Heinkel He 176

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinkel He 176
Heinkel He 176
Type: Experimental airplane
Design country:

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Manufacturer:

Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke

First flight:

June 20, 1939

Commissioning:

1939

Number of pieces:

1

The Heinkel He 176 was the world's first functional aircraft to be powered by an adjustable liquid rocket engine. The first flight was carried out on June 20, 1939 by Erich Warsitz on the site of the test site of the German Air Force "Peenemünde-West" in Peenemünde .

history

As early as the 1920s, German engineers began to experiment with solid rocket engines as a drive source. These attempts resulted in the duck developed by Alexander Lippisch in 1929 , the first manned aircraft with a rocket engine. The solid rocket engines, however, had the serious disadvantage that the thrust could not be regulated and that, once ignited, they could not be switched off.

The development of the He 176 began in the late 1930s and was a collaboration between Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke and Wernher von Braun and his group of designers, who advanced the development of a rocket propulsion system with liquid fuel. The development was personally promoted by Ernst Heinkel , who had a passion for new technologies for high-speed aircraft engines. A liquid rocket engine was installed in a He 112 ; however, this prototype exploded during launch preparations. According to other sources, only a hull that Heinkel von Braun had provided for installation tests exploded; the prototype, however, has flown successfully. There is also a picture credit. or film recordings. The Heinkel He 176 was then developed for further flight testing of rocket drives.

construction

In the Heinkel He 176, the conventional propeller drive was dispensed with from the start. The middle-decker construction with a low-set cross tail was created around the hydrogen peroxide rocket engine (so-called cold drive without flame) Walter R 1-203 newly developed by Hellmuth Walter . The aircraft had a very simple structure and was made of light metal using the conventional shell construction. There is no evidence for a construction made of wood, which is sometimes mentioned, and Heinkel had little experience in building wooden airplanes, and there was no reason to use heavy wood over light metal. All of Heinkel's designs from this period were light metal constructions. The fuselage was circular in cross-section and had a glazed tip and removable cockpit glazing.

The aircraft had an escape capsule that could be detached using compressed air , from which the pilot had to free himself to parachute. The escape capsule was only separated from the fuselage and braked by a delay parachute that was mechanically ejected. This should reduce the burden on the pilot during the rescue jump and enable a safe jump in the first place.

The He 176 had a retractable tail wheel landing gear. For the taxiing tests in Peenemünde, a rigid nose wheel was also mounted, which was dismantled again before the flight tests.

After the successful first flight, which presumably took place on June 20, 1939 (not occupied), the prototype was presented to the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) on July 3, 1939 , which, however, showed no interest. Shortly after the outbreak of war, on instructions from the RLM, further work on the He 176 was stopped, although Heinkel wanted to develop the machine into an object protection fighter.

All documents relating to the He 176 were destroyed. The flight performance often mentioned in the press, such as the maximum speed of over 750 km / h, has not been proven. There are only two photographs of the He 176, which they presumably show in Peenemünde with an open cockpit during taxiing tests.

A picture of the He 176 used in many specialist publications after the war, which was drawn based on memories of employees, shows an aircraft with an oval fuselage, triangular tail unit, straight wing leading edge, horizontal tail unit attached to the fuselage and a very generous canopy throughout, which does not look as though it was covered of the aircraft.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 1
length 5.20 m (other sources: 6–6.20 m)
span 5.00 m
height 1.44 m
Wing area 5.44 m²
Wing extension 4.6
Empty mass 900 kg
Takeoff mass 1620 kg
Top speed 750 km / h (?)
Service ceiling 9000 m
Range 110 km
Engines Walter R 1-203

Whereabouts

After a few test flights, the aircraft was taken to the German Aviation Collection in Berlin , where it was destroyed by a bombing raid in 1943, still packed in the transport crates. All documents on the aircraft were lost due to the effects of the war, and the film recordings of the demonstration in front of representatives of the RLM have not reappeared to this day. After the war there were various attempts at reconstruction by the employees involved, but these remained inconsistent and in some cases contradicted each other. Only a few data are secured, such as the verifiable investigation of the He 176 in the large wind tunnel of the aerodynamic research institute in Göttingen from July 9th to 13th, 1938. The machine was camouflaged as "He-Kü". A sketch has been preserved that shows the He 176 with a possible suspension in wind tunnel VI on April 20, 1938. In addition, the order to examine the He 176 from June 26, 1938 by the Technical Office LC 6 of the RLM has been received. The examinations were demonstrably carried out. Almost all investigations were done with the landing gear retracted, which refutes the theory of a first version with a fixed landing gear.

See also

literature

  • Lutz Warsitz: Flight captain Erich Warsitz - the first jet aircraft pilot in the world. Books on Demand, Norderstedt, 2006, ISBN 3-8334-5378-8 . Book info
  • Volker Koos: Heinkel He 176 - Poetry and Truth. Jet & Prop 1/94 pp. 17-21.
  • Hans-Peter Dabrowski : Hunting single-seater He 112. Waffen-Arsenal Volume 159 from 1996, ISBN 3-7909-0567-4 .

Web links

Commons : Heinkel He 176  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Image in: Hans-Peter Dabrowski: Waffen-Arsenal Vol. 159: Jagdeinsitzer He 112.Wölfersheim 1996 p. 26