History

Heinkel He112B The He112 was developed due to a 1933 letter to develop a high speed courier aircraft issued by the newly formed Luftwaffe. By March 1935 prototypes were ready from Arado, Bayerishce Flugzeugwerke, Focke-Wulf and Heinkel.

In fly off competition, the He-112 lost out to the BFW aircraft. Heinkel received a contract to produce ten prototypes for further testing.

In October 1936, at the request of the RLM, Heinkel undertook a complete redesign resulting in the He112B. The new aircraft was then capable of matching the BFW aircraft, now known as the Messerschmitt Bf109..

With no orders for the aircraft, Heinkel took a prototype on a tour of Europe showing it off at airshows and to various governments.

The first order was from the Japanese Navy who ordered 24, however only 12 were delivered.

Twelve aircraft were taken over by the Luftwaffe during the Sudetenland crisis. These aircraft were later returned to Heinkel but the Japanese refused to accept them.

Romania would become the largest user of He112s however it was inferior to the locally produced IAR80, so was mostly used for training.

RS Models 1/72 kit completed by Steve Pulbrook in 2018.

Data

MODEL: Heinkel He112 (Steve Pulbrook Gallery)

ROLE: Fighter

TIME PERIOD: 1939-1945

ENGINES: Junker Jumo liquid cooled, Inverted V12 piston engine of 493 kW

WING SPAN: 11.5m

LENGTH: 9m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 2230kg

MAXIMUM SPEED: 488 km/h

RANGE: 1100 km

CREW: 1

ARMAMENT: two 7.92mm maching guns and two 20mm cannon

SCALE: 1/72

KIT:

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