Click the link to start your free 7 day trial with Blinkist and get 25% off your Premium membership. www.blinkist.com/rexshangar F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible. Feel free to leave your questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
Glad you are embracing a long format video style for aircraft with longer history! I look forward to more! I hope we get a video like this for the Me 163! I longer discussion of rocket motors would be amazing!
When R.J. Mitchell was designing the Spitfire one area he looked into was it having a reversed gullwing. He did not go ahead with idea, I think partially because the wings were to be used as a radiator and he realised the last thing he needed was hot steam meeting cold water. Plus if the wings were hit the water would escape. But there are claims he planned to make a naval version of the reverse gull wing spitfire. It could be interesting to look at the reversed gullwing Spitfire and was there a plan to build it for the British Royal Navy.
The He-112 was also a cinema star. Four Heinkels appeared in the 1943 Italian Romanian co production "Eskadrilla Alba" . They portrayed MiG 3 "bad guys" attacking an all female air medivac unit.
@@EneTheGene Principle filming was completed in 1942, and was sent to Rome in early '43. During the subsequent upheaval in Italy, the film disappeared. Publicity material and production photos survive.
There's an Italian/Russian made film with an English Title of _Attack and Retreat_ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_and_Retreat . The Italian Title is _Italiani brava gente_ . It's about the Italian Army in The Soviet Union during WWII. 50 years ago I saw the English version, which at least had English Subtitles - but I can't find it now. This is an HD version on TH-cam of the whole movie but - it is in Italian - like the DVD I bought. th-cam.com/video/Zq3EVsN2JBs/w-d-xo.html .
I've been interested in the He 112 for decades. It's one of the great "what ifs" of WWII's aviation development, had it been developed more aggressively. One could argue that the Bf-109 was attrited so severely by landing accidents, due to its lousy landing gear geometry, that the the accident rate somewhat negated the Bf-109's ease of construction. A He 112 with an advanced DB engine might have been a most formidable fighter for the Allies to contend with. This is the best history of the He 112 I've even encountered. Even the most through specialist history books only give it a few sketchy paragraphs. Well done you!
Thanks! I highly recommend "Heinkel He 112 in action" by D. Bernéd. It is the most thorough book on the aircraft that is not loaded with incorrect facts of needless hyperbole.
Mr. Heinkel and A.Hitler did not get along very well, if i recall correctly. Mr. Messerschmidt was more to Hitlers liking. that's the reason Heinkels planes were handicapped eventhough they were often better. In August 1939 the turbojet powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft, made its first flight.
@@RexsHangar This was a great episode on the He-112, learnt a lot. I'd love to see a follow up on the later He-100 and how the Japanese at Kawasaki constucted their Ki-61 with heavy influence from both the He-112 and He-100.
One note about spanish civil war service. The He 112s were NOT part of the Legion Condor, but on a seperate detached mission to the Nationalist air force
As others will no doubt mention, when speaking of the He-176 rocket plane you have a photo of the He-178, the first turbojet-propelled aircraft. Unsirprising really, as - to my knowledge - only one authenticated photo of the He-176 is known to exist. Otherwise, another of your typically well-researched, thorough and excellent presentations. Bravo! I vote for a presentation on the He-100 next!
You are indeed correct, after checking my files I had put the image in my He-176 folder on accident and I was too focused on editing the video to notice this glaring error 😅
@@RexsHangar Given your track record I think you can be allowed an honest error or two every so often. Thank you so much for your interesting, well-researched, and beautifully illustrated and edited videos, sir.
These 1930s Heinkels were really beautiful aircraft. One wonders what course the airwar would have taken had this plane become Germany's primary fighter aircraft.
@@annoyingbstard9407 Documentaries made 80 years later wondering how the war would have gone if Germany had the sense to use the more mass-produced effective Bf-109 instead?
@@LostShipMate I assume the Fw190 cost more than the Bf109 to produce, but it was a better overall fighter, particularly the Dora version. Why Kurt Tank wasn't instructed to address the Fw190's poorer high altitude performance much sooner has a lot to do with the Luftwaffe continuing to settle for the Bf109 with all its faults.
I've always wondered about this plane; it certainly had far better looks than the BF 109 and I'm sure could have been developed to progressively over the years. I think I can understand Heinkel's frustration...
Yes. Some state the Bf-109 reached its peak in 1940 with the E-7 variant (though I consider the F-4 may actually be the pinnacle of that plane). I'm pretty sure the He-112 airframe may have had a greater potential for further development, with more powerful engines and armamaent, despite it was less easy to mass-produce. Just like the Spitfire. Alas, it is what it is. Hitler bet everything on a short war and prioritized quantity over quality. At least in the early stages. We all know how it ended... 😏
@@razorback20 not sure about quantity. They were taking ages to makes decent numbers pf anything before realising that war means lost of stuff lost and Speer came along to fix that end of the problem. Also bad logistics.
You give some of the most detailed documentaries on TH-cam. I've learned so much about aviation, a lot of which are planes I haven't heard of before. Thanks for all your hard work.
The He-112 was used by the Luftwaffe as a training aircraft and reserve fighter until September 1942 and was used by the Condor Legion as were He-51s and Ar-68s of the Spanish Air Force
I'd heard just some basic information about this aircraft before. That it lost to the BF-109. how the built aircraft were used to defend the Heinkel factory and nothing more than that. This was a very good and informative video.
@@thunderstruck6647 Actually, Lindberg Line produced a 1/72 model of the He-100, a different aircraft. The Germans released some misinformation about a ''new'' interceptor-night fighter they called the He-113, but they were really He-100s in disguise. A flight of 12 He-100Ds was used by Heinkel at Rostock-Marienche for plant defense, and the PropagandaKommando exploited the photo op. The He-100 was a record beating speed aircraft. One of its tricks was having surface evaporation cooling, with glycol tubing just under the skin. No radiator drag = one slick bird. Bad choice for a warplane, however. One stray bullet in the wrong place and your powerplant's melting itself together. Later version had a conventional radiator, but lost its airspeed edge. He-100 was also powered by the DB601 and the RLM already knew they were prioritized to Messerschmidt. I'm sure I saw a 1/72 model of the He-112 once, but I don't recall the maker. Possibly MPM from the Czech Republic. I looked in my stash, but my MPM kit is an He-100. Maybe some other Eastern European model makers?
Thanks Wow! I had no idea how many images were around about these wonderful aircraft! I find it odd that the 109 was favored more, so much more pilot friendly. I always thought it would be fairly maneuverable too considering it has a eliptical wing not unlike the spitfire, albeit they cut them down for less air resistance.
W. Wonker Messerschmitt was a good seller. Excellent chatter, generous with wine and money ... Sold his Widow maker well. Probably working for the Brits.
I'm an unashamed HE 112 tragic. In my many and varied studies of this beautiful aircraft I recall reading many years ago a speculation that if the 112 had actually reached the front line during the Battle of Britain and been powered by a DB601 it is estimated it would have outclassed the Spitfire in most respects. At the very least there might have been some embarrassing aircraft recognition problems with the 112 and the Spitfire having very similar wings. As it was, a single 112 put paid to a USAAF P38 that strayed over Spanish territory and that was just the version powered by the then obsolete Jumo 210 engine.
@6:40 109 You repeat the almost universally quoted "narrow track" as being a reason for poor ground handling. But the Spitfire had a NARROWER track. The reason the 109 ground handling was poor was the caster angle of the wheels - not the narrowness of the track as such.
Willy Messerschmitt was the ultimate oligarch who had the fighter aircraft market sewn up. Heinkel simply didn’t have the political clout probably because their “sales” budget was limited.
World of Warplanes has the He 112 as the V9 version with 2 x 7.92 and 2 x 20mm and a Jumo 210F. It is a nondevelopment line Premium aircraft a lot of fun to fly in game.
Rather a shame (especially if you're German) as the aircraft definitely had a lot of potential (kind of like a fat chunky spitfire wannabe). If it wasn't for all the pointless faffing around with rocket engines and losses involved then it could of been a much better plane with concentrated development possible much earlier.
Years ago, like in the 1960s year ago; I had the 12 O'clock High Card game by Milton Bradley, which was made of cards with old photos of WW2 planes and the He 112 was one of them. i loved the look of it. Thanks for telling me the rest of the story.
Thanks for such a generally (with the exception of a few glitches) excellently researched and put-together video. That was quite a good highlighting you did regarding ease of production and how that clearly favoured the Bf 109 over the He 112. It is probably a largely overlooked aspect of choice of type. I suppose that it was a relief for the pilots and aircrew of the Luftwaffe that the Bf 109 was the preferred option, eventually, because I cannot help but think that friendly fire would have been a problem, given the superficial similarity of the He 112 with the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire. That quite often happened in respect of the Dornier Do 17 Z and the Handley-Page Hampden, apparently and they were more different from each other than were the He 112 and the Spitfire.
There are stories about the similarity between the wings as I believe someone in Britain purchased a German plane that the design of the Spitfire's wings borrowed from but there isn't much to go on. Funnily, the first mention of this I discovered in an English classic car magazine.
@@anthonyxuereb792 Thanks for the backing-up of my perhaps implied supposition that the Spitfire had partially German origins. Possibly it was in a classic car magazine due to Heinkel, post-war, going on to produce what were known as 'Bubble Cars'.
@@christopherbentley7289 Yes it is possible and I can't say for sure as there were at least two instances regarding this, one even had a picture of the aircraft in the UK and other was in a book review which mentioned the similarity, It's one subject that's taboo to enthusiasts maybe, just like the P51, praises galore and rightly so but don't mention the fact that it was designed by a Bavarian, the same gent who went on to design the F86 and F100 if I'm not mistaken. Anyway it's all in the past.
@@anthonyxuereb792 Yes, it's probably because there was such a high-profile flag-waving feature film made, starring Leslie Howard as Reginald Mitchell, 'First Of The Few', which cemented the Spitfire in mythology and became a sort of 'Gospel'. It wouldn't have played very well in the movie theatres at that time to have admitted that the Spitfire had possibly German influences! Some years ago I was involved in a campaign to have the Art Deco Bus Station in Derby (UK) retained and refurbished in response to the 'Riverlights' development proposals. In some of the artist's impressions of the new Bus Station there was a model of a Spitfire hanging from the ceiling as a tribute to Rolls-Royce, which never became reality! They might as well have hung a model of a Ju 87 Stuka up, since its prototype used a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, but I suppose that wouldn't have looked so good! I've looked into the P 51 and although James H. Kindelberger may have had German ancestry he was born in the U.S. It's like the designer of the Hampden, which I have mentioned, being described as 'German' (George Volkert) when he was British-born. I'm wondering if you may be thinking, since I have mentioned the Ju 87, of the Stuka ace, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who was born in what is now Poland but settled in Bavaria in later life. I know that his advice was called upon in designing the A 10 'Warthog', even though it would have been an open secret that he had Neo-Nazi sympathies.
@@christopherbentley7289 Edgar Schmued is the man in question. Judging from the amazing amount of periodicals in newsagents concerning WWII hanging a Ju 87 might just have been just the thing. Hope the art deco turned out ok.
The lines remind me of the racing planes of the day . This is incredibly thorough . It is clearly production intensive but that effort comes right across . Another nice thing about this channel is that it also comes across when the copy and voice over are delivered from someone who really understands their content . This sepsrates it from the channels that aren't bad , until those channels totally misidentify a few planes or commit some other aviation sacrilege . :). I don't know how you manage to get these done in all honesty . Great work .
It has a close resemblance to the equivalent Russian fighters. Interestingly, during the early days of the Battle of Britain, RAF pilots reported air combat with HE 112s, even though none were present.
Thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth video about the He 112, kudos to you for gathering this difficult to find information about this aircraft. I always found the He 112 a beautiful looking aircraft for it's time even though it did have it's handling flaws
You could have said a bit more about Hungary's deal for the He 112s. Hungary ordered 36 He 112Bs on 7 September 1938, before the Romanian order. Then Germany deliberately delayed the order for various political reasons, then a demonstrator on a tour arrived in Hungary, but crashed shortly after arrival, then Romania placed its order and the Germans deliberately placed them ahead of Hungary in the queue. Hungary was only given 3 He 112s by Germany, even these had weak engines and the cannons removed. The Hungarians tried licence producing the He 112 and got the licence but the Germans refused to licence the more powerful engines to Hungary so rather than make underpowered aircraft, Hungary cancelled the licence. Also you briefly talked about the Weiss Manfred WM-23 "Silver Arrow", you said it was largely based on the He 112, however this is not true. It was not based on the He 112 at all whatsoever. The two aircraft have very few similarities, the one real similarities being their wings looked similar and their landing gear folded outwards. I think you could make a video on the WM-23, there is a decent amount of information on the aircraft (I made a wikipedia article on it).
Great channel, glad I found it :) You've got a good narrators voice and I love the fact you haven't fallen foul of using background music !! Please do not ever use background music, it's annoying & gets in the way of a good binge watch plus it doesn't make the content more interesting, a mistake many youtubers & documentaries make, also I like the thumbnails too !! :)
Your documentary is excellent. Well-worded, slightly humourous in parts and very, very interesting to a warbird buff like me. I never new how important the modified the Me109 was to the newly-formed Israeli nation. Well done!
Japan bought a copy of it and can be played in War Thunder and in the previous video of this TH-camr, it was used as a base model for creating the A5M and resembles the A6M a little bit with the tail, cockpit and wings. They have similar flight characteristics of turn fighting but obviously Japan doesn't want to rely on foreign vehicles due to their lack of resources as they instigated Pearl Harbor to gain more resources. Since A5M and A6M are meant to be fitted from an aircraft carrier it does has to be modified with less armor and lighter for easier take off in aircraft carriers hence they look entirely different but share similar traits.
Excellent video. I did have one question: the photos show the aircraft sometimes with 2 bladed props, and sometimes with 3 bladed props. Which versions had which?
I thought I saw an article which explained a small number of He112s were retained by the Heinkel works as point defense fighter cover for the factory. It was in a book - but alas I can't find the reference. It would be interesting if you had seen anything similar?
I have Ernest Heinkel's biography HE 1000. Probably the most interesting aircraft his firm developed was the intended successor to the 112 - the HE 100 only 25 were built. It used a form of evaporative cooling with the steam condensed in the wing surfaces. It briefly set a world speed record of 469 mph in 1939.
I’m imagining all the misidentification & friendly fire incidents that could have been with those elliptical wings. It might of been better in the long run with further development. Beautiful aircraft imo.
The HE-112 was a much better design, a more streamlined fuselage. Good armament as well. Goering didn't get along with Heinkel. It was, again, a political decision on Goering's part. Of course, the closed cockpit version would be the one to mass-produce. The prior Heinkel model---the HE-100---was faster than both the HE-112 and the ME-109. And again, politics played a role in it's refusal by Goering and the Air Ministry.
I disagree with the reason the the BF 109 was chosen over the He112. The BF109 won most of the trials, and was the most mature. It was also quicker and cheaper to make, and given that news had reached Germany that Spitfire was now in production the BF109 was the logical choice. The reason that the HE 100 failed to get approved comes down to more the engine and it's availability (as well as the evaporative cooling, that depending on which author, was FINALLY done away with in the D-1 version). Goering was obsessed with the BF 110 and each of those required 2 engines, engines that were already in short supply. At the time there was no viable replacement that they could use in that design (which is why Junkers with the Jumo 213 changed their mounting points, so that it could be used in aircraft designed for the DB603). Which is why the Fw190 got approval, and the He100 didn't, And given that the RLM expressed interest in the design if it was powered by the Jumo 211, the idea that it was based on Goering and Heinkel bad blood doesn't really match up. But did the rejection of his design cause him to not even bother trying to fit the Jumo 211 to the aircraft..... more than likely. Depending on output and supercharger "curves" to me the Jumo 211 would be the best option for the He100 since it wasn't a "hot" running engine unlike the DB601, and was somewhat similar in power. The other option that he could of considered is for a design that was actually head and shoulders above even the Bf 109 F, and to do this he should have enlarged the design as well as invest in Junkers to get the Jumo 213 finished and into production quicker (the engine was first run in 1940, but wasn't available in numbers until 1944).
The He-112 could have probably developed into a better plane than the BF-109, but that was not what the competition was about. The Luftwaffe wanted to find the best plane for their current and anticipated needs. And one of the most pressing concern was to get lots of modern airframes, as fast as possible. The BF-109 had a lot of features that made production and maintenance easier. The tail needed no separate frames, they were pressed into every second panel, there were lots of access hatches, the engine was held in with only four bolts, put in easily accessible positions and the pipe fittings were clustered together, so that the engine was easy to remove. All in all the Bf-109 was much closer to a mass production ready status.
A question: During the Spanish Civil War, and at the end ot it, Spanish aviators preferd He. 112B-0/B-2 on the Bf. 108B-1/B-2/C-1/D-1 (versions Jumo engines), and consideres them even somewat superiors to the Bf. 108E-1/E-3 (DB. 601A engines).
That reminds me of a line from a satirical song by the great Tom Lehrer which commented on von Braun's facilitating cute and cuddly Adolf Hitler with rocket technology: "Once they go up who cares where they come down, That's not my department said Werner von Braun."
23:57 the Dutch did not go for the Koolhoven FK58, nor did they go fo the Hurricane. It went for 2 Fokker designs. The FK58 was exported to France, and Belgium aquired a license for Hurricane production.
About the Japanese and the HE-112. There are two distinct Airservices, with two distinct Doctrines. The Army believed in Dogfighters, while the Navy had already switched to Energy-Based Fighting. The HE-112 was Energy-Based Fighters which was heavily armed, suited for that stile of combat. But it was not navalised and it's range was less then the A5M which was another obszession the Japanese Navy had in 1936 and the range of the A5M was deemed to short. For comparison, the HE-112 B-1 had a maximum Range of 1100km, the A5M had one of 1200km and the A6M2 had a range of 1870km. The Navy requested in 1937 for the next Fighter to have Range of 2000km which the A6M0 just reached and with improvments it lost some Range. So Navy was out, and the Army was using the Ki-27 slow Dogfighter with two light Machine Guns, or one light Machine gun and one 12.7 heavy machine gun. The Ki-43 Hayabusa would eventually outperform the HE-112 as Army fighter, but still have about half of the armament. The Ki-43 it would the last real Dogfighter, introduced in 1941 when every other nation already have switched to Energy-Based Fighting. The Japanese Doctrines prevented the HE-112 to be adopted, even when the Army Service would have had benefited taking HE-112 in full Service from 1937-1942 and keeping it as secondary fighter against Bombers later on. A Mainstay Fighter for 5 Years and then Secondline Fighter wouldn't be bad for WWII. But it would require to abandon the Dogfighting Doctrine of the Army Air Service. That the Army Air Service would adopt an Navy Air Service Aircraft (A6M) was out of question thanks to interservice rivalry. The Navy had a better fighter from 1939 onward with the same Armament, so the window would be much smaller. The range and lack of navalisation was the problem, the Energy Fighting Doctrine of the Navy suited the HE-112.
An interesting design that wasn’t given its due, probably because of politics or just bad timing. It was tested out in the Spanish civil war and even though it was praised it never made it into production … A heads up, the plane you showed while talking about Heinkel’s rocket plane was actually the He178, the world’s first jet powered airplane…. The Italians came out with a unique jet plane of their own, the Caproni Campini N1, but the engine was piston powered, not a true turbine. Maybe someone should make a movie on the race to develop a jet engine…
11:30 :- I'm really starting to feel that the the phrase "It immediately exploded" is going to be the story of this aircraft, again and again; I just hope this isn't the Me - 163 Komet - type fuel formula, where, if the pilot is unlucky enough to survive the initial explosion, he (or she, I suppose, because Hannah Reich was a famous Notsee test pilot in this era) is doomed to be eaten alive by the rocket fuel.
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F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Feel free to leave your questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
Another plane for u to do the tbf advengers torpedo bomber
Glad you are embracing a long format video style for aircraft with longer history! I look forward to more! I hope we get a video like this for the Me 163! I longer discussion of rocket motors would be amazing!
When R.J. Mitchell was designing the Spitfire one area he looked into was it having a reversed gullwing. He did not go ahead with idea, I think partially because the wings were to be used as a radiator and he realised the last thing he needed was hot steam meeting cold water. Plus if the wings were hit the water would escape. But there are claims he planned to make a naval version of the reverse gull wing spitfire. It could be interesting to look at the reversed gullwing Spitfire and was there a plan to build it for the British Royal Navy.
Suggestions, I mentioned it in passing before, but the DH Albatross, small wooden airliner, some have said it insprired the Constellation.
@@lilnono951 already on my list :D
The He-112 was also a cinema star. Four Heinkels appeared in the 1943 Italian Romanian co production "Eskadrilla Alba" . They portrayed MiG 3 "bad guys" attacking an all female air medivac unit.
Sounds like an interesting film.
@@EneTheGene Principle filming was completed in 1942, and was sent to Rome in early '43. During the subsequent upheaval in Italy, the film disappeared. Publicity material and production photos survive.
@@craigmeador3372 What a shame. Hopefully it's still somewhere forgotten and will be eventually found.
There's an Italian/Russian made film with an English Title of _Attack and Retreat_
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_and_Retreat
. The Italian Title is _Italiani brava gente_ .
It's about the Italian Army in The Soviet Union during WWII.
50 years ago I saw the English version, which at least had English Subtitles - but I can't find it now.
This is an HD version on TH-cam of the whole movie but - it is in Italian - like the DVD I bought.
th-cam.com/video/Zq3EVsN2JBs/w-d-xo.html
.
I've got a photo of those so-called "MiGs" - I can't believe I forgot to mention this!
I've been interested in the He 112 for decades. It's one of the great "what ifs" of WWII's aviation development, had it been developed more aggressively. One could argue that the Bf-109 was attrited so severely by landing accidents, due to its lousy landing gear geometry, that the the accident rate somewhat negated the Bf-109's ease of construction.
A He 112 with an advanced DB engine might have been a most formidable fighter for the Allies to contend with. This is the best history of the He 112 I've even encountered. Even the most through specialist history books only give it a few sketchy paragraphs.
Well done you!
Thanks! I highly recommend "Heinkel He 112 in action" by D. Bernéd. It is the most thorough book on the aircraft that is not loaded with incorrect facts of needless hyperbole.
Mr. Heinkel and A.Hitler did not get along very well, if i recall correctly. Mr. Messerschmidt was more to Hitlers liking. that's the reason Heinkels planes were handicapped eventhough they were often better.
In August 1939 the turbojet powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft, made its first flight.
@@waltrohrbach2459 Very true. Also, the German air ministry wanted Heinkel to concentrate on bomber production.
@@RexsHangar This was a great episode on the He-112, learnt a lot. I'd love to see a follow up on the later He-100 and how the Japanese at Kawasaki constucted their Ki-61 with heavy influence from both the He-112 and He-100.
The Heinkel had a few crashes on its first 'showoff' flights and after the Spanish civil war the 109 was already chosen.
One note about spanish civil war service. The He 112s were NOT part of the Legion Condor, but on a seperate detached mission to the Nationalist air force
Is there a book about this subject? I'd like to learn more. Thank-you.
@@tekis0 There is a lot of Material...
The pilots of the Condor Legion flew He-112s though and the Luftwaffe used He-112s until September 1942.
@@christiansamuel7900 Then point him to some you clown
@@jerrell1169 that's why they got there ass kicked at school.
As others will no doubt mention, when speaking of the He-176 rocket plane you have a photo of the He-178, the first turbojet-propelled aircraft. Unsirprising really, as - to my knowledge - only one authenticated photo of the He-176 is known to exist. Otherwise, another of your typically well-researched, thorough and excellent presentations. Bravo!
I vote for a presentation on the He-100 next!
You are indeed correct, after checking my files I had put the image in my He-176 folder on accident and I was too focused on editing the video to notice this glaring error 😅
@@RexsHangar Given your track record I think you can be allowed an honest error or two every so often. Thank you so much for your interesting, well-researched, and beautifully illustrated and edited videos, sir.
Blah blah blah. Another FKA
Wow, what an impressive amount of research you put into your videos. This channel has quickly become one of my favourites.
These 1930s Heinkels were really beautiful aircraft. One wonders what course the airwar would have taken had this plane become Germany's primary fighter aircraft.
The extra one to two hundred miles of range could have made a massive difference to the battle of Britain
Considering the added production cost, it would have gone poorly.
Germany would have lost. Again.
@@annoyingbstard9407 Documentaries made 80 years later wondering how the war would have gone if Germany had the sense to use the more mass-produced effective Bf-109 instead?
@@LostShipMate I assume the Fw190 cost more than the Bf109 to produce, but it was a better overall fighter, particularly the Dora version. Why Kurt Tank wasn't instructed to address the Fw190's poorer high altitude performance much sooner has a lot to do with the Luftwaffe continuing to settle for the Bf109 with all its faults.
"pawn out those crates to the Hungarians and the Japanese, they want them" - Hermann Göring to Ernst Heinkel
I've always wondered about this plane; it certainly had far better looks than the BF 109 and I'm sure could have been developed to progressively over the years. I think I can understand Heinkel's frustration...
Yes. Some state the Bf-109 reached its peak in 1940 with the E-7 variant (though I consider the F-4 may actually be the pinnacle of that plane). I'm pretty sure the He-112 airframe may have had a greater potential for further development, with more powerful engines and armamaent, despite it was less easy to mass-produce. Just like the Spitfire.
Alas, it is what it is. Hitler bet everything on a short war and prioritized quantity over quality. At least in the early stages. We all know how it ended... 😏
@@razorback20 not sure about quantity. They were taking ages to makes decent numbers pf anything before realising that war means lost of stuff lost and Speer came along to fix that end of the problem. Also bad logistics.
Messerschmitt had Hitler in his pocket. Nobody else had s chance.
Superb production, factually correct and brilliantly presented. This channel has a million subs or more in the making. Hats off, sir. Well done.
Fantastic video! And holy moly, the speed at which these are being released is truly impressive 👏
Thanks!
You give some of the most detailed documentaries on TH-cam. I've learned so much about aviation, a lot of which are planes I haven't heard of before. Thanks for all your hard work.
It was a real shame the 109 was preferred over the He 112 as the 112 was a far, far better looking plane.
Wow! What an amazing aircraft. And to have film of the rocket tests!!
13:51 is a Heinkel 178 which was the first aircraft to fly using jet power.
The He-112 was used by the Luftwaffe as a training aircraft and reserve fighter until September 1942 and was used by the Condor Legion as were He-51s and Ar-68s of the Spanish Air Force
I'd heard just some basic information about this aircraft before. That it lost to the BF-109. how the built aircraft were used to defend the Heinkel factory and nothing more than that. This was a very good and informative video.
32:30 The Spanish pilot was Lt. Miguel Entrena Klet
Usually I get irritated by TH-camrs lack of research, here I´m impressed.
Always hit the dislike button to those kinds.
Ernst: Who wants to buy some Heinkels?
Chamberlain: I'll have some of that!
Churchill, waving his finger: Tut tut tut-tut tut.
An absolutely beautiful aircraft. It definitely looked “right”.
Agreed, Heinkel produced some beautifully designed elliptical wing planforms melded to a nicely curved fuselage.
@@taffwob True.. I think the He 70 is possible the most beautiful plane ever built.
Great stuff. The long format and the sheer amount of research you must have done to put it together makes for a fascinating and informative video.
An excellent well-researched video of the history of the He.112. Thanks, Rex, well done.
In my opinion, the Heinkel He 112B is one of the most beautiful aircraft of WW2.
And your opinion is factually incorrect
@@mrcat5508 Whatever!
@@PaDDy7389 the xf5f is the most beautiful aircraft of WW2
@@mrcat5508 Well, that's just your opinion.
@@PaDDy7389 no, I have sources
Very interesting with good research. I appreciate how much effort you put into these videos, thank you for sharing them with us.
I knew you were gonna do this plane and I was super excited. Glad it's here for sure.
The V9 was pretty. Wouldn't mind having a model of that one.
I think at one time Lindburgh made one
@@buckwaddell301 not that guy but Lindberg
@@thunderstruck6647 Actually, Lindberg Line produced a 1/72 model of the He-100, a different aircraft. The Germans released some misinformation about a ''new'' interceptor-night fighter they called the He-113, but they were really He-100s in disguise. A flight of 12 He-100Ds was used by Heinkel at Rostock-Marienche for plant defense, and the PropagandaKommando exploited the photo op.
The He-100 was a record beating speed aircraft. One of its tricks was having surface evaporation cooling, with glycol tubing just under the skin. No radiator drag = one slick bird. Bad choice for a warplane, however. One stray bullet in the wrong place and your powerplant's melting itself together. Later version had a conventional radiator, but lost its airspeed edge. He-100 was also powered by the DB601 and the RLM already knew they were prioritized to Messerschmidt.
I'm sure I saw a 1/72 model of the He-112 once, but I don't recall the maker. Possibly MPM from the Czech Republic. I looked in my stash, but my MPM kit is an He-100.
Maybe some other Eastern European model makers?
RS Models makes the only known kit of the He-112 in 1/72.
@@HootOwl513 thanks. I'll see if I can locate one.
Thanks Wow! I had no idea how many images were around about these wonderful aircraft! I find it odd that the 109 was favored more, so much more pilot friendly. I always thought it would be fairly maneuverable too considering it has a eliptical wing not unlike the spitfire, albeit they cut them down for less air resistance.
W. Wonker Messerschmitt was a good seller. Excellent chatter, generous with wine and money ...
Sold his Widow maker well.
Probably working for the Brits.
Bf109 was an excellent design for cheap uncomplicated manufacturing
I'm an unashamed HE 112 tragic. In my many and varied studies of this beautiful aircraft I recall reading many years ago a speculation that if the 112 had actually reached the front line during the Battle of Britain and been powered by a DB601 it is estimated it would have outclassed the Spitfire in most respects. At the very least there might have been some embarrassing aircraft recognition problems with the 112 and the Spitfire having very similar wings. As it was, a single 112 put paid to a USAAF P38 that strayed over Spanish territory and that was just the version powered by the then obsolete Jumo 210 engine.
This Spanish episode about the shootdown of a P38 is interesting and forgotten by the most of books/webs etc.
@@magomo5635 @marcconyard5024 It's crazy how a plane with that junk of engine could take down a p-38
Probably the best video I've seen on the history of the HE112
Loved this plane in warthunder, looked really cool
I have feeling that was a better plane as 109, hard to explain, but look at this lines!!!
Interesting! Well researched and documented.
It always surprises me how many german photos have survived the war.
Great stuff Rex! How about detailing the IAR 80's and those who flew them?
love the listening to numbers and looking at aircraft, and thinking" as the production of military stuff gets into full swing, war will follow".
Hitler: Feel free to export your designs.
Also, Hitler: All your export customers are now Germany.
Heinkel: Sadge
@6:40 109 You repeat the almost universally quoted "narrow track" as being a reason for poor ground handling. But the Spitfire had a NARROWER track. The reason the 109 ground handling was poor was the caster angle of the wheels - not the narrowness of the track as such.
The Soviets didn't like the Spitfire because of its ground handling on primitive, rough Russian airfields.
In fairness, the Spitfire suffered quite high ground handling accidents as well. Something that is very rarely discussed.
I've always thought the He-112 is such a glorious design, a true work of art!
Gorgeous looking planes. Reminded me of the Yak 3
40 minutes. Outstanding.
Willy Messerschmitt was the ultimate oligarch who had the fighter aircraft market sewn up. Heinkel simply didn’t have the political clout probably because their “sales” budget was limited.
World of Warplanes has the He 112 as the V9 version with 2 x 7.92 and 2 x 20mm and a Jumo 210F. It is a nondevelopment line Premium aircraft a lot of fun to fly in game.
Warthunder has 6 or 7 available in the German, Italian, and Japanese trees both as premiums and tech tree vehicles
Rather a shame (especially if you're German) as the aircraft definitely had a lot of potential (kind of like a fat chunky spitfire wannabe).
If it wasn't for all the pointless faffing around with rocket engines and losses involved then it could of been a much better plane with concentrated development possible much earlier.
Mmmm thicc Spitfire
"D-INGA" could only be surpassed by "D-ONGA".
An opportunity missed.
big kudos! this is the video equivalent of the old wings/airpower magazine.
I remember those as a kid during the Cold War
The foto shows the He178 jet airplane, not the He176 rocket plane witch was a tiny slim thing with a wide canopy...!
I for one always enjoy the longer videos...excellent work, cheers mate!
This is a great video on an airplane that history has forgotten. Please keep this up.
I'd love to see something on the Boeing B-47 and B-50.
Years ago, like in the 1960s year ago; I had the 12 O'clock High Card game by Milton Bradley, which was made of cards with old photos of WW2 planes and the He 112 was one of them. i loved the look of it. Thanks for telling me the rest of the story.
Thanks for such a generally (with the exception of a few glitches) excellently researched and put-together video. That was quite a good highlighting you did regarding ease of production and how that clearly favoured the Bf 109 over the He 112. It is probably a largely overlooked aspect of choice of type. I suppose that it was a relief for the pilots and aircrew of the Luftwaffe that the Bf 109 was the preferred option, eventually, because I cannot help but think that friendly fire would have been a problem, given the superficial similarity of the He 112 with the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire. That quite often happened in respect of the Dornier Do 17 Z and the Handley-Page Hampden, apparently and they were more different from each other than were the He 112 and the Spitfire.
There are stories about the similarity between the wings as I believe someone in Britain purchased a German plane that the design of the Spitfire's wings borrowed from but there isn't much to go on. Funnily, the first mention of this I discovered in an English classic car magazine.
@@anthonyxuereb792 Thanks for the backing-up of my perhaps implied supposition that the Spitfire had partially German origins. Possibly it was in a classic car magazine due to Heinkel, post-war, going on to produce what were known as 'Bubble Cars'.
@@christopherbentley7289 Yes it is possible and I can't say for sure as there were at least two instances regarding this, one even had a picture of the aircraft in the UK
and other was in a book review which mentioned the similarity, It's one subject that's taboo to enthusiasts maybe, just like the P51, praises galore and rightly so but don't mention the fact that it was designed by a Bavarian, the same gent who went on to design the F86 and F100 if I'm not mistaken. Anyway it's all in the past.
@@anthonyxuereb792 Yes, it's probably because there was such a high-profile flag-waving feature film made, starring Leslie Howard as Reginald Mitchell, 'First Of The Few', which cemented the Spitfire in mythology and became a sort of 'Gospel'. It wouldn't have played very well in the movie theatres at that time to have admitted that the Spitfire had possibly German influences!
Some years ago I was involved in a campaign to have the Art Deco Bus Station in Derby (UK) retained and refurbished in response to the 'Riverlights' development proposals. In some of the artist's impressions of the new Bus Station there was a model of a Spitfire hanging from the ceiling as a tribute to Rolls-Royce, which never became reality! They might as well have hung a model of a Ju 87 Stuka up, since its prototype used a Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine, but I suppose that wouldn't have looked so good!
I've looked into the P 51 and although James H. Kindelberger may have had German ancestry he was born in the U.S. It's like the designer of the Hampden, which I have mentioned, being described as 'German' (George Volkert) when he was British-born. I'm wondering if you may be thinking, since I have mentioned the Ju 87, of the Stuka ace, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, who was born in what is now Poland but settled in Bavaria in later life. I know that his advice was called upon in designing the A 10 'Warthog', even though it would have been an open secret that he had Neo-Nazi sympathies.
@@christopherbentley7289 Edgar Schmued is the man in question. Judging from the amazing amount of periodicals in newsagents concerning WWII hanging a Ju 87
might just have been just the thing.
Hope the art deco turned out ok.
The lines remind me of the racing planes of the day . This is incredibly thorough . It is clearly production intensive but that effort comes right across . Another nice thing about this channel is that it also comes across when the copy and voice over are delivered from someone who really understands their content . This sepsrates it from the channels that aren't bad , until those channels totally misidentify a few planes or commit some other aviation sacrilege . :). I don't know how you manage to get these done in all honesty . Great work .
It has a close resemblance to the equivalent Russian fighters. Interestingly, during the early days of the Battle of Britain, RAF pilots reported air combat with HE 112s, even though none were present.
Maybe there were a few there that records got lost of
@@920utdoor this is Germany we're talking about...
Excellent episode ! Thanks you Rex..
Thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth video about the He 112, kudos to you for gathering this difficult to find information about this aircraft. I always found
the He 112 a beautiful looking aircraft for it's time even though it did have it's handling flaws
39:45 That is a good looking plane.
Fine documentary Rex. Welcome learning more about this craft.
You could have said a bit more about Hungary's deal for the He 112s. Hungary ordered 36 He 112Bs on 7 September 1938, before the Romanian order. Then Germany deliberately delayed the order for various political reasons, then a demonstrator on a tour arrived in Hungary, but crashed shortly after arrival, then Romania placed its order and the Germans deliberately placed them ahead of Hungary in the queue. Hungary was only given 3 He 112s by Germany, even these had weak engines and the cannons removed. The Hungarians tried licence producing the He 112 and got the licence but the Germans refused to licence the more powerful engines to Hungary so rather than make underpowered aircraft, Hungary cancelled the licence. Also you briefly talked about the Weiss Manfred WM-23 "Silver Arrow", you said it was largely based on the He 112, however this is not true. It was not based on the He 112 at all whatsoever. The two aircraft have very few similarities, the one real similarities being their wings looked similar and their landing gear folded outwards. I think you could make a video on the WM-23, there is a decent amount of information on the aircraft (I made a wikipedia article on it).
Great channel, glad I found it :)
You've got a good narrators voice and I love the fact you haven't fallen foul of using background music !!
Please do not ever use background music, it's annoying & gets in the way of a good binge watch plus it doesn't make the content more interesting, a mistake many youtubers & documentaries make, also I like the thumbnails too !! :)
Excellent video. Thank you for all your hard work putting it together for us.
Your documentary is excellent. Well-worded, slightly humourous in parts and very, very interesting to a warbird buff like me. I never new how important the modified the Me109 was to the newly-formed Israeli nation. Well done!
I've always really liked the look of the He-112, it just looks so sleek and futuristic
Japan bought a copy of it and can be played in War Thunder and in the previous video of this TH-camr, it was used as a base model for creating the A5M and resembles the A6M a little bit with the tail, cockpit and wings. They have similar flight characteristics of turn fighting but obviously Japan doesn't want to rely on foreign vehicles due to their lack of resources as they instigated Pearl Harbor to gain more resources. Since A5M and A6M are meant to be fitted from an aircraft carrier it does has to be modified with less armor and lighter for easier take off in aircraft carriers hence they look entirely different but share similar traits.
One thing is very clear right from the start. The HE112 was clearly the prettier aircraft than the BF109.
Great video on an oft-overlooked German fighter. Could you do a similar video covering the Douglas A-26 Invader?
Yes, that would be interesting!
Wonderful video, thank you.
This is my favorite plane so I'm happy to see a video about it.
Great video I really enjoyed them longer in depth presentation I learned a lot from this particular episode please keep them coming
The open topped(!) HE 112 is the most beautiful plane I've ever seen.
Excellent video. I did have one question: the photos show the aircraft sometimes with 2 bladed props, and sometimes with 3 bladed props. Which versions had which?
This just gets better and better Rex, keep up the good work!
+1 sub :)
I thought I saw an article which explained a small number of He112s were retained by the Heinkel works as point defense fighter cover for the factory. It was in a book - but alas I can't find the reference. It would be interesting if you had seen anything similar?
Yes the "Luftwaffe war Diaries" Becker was the authors name
I have Ernest Heinkel's biography HE 1000. Probably the most interesting aircraft his firm developed was the intended successor to the 112 - the HE 100 only 25 were built.
It used a form of evaporative cooling with the steam condensed in the wing surfaces. It briefly set a world speed record of 469 mph in 1939.
Excellent video - yet again.
Waiting on the next release, I've gone through your entire catalog. 😎
Great video, way more info than I expected. I was aware of this aircraft from the IL2 simulator originally, but didn't know it actually saw combat!
The final version looked amazing
Superb Research, Great Job
I’m imagining all the misidentification & friendly fire incidents that could have been with those elliptical wings. It might of been better in the long run with further development. Beautiful aircraft imo.
Thanks! Love to see an episode on the He 100.
In sixty one years I've never seen those rocket tests. Extraordinary stuff.
Very interesting. Thanks for making this.
The planform at 04:19 looks very similar to the Hawker Tempest/Fury wing shape. Perhaps Heinkel was onto something after all... :)
Oh heck yes! I've wondered about this one!
The He-112 is very under appreciated.
The HE-112 was a much better design, a more streamlined fuselage. Good armament as well. Goering didn't get along with Heinkel. It was, again, a political decision on Goering's part. Of course, the closed cockpit version would be the one to mass-produce. The prior Heinkel model---the HE-100---was faster than both the HE-112 and the ME-109. And again, politics played a role in it's refusal by Goering and the Air Ministry.
I disagree with the reason the the BF 109 was chosen over the He112.
The BF109 won most of the trials, and was the most mature.
It was also quicker and cheaper to make, and given that news had reached Germany that Spitfire was now in production the BF109 was the logical choice.
The reason that the HE 100 failed to get approved comes down to more the engine and it's availability (as well as the evaporative cooling, that depending on which author, was FINALLY done away with in the D-1 version).
Goering was obsessed with the BF 110 and each of those required 2 engines, engines that were already in short supply.
At the time there was no viable replacement that they could use in that design (which is why Junkers with the Jumo 213 changed their mounting points, so that it could be used in aircraft designed for the DB603).
Which is why the Fw190 got approval, and the He100 didn't,
And given that the RLM expressed interest in the design if it was powered by the Jumo 211, the idea that it was based on Goering and Heinkel bad blood doesn't really match up.
But did the rejection of his design cause him to not even bother trying to fit the Jumo 211 to the aircraft..... more than likely.
Depending on output and supercharger "curves" to me the Jumo 211 would be the best option for the He100 since it wasn't a "hot" running engine unlike the DB601, and was somewhat similar in power.
The other option that he could of considered is for a design that was actually head and shoulders above even the Bf 109 F,
and to do this he should have enlarged the design as well as invest in Junkers to get the Jumo 213 finished and into production quicker (the engine was first run in 1940, but wasn't available in numbers until 1944).
@@notsureyou I agree
The He-112 could have probably developed into a better plane than the BF-109, but that was not what the competition was about.
The Luftwaffe wanted to find the best plane for their current and anticipated needs.
And one of the most pressing concern was to get lots of modern airframes, as fast as possible.
The BF-109 had a lot of features that made production and maintenance easier.
The tail needed no separate frames, they were pressed into every second panel, there were lots of access hatches, the engine was held in with only four bolts, put in easily accessible positions and the pipe fittings were clustered together, so that the engine was easy to remove.
All in all the Bf-109 was much closer to a mass production ready status.
A question:
During the Spanish Civil War, and at the end ot it, Spanish aviators preferd He. 112B-0/B-2 on the Bf. 108B-1/B-2/C-1/D-1 (versions Jumo engines), and consideres them even somewat superiors to the Bf. 108E-1/E-3 (DB. 601A engines).
Loved the longer video mate!
Von Braun's ability to play with his test pilots life is commendable
At least they died for science.
It was a sacrifice he was willing to make
That reminds me of a line from a satirical song by the great Tom Lehrer which commented on von Braun's facilitating cute and cuddly Adolf Hitler with rocket technology:
"Once they go up who cares where they come down,
That's not my department said Werner von Braun."
Hey, FOR SCIENCE!
@@thomasschreiber9559 but you got to admit, those test pilots have balls of steel.
11:38 the V-8 was never used for rocket propulsion testing. the prototype heinkel sent was the V-4
Very interesting - but the ads!! Every few minutes all the way through, I got to a dozen before I lost count!
Imagine being at the bottom of the german research tree
23:57 the Dutch did not go for the Koolhoven FK58, nor did they go fo the Hurricane. It went for 2 Fokker designs. The FK58 was exported to France, and Belgium aquired a license for Hurricane production.
Excellent work!
Would love more long-form videos like this!
Love these deep dives, helps with Planes in Flames.
About the Japanese and the HE-112. There are two distinct Airservices, with two distinct Doctrines.
The Army believed in Dogfighters, while the Navy had already switched to Energy-Based Fighting.
The HE-112 was Energy-Based Fighters which was heavily armed, suited for that stile of combat. But it was not navalised and it's range was less then the A5M which was another obszession the Japanese Navy had in 1936 and the range of the A5M was deemed to short. For comparison, the HE-112 B-1 had a maximum Range of 1100km, the A5M had one of 1200km and the A6M2 had a range of 1870km. The Navy requested in 1937 for the next Fighter to have Range of 2000km which the A6M0 just reached and with improvments it lost some Range.
So Navy was out, and the Army was using the Ki-27 slow Dogfighter with two light Machine Guns, or one light Machine gun and one 12.7 heavy machine gun. The Ki-43 Hayabusa would eventually outperform the HE-112 as Army fighter, but still have about half of the armament. The Ki-43 it would the last real Dogfighter, introduced in 1941 when every other nation already have switched to Energy-Based Fighting.
The Japanese Doctrines prevented the HE-112 to be adopted, even when the Army Service would have had benefited taking HE-112 in full Service from 1937-1942 and keeping it as secondary fighter against Bombers later on. A Mainstay Fighter for 5 Years and then Secondline Fighter wouldn't be bad for WWII. But it would require to abandon the Dogfighting Doctrine of the Army Air Service. That the Army Air Service would adopt an Navy Air Service Aircraft (A6M) was out of question thanks to interservice rivalry.
The Navy had a better fighter from 1939 onward with the same Armament, so the window would be much smaller. The range and lack of navalisation was the problem, the Energy Fighting Doctrine of the Navy suited the HE-112.
I do find German Aircraft with the Japanese meatball as oddly appealing.
All over better aircraft most likely more development potential than the 109. Very nice looking aircraft too.
I think the Bf-109 looks better
The me 109 looks perfect for the main fighter of the bad Guys.
but production potential is as important as development one
An interesting design that wasn’t given its due, probably because of politics or just bad timing.
It was tested out in the Spanish civil war and even though it was praised it never made it into production …
A heads up, the plane you showed while talking about Heinkel’s rocket plane was actually the He178, the world’s first jet powered airplane….
The Italians came out with a unique jet plane of their own, the Caproni Campini N1, but the engine was piston powered, not a true turbine.
Maybe someone should make a movie on the race to develop a jet engine…
!aa!!!!
@@gregschimming2950 ????
Each time I hear that engine spool up I know it’s going to be a good and proper presentation.
Good stuff. Thanks for the video.
Excellent coverage, with your usual marvelous commentary, of this very attractive aircraft. Heinkel certainly did the German aero-industry proud.
11:30 :- I'm really starting to feel that the the phrase "It immediately exploded" is going to be the story of this aircraft, again and again; I just hope this isn't the Me - 163 Komet - type fuel formula, where, if the pilot is unlucky enough to survive the initial explosion, he (or she, I suppose, because Hannah Reich was a famous Notsee test pilot in this era) is doomed to be eaten alive by the rocket fuel.