-Benz DB 600Aa, along with a three bladed fully adjustable all metal propeller. The engine was a huge change for the plane, producing 910 hp (670 kW) for takeoff and offering 33.9 l displacement at 686 kg (2069 in³ in at 1510 lb), compared that to the Jumo 210Da's 690 hp (510 kW) from 19.7L (1202 in³) at about the same weight. The V8 was seen primarily as a testbed for the new engine, and more importantly, its cooling systems. The DB 600Aa used a dry liner in the engine that resulted in poor heat flow, so more of the heat was removed by the oil as opposed to the water, requiring changes to the cooling systems.

In March of 1937 the plane was assigned to rocket propulsion tests at Peenemunde. It completed these tests later that summer (without exploding) and was returned to the factory where it was converted back into a normal model. At the end of the year it was sent to Spain, where it was seriously damaged on 18 July 1938. Once again it was put back together and was flying four months later. Its fate after this time is not recorded.

At this point the prototype stage was ostensibly over, and Heinkel continued building the A-0 as production line models. The naming changed adding a production number to the end of the name, so the next six planes were known as 112A-01 through 112A-06. All of these included the 210C engine, and were essentially identical to V6, with the exception of the radiator.

These planes were used in just as varied a manner as the earlier V series had been. A-01 flew in October 1936 and was used as the prototype for a future 112C-0 carrier based aircraft. It was later destroyed during rocket tests. A-02 flew in November, and then joined the earlier V models at Rechlin-Larz airfield for further testing in the contest. A-03 and A-04 were both completed in December, A-03 was a show aircraft and was flown by Heinkel pilots at various air shows and exhibitions, A-04 was kept at Heinkel for various tests.

The last two models of the A-0 series, A-05 and A-06, were completed in March of 1937. They were both shipped to Japan as the initial machines of the 30 for the Imperial Japanese Navy with an option for 100 more. The first four were shipped in December 1937 with another eight heading east in the spring, and promises for the rest to arrive in May. However, before delivery the Luftwaffe unexpectedly took over twelve of the planes to bolster its forces during the Sudetenland Crisis. The planes were then returned to Heinkel in November 1938, but the Japanese refused to accept them this late and Heinkel was left holding the aircraft.

By December 1936 V4 and V5 variants were sent to Spain for evaluation and testing and they were redesignated to Bf109B-0 being powered by Jumo 210D engines and armed with two 7.9mm machine guns.

The first operational Bf109s to see operational service with the Legion Condor in Spain was the 109B but by early 1938 the Bf 109C had entered service having a fuel injected Jumo 210Ga and the addition of two additional machine guns. The Bf109D followed in 1938 which was equipped with the carburettor fitted Jumo 210Da.

Many of the Bf109 aircraft in their development stage still carried the V series designation, and the 1937 vintage Bf109 V10 used the carburettor supplied Daimler Benz DB 600A. After further experimental aircraft had been used, the Bf109 V15 was fitted with the all new 1,175 hp Daimler Benz DB 601A engine with direct fuel injection.

This variant was designated the Bf109E-1, the Messerschmitt Bf109E-3 being introduced in late 1938. The difference between the E-1 and the E-3 was the addition of two 20mm MG FF canon at the expense of two of the machine guns. By the end of 1939 some 1,540 machines had been built with nearly 50 seeing service in the Spanish Civil War.

Throughout the 1940 Battle of Britain, the Bf109E-4 ( with improved canon ) was no doubt one of the worlds greatest single-seat single-engine fighters and a match for the Hawker Hurricane and - possibly - for the Supermarine Spitfire of the Royal Air Force.

Other variants were the Bf 109E-4/B which was a fighter-bomber version that carried one 550lb or four 110lb bombs. The Bf109E-4/N gave slightly improved performance when the DB 601Aa engine was replaced by the 1200hp DB 601N. The Bf109E-5 and the Bf109E-6 were used and fitted out as reconnaissance fighters being fitted with camera equipment, the Bf109E-5 also having the cannon removed.

The E variant of Bf109 were used extensively until early 1942, where, with the Bf109F and Bf109G they gave way to the Bf109K in which the pre-series Bf109K-0 was to appear in September 1944.

It is also interesting to note, that a variant of the Bf109E was intended for use on the planned Nazi aircraft carriers Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser. Here the wing span was increased as well as the leading edge slats and ailerons, flap travel was also increased and break points were incorporated for the folding of the wings, and an arrester hook fitted at the rear. This carrier version was designated the Bf109 T ( for "Träger" or in English, "Carrier" ) Originally ten Bf109E aircraft were converted as Bf109T variants, while about sixty were actually manufactured as Bf109T.