https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_100
The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from
Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the
world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series
production. Approximately 19 prototypes and pre-production examples were built.
None are known to have survived the war.
The reason for the He 100 failing to reach production status is mostly unknown.
Officially, the Luftwaffe rejected the He 100 to concentrate single-seat fighter
development on the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Following the adoption of the Bf 109
and Messerschmitt Bf 110 as the Luftwaffe's standard fighter types, the Ministry
of Aviation (the Reichsluftfahrtministerium or RLM) announced a
"rationalization" policy that placed fighter development at Messerschmitt and
bomber development at Heinkel.
Because there are no surviving examples, and since many factory documents -
including all blueprints for the He 100 - were destroyed during a bombing raid,
there is limited specific information about the design and its unique systems.
112, which had already been heavily revised into the He 112B version and decided
it had reached the end of its evolution. He started over with a completely new
design, Projekt 1035. Learning from past mistakes on the 112 project, the design
was to be as easy to build as possible yet 700 km/h (380 kn; 430 mph) was a
design goal. To ease production, the new design had considerably fewer parts
than the 112 and those that remained contained fewer compound curves. In
comparison, the 112 had 2,885 parts and 26,864 rivets, while the P.1035 was made
of 969 unique parts with 11,543 rivets. The new straight-edged wing was a source
of much of the savings; after building the first wings, Otto Butter reported
that the reduction in complexity and rivet count (along with the Butter
brothers' own explosive rivet system) saved an astonishing 1,150 man hours per
wing.
The super-pursuit type was not a secret, but Ernst Heinkel preferred to work in
private and publicly display his products only after they were developed
sufficiently to make a stunning first impression. As an example of this, the
mock-up for the extremely modern-looking He 100 was the subject of company Memo
No.3657 on 31 January that stated: "The mock-up is to be completed by us... as
of the beginning of May ... and be ready to present to the RLM... and prior to
that no one at the RLM is to know of the existence of the mock-up."
was taken over by his twin brother Siegfried, who finished the final draft of
the design later that year. Heinrich Hertel, a specialist in aircraft
structures, also played a prominent role in the design. At the end of October
the design was submitted to the RLM, complete with details on prototypes,
delivery dates and prices for three aircraft delivered to the Rechlin test
center.
He 100 should have been designated He 113, but since the number "13" was
unlucky, this had been dropped. It is reported that Ernst Heinkel lobbied for
this "round" number in the hope that it would improve the design's chances for
production.
Role
Fighter
Manufacturer
Heinkel
Designer
First flight
22 January 1938
Retired
Never entered operational service
Primary user
Luftwaffe
Number built
25 (including prototypes)
Variants
Heinkel He 113 (propaganda, never put into service)
Throughout the prototype period, the various models were given series
designations (as noted above), and presented to the RLM as the basis for series
production. The Luftwaffe never took Heinkel up on their offer although the
company decided to build a total of 25 of the aircraft one way or the other, so
with 10 down, there were another 15 of the latest model to go. In keeping with
general practice, any series production is started with a limited run of "zero
series", resulting in the He 100 D-0.
In 1939, it was reputedly one of the world's most advanced fighter designs, even
faster than the later Fw 190, with performance unrivalled until the introduction
of the Vought F4U Corsair in 1943, with the similarly-powered Republic XP-47J
hitting 505 mph (813 km/h) in early August 1944. Nevertheless, the aircraft was
not ordered into production. The reason why the He 100 wasn't put into service
seems to vary depending on the person telling the story, and picking any one
version results in a firestorm of protest.
Some say it was politics that killed the He 100. However, this seems to stem
primarily from Heinkel's own telling of the story, which in turn seems to be
based on some general malaise over the He 112 debacle. The fact is that Heinkel
was well respected within the establishment, regardless of Messerschmitt's
success with the Bf 109 and Bf 110, and this argument seems particularly weak.
Others blame the bizarre production line philosophy of the RLM, which valued
huge numbers of single designs over a mix of different aircraft. This too seems
somewhat suspect, considering that the Fw 190 was purchased shortly after this
story ends.
For these reasons, it seems safe to accept the RLM version of the story largely
at face value; that the production problems with the DB series of engines were
so acute that all other designs based on the engine were canceled. At the time
the DB 601 engines were being used in both the Bf 109 and Bf 110 aircraft, and
Daimler couldn't keep up with those demands alone. The RLM eventually forbade
anyone but Messerschmitt from receiving any DB 601s, leading to the shelving of
many designs from a number of vendors. Furthermore, the Bf 109 and Bf 110 were
perceived as superior to their likely opponents, which made the requirement for
an even more powerful aircraft less imperative.
Specifications (He 100D-1)
General characteristics
Crew: One (pilot)
Length: 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Height: 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 14.6 m2 (157 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,810 kg (3,990 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,500 kg (5,512 lb)
engine, 864 kW (1,159 hp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 670 km/h (416 mph; 362 kn)
Cruise speed: 552 km/h (343 mph; 298 kn)
Range: 1,010 km (628 mi; 545 nmi)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,000 ft)
Time to altitude: 2.2 minutes to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), 7.9 minutes to 6,000
metres (20,000 ft) 15.2 meters per second
Armament
Guns: 1 x 20 mm (0.787 in) MG FF cannon and 2 x 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine
guns or 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151 cannon
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