Heinkel He-100 and He-112 Fighters

[Weaver]

Here you go: Spitfire Mk.18 and He.112, both 1/72nd Heller. Quite a nice looking concept, and perfectly makeable with a little trimming and PSR. I've left the He.112 canopy on as it's pretty much a bubble anyway.

[jcf]

Here you go: Spitfire Mk.18 and He.112, both 1/72nd Heller. Quite a nice looking concept, and perfectly makeable with a little trimming and PSR. I've left the He.112 canopy on as it's pretty much a bubble anyway.

Now put the He 112 wings on the Spit, add a trousered undercarriage and make a production Supermarine 224. 

[Weaver]

Here you go: Spitfire Mk.18 and He.112, both 1/72nd Heller. Quite a nice looking concept, and perfectly makeable with a little trimming and PSR. I've left the He.112 canopy on as it's pretty much a bubble anyway.

Now put the He 112 wings on the Spit, add a trousered undercarriage and make a production Supermarine 224. 

Think that'd need a 1/48th He-112 and a 1/72nd Spit......

[jcf]

Now put the He 112 wings on the Spit, add a trousered undercarriage and make a production Supermarine 224. 

Think that'd need a 1/48th He-112 and a 1/72nd Spit......

Naah, the short Heinkel wings increase the comedy aspect. 

[HoOmAn]

Thanks for those pictures. Looks like this really is a project to consider.

What would you use for the horizontal tailplane? Spit or Heinkel?

Regarding cockpit - of course the He112 already has some kind of bubble. However, whenever I look at a line frawing of that bird I think her pilot probably should sit a wee bit higher and some more headroom is necessary...

[Weaver]

Thanks for those pictures. Looks like this really is a project to consider.

What would you use for the horizontal tailplane? Spit or Heinkel?

Definately Spit. The only reason I didn't put them on the mockup was that their tabs were bigger than the Heinkel ones.

Regarding cockpit - of course the He112 already has some kind of bubble. However, whenever I look at a line frawing of that bird I think her pilot probably should sit a wee bit higher and some more headroom is necessary...

Watch this space.....

[Weaver]

Okay, and with a bubble canopy:





I'm not willing to take the Spit canopy off it's sprues because it's in two pieces and I KNOW I'll lose the windscreen...    This an XF5U-1 (Vought Flying Pancake) canopy that I got in a box of spare parts. It struck me that the canopy is bulged upwards relative to the windscreen, which is what you might end up with if you raised the seat in an existing design.

[HoOmAn]

It´s striking. With such canopy the bird´s look gets even closer to a late war Spitfire... It´s getting difficult to recognize the original He112. 

Which canopy version would you prefer?

I had in mind a P-51 or Tempest/Fury bubble but your choice isn´t a bad one. Lots of head room to raise the pilots seat....

[Weaver]

I prefer the original He-112 canopy because it give the aircraft a more distinctive character, and I think the view out of it was probably pretty good: certainly better than a lot of late 1930s designs.

The P-51 canopy's a bit too distinctive, with it's deep frame around the hood. I'd imagine a Tempest/Typhoon/Fury would work well (ironically, the only one of those that I've got is a Sea Fury with it's canopy missing... ), as would the late Spit one. Early jets might be interesting too, although from a practical modelling point of view, the greater diameter of their fuselages means that their sill shapes wouldn't match the He-112 (you can see this with the XF5 canopy actually). An Me-262 might be interesting, although it might be too wide: now that I CAN do....

[Weaver]

Okay, Me-262 canopies.

This is the canopy of choice, from  a SMER '262. The SMER model is a little underscale, which makes it's canopy a perfect fit on many narrow piston-engined fighters (one of my gazillion projects is a Bf-109 with one). However, to make it fit you'd have to cut the sides of the fuselage down, which I'm not going to do for a mockup, hence it sits a bit high in this pciture:




Therefore, to illustrate the profile better, I've also taken a pic with the Airfix '262 canopy. This is much too wide to fit the He-112 fuselage (and it's really horrible too), but that very width allows it to slide over the sides of the fuselage, thus giving you a better idea of how the SMER one would sit if properly fitted:

[jcf]

The original canopy still looks better and I doubt if any of the others would really be much cleaner from a drag standpoint, if at all.

[Weaver]

The original canopy still looks better and I doubt if any of the others would really be much cleaner from a drag standpoint, if at all.

Oh I agree, and it gives the plane it's character too: with the others, it starts to look too much like "generic fighter plane.Late War.In-line engine". The '262 canopy makes one HELL of a difference to a Bf-109 though....

[HoOmAn]

So it´s the original cockpit then.

I tried myself on a line drawing. It´s the first time I did something like that so bear with me. I couldn´t find a drawing of a late war Spitfire so had to use an early version and cut the wings on my own. You´ll also note quality and resolution of the drawings were different.



I kept the original He112 tailplanes to avoid a look too close to a Spitfire. The He112s radiator was kept and slightly enlarged (IIRC, the historical layout showed a retractable radiator) to make good for the two under wing installations I deleted. I wonder if that radiator should extend further aft....

What do you think?

[Weaver]

Well the rad was sized for the engine so it doesn't need to be any bigger. A P-51-style thrust-producing duct with a variable exhaust flap is always a useful addition though. The real question would be do you want a bigger engine? The He-112 was always underpowered with it's Jumo 210, but they were tested with Db.600s and Db.601s and a Jumo 211 was projected too.

[HoOmAn]

Well the rad was sized for the engine so it doesn't need to be any bigger. A P-51-style thrust-producing duct with a variable exhaust flap is always a useful addition though. The real question would be do you want a bigger engine? The He-112 was always underpowered with it's Jumo 210, but they were tested with Db.600s and Db.601s and a Jumo 211 was projected too.

Well, on the Alternate History board I gave a brief summary of the planes as used by the RSAF (see below). In it´s final appearance engine power has grown up to 1400hp. A larger radiator thus would make sense - as would under wing installations too, probably. What I never figured out is what kind of modifications could be expected to the cowling. Speaking of stream lining of cowling and canopy is one thing - drawing it.....

The RSAFs main fighter plane is the fictional JFM F-6 Swallow (JFM = Jong Airframe Manufactoring) which is a Heinkel 112 clone. The original F-6 introduced 1931 was very much a copy of the He112 V1 with open cockpit and a 750hp engine. The first mass produced version was the much-improved F-6B with enclosed cockpit and streamlined cowling and fuse-lage, pretty much the historical He112 in her final appearance. The plane featured a 920hp engine and a speed of 560km/h. The F-6C resembled a twin-seat trainer while the F-6D was the next frontline fighter variant. It featured a supercharged engine of 1250hp with modifications to cowling, fuselage and intakes. The plane proofed capable of 612km/h and entered service in 1935 (up to this point drawings and photos of historical He112 could be used). Next was the F-6E, which meant to incorporate lessons learnt during the conflict in South America. Wing tips where modified, cowling/fuselage further streamlined and an even more powerful engine of 1320hp installed, the F-6 now achieving 632km/h in level flight. Over 1800 of this plane were build and they form the backbone of todays (1938) fighter squadrons. With the F-6F a new twin-seat trainer version based on the most successful E was also intro-duced. In mid-1937 experiments were started that added water injections to the LMF engine. Power could be pushed to 1560hp for 2-3 minutes in case of emergency. JFM designers modified the F-6 to carry the system and started test flights with this so called F-6G. A maximum speed of 707km/h could be achieved but the whole installation proofed very unreliable and the program was cancelled after modification of three test planes. This leaves the current F-6H prototype the last evolution of the original He112 design. She features a supercharger optimized for 5000m instead of 4000m as in earlier versions and the engine is now producing 1430hp. Her cockpit and canopy was improved for less drag and better field of vision. The variant also is the first to feature 20mm cannons instead of 15mm MGs. The F-6H started for maiden flight in March 1938 and test flights are ongoing. In summer 1938 she proofed capable of 656km/h during tests and was chosen the new standard fighter for the RSAF. Start of production is planned for mid to late 1939.

In general the later versions of the F-6 can be compared to historical and similar powered Spitfire variants. As I already stated, beginning with the F-6E I could no longer make use of historical He112 pictures as the discrepancies to what I described would have been too great. Hence it would be nice to have line drawings and "photoshoped" pictures of the later variants.