Heinkel HD 24

Heinkel HD 24
Type:	Sports and training aircraft
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke
First flight:	July 1926
Production time:	1926-1929
Number of pieces:	23 + 7 licensed buildings

The Heinkel HD 24 was a single-engine biplane made by Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1926. The best known is the seaplane variant of the HD 24, which was used as a training and expedition aircraft.

history

For the German Sea Flight Competition from July 12th to 31st, 1926 in Warnemünde , Ernst Heinkel built two HD-24 seaplanes that were powered by water-cooled 6-cylinder BMW IV engines with 250 hp (184 kW). A total of 4000 km had to be flown in four competitions during this time. One of the two HD 24s, flown by the pilot Geisler, was lost due to a break on landing in Spiekeroog , but the second machine with Dipl.-Ing. Rudolf Spies took third place in this competition as one of only three aircraft that passed all tests.

Due to the successes, the Swedish Air Force ( Flygvapnet ) had also become aware of the machine. Heinkel manufactured two HD 24 (Wnr. 253 and 254) for them under the Swedish designation Sk 4 , which were equipped with Daimler D IIIa engines with 180 hp (132 kW). This was followed by a license build by Svenska Aero AB in Sweden , headed by Clemens Bücker . Between 1927 and 1928 four more Sk 4 and two Sk 4 A were built here , but they were already equipped with Junkers L 5 with 280 HP (206 kW). In 1930 all existing aircraft were converted to this engine, until finally between 1931 and 1933 all HD 24 British Armstrong-Siddeley Puma with 250 HP (184 kW) and the designation Sk 4 B were given. The HD 24 served in the Swedish Air Force until 1939. The machines were stationed in Hägernäs .

The competition aircraft and two other newly built machines (Wnr. 255 and 256) then went to the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule (DVS) in Warnemünde, as did most of the 23 aircraft of the type manufactured by Heinkel. One of the machines manufactured by Heinkel (Wnr. 285) and one by SAAB (probably another Sk 4 A with Wnr. 49) was exported to China. Another, the Wnr. 271, D-1313, equipped with a BMW IVa, was given to Gunther Plüschow, the well-known “Flieger von Tsingtau”, for his South American flights.

South America flights

Heinkel HD 24 by Gunther Plüschow

On 27 November 1927 traveled Gunther Plüschow along with that of the company Askania -down Ing. Ernst Dreblow with its purpose-built expedition cutter "Tierra del Fuego" from Büsum after on the Brunswick Peninsula in Chile on the Strait of Magellan located Punta Arenas . The trip led through Tenerife , Bahaa , Rio de Janeiro , Santos , Montevideo and Buenos Aires . At the same time, the passenger ship Cap Arcona of Hamburg-Süd-Amerikanische DG transported its Heinkel HD 24W ( D-1313 ) seaplane to Chile, where Plüschow was able to take over it in Punta Arenas and upgrade it together with Dreblow.

From 1928 Plüschow flew over large parts of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia . He stayed in the southernmost part of South America for two years. In 1930 he returned to Germany and published his book Silberkondor on Tierra del Fuego and a related documentary. On July 6, 1930, he was the acclaimed guest of honor at the big flight day in Travemünde , where in his honor even another aircraft, not an HD 24, but a Heinkel HD 30 , had the inscription "Tsingtau" on it. At the end of 1930 he returned to Chile and Argentina to continue his research flights.

On January 28, 1931, Plüschow crashed his plane into Lake Rico on the Perito Moreno Glacier, killing him and Dreblow. At the crash site, the two states Argentina and Chile erected a monument on which the death of the two aviation pioneers is commemorated every year. The consuls of Chile and Argentina also took part in the small celebration at his honorary grave in the Parkfriedhof Berlin-Lichterfelde on the 75th anniversary of his death in 2006.

On June 22nd, 2009 a replica of the aircraft was presented in Ushuaia , Tierra del Fuego. This is to be exhibited in Tierra del Fuego from 2010 and remember Gunther Plüschow there. The machine was built by the president of the aero club in Ushuaia, Rafael Fank, and the journalist Roberto Litvachkes.

Technical specifications

Three-sided view

Parameter	Data
crew	2 (pilot and observer)
length	9.69 m, land 8.6 m
span	14.20 m
Wing area	50.1 m²
height	4.15 m, land 3.84 m
Empty mass	1500 kg, land 1300 kg
Takeoff mass	2150 kg
Top speed	168 km / h
Service ceiling	4500 m
Range	600 km
Engines	1 × BMW IV , 235 kW (320 PS)

literature

Gunther Plüschow : Silver condor over Tierra del Fuego . Prague Books, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-925769-07-2 .
Volker Koos: Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke 1922–1932 . Heel, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-89880-502-6 .
Gunther Plüschow: Una Vida de Sueños, Aventuras y Desafíos por una Amor Imposible: La Patagonia! - A life full of dreams, adventures and challenges, for an impossible love the indomitable Patagonia! Ed .: Roberto Litvachkes. 2006, ISBN 987-21760-1-9 (Deutsch-English-Spanish-Portugues with a DVD with the original film from G. Pluschow filmed in 1929, 127 minutes duration).

Web links

Commons : Heinkel HD 24 - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ FliegerRevue November 2009, pp. 47–49, “Silberkondor” back in Tierra del Fuego

[1] FliegerRevue November 2009, pp. 47–49, “Silberkondor” back in Tierra del Fuego