Heinkel HE 12

Heinkel HE 12
The plane on the catapult on board the Bremen.
Type:	single-engine catapult aircraft
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Heinkel
Number of pieces:	1

The Heinkel HE 12 was a catapult airplane with floats built in 1929 in the German Reich . It was specially designed for use on the express steamer Bremen , from which it could be launched with a catapult on the Atlantic in order to bring mail from the ship ashore early. The abbreviation “HE” stands for “Heinkel monoplane” and is not to be confused with the “He” factory identifier assigned by the RLM in 1932 .

history

The North German Lloyd (NDL) already had a 1927 Junkers F-13 -Schwimmerflugzeug on the steamer Lutzow carried to the passengers in port calls to offer sightseeing flights. The management of the NDL recognized that a float plane on board a high-speed steamer opened up additional income opportunities, since this transport would bring the mail from the high-speed steamer to land much earlier at greater distances from the destination port. Then the aircraft manufacturer Heinkel began the construction of a catapult and the NDL planned a catapult and aircraft for the transport of mail on its new express steamers Bremen and Europa . Since the crew of the Lützow had problems with the maintenance of the F 13, Lufthansa agreed to provide operational support for the project. When the Bremen set out on her maiden voyage in 1929, she had the Heinkel HE 12 D-1717 on board.

construction

The only Heinkel HE 12 was a further development of the HE 9 designed for military purposes . She was a conventionally braced low-wing aircraft. The structure was made of wood with fabric covering, the fuselage consisted of a welded tubular steel frame covered with fabric. The top of the fuselage to behind the second seat, like the engine front end, was planked with light metal sheet. The pilot and radio operator sat behind one another in open cockpits and the post office was in a hold behind them.

Calls

On July 22, 1929 - 110 km from New York - the HE 12 took off successfully from Bremen under Jobst von Studnitz and Karl Kirchhoff . The next day, Mayor Jimmy Walker christened the HE 12 in the name of his city in front of 3,500 onlookers . The start was supposed to be 400 km from New York, but the ship's management delayed the start because they wanted to secure the Blue Ribbon and did not want to be stopped by a possible breakdown of the engine. On the way back, the machine now called "New York" started on August 1st near Cherbourg and flew 940 km in 4.5 hours to Bremerhaven , where the mail was reloaded and with another machine reached Berlin in the afternoon - 5½ days, after leaving New York. By the end of the season, the machine made another six flights, only the one to New York on September 9th in the fog failed. The HE 12 turned around, found the express steamer and was back on board after 4 hours 21 minutes.

In 1930, the machine carried out 18 advance mail flights between April 29 and September 28, and from May 10 in 1931 a further 15 flights. In July, however, five flights had to be canceled due to damage.

Deadly accident

On October 5, 1931, the Heinkel HE 12 D-1717 took off 2,500 km from New York. It was her 39th mail pre-trip. She wanted to fly to Sydney (Nova Scotia) first , as the machine of the sister ship Europa had done in September. The plane landed in front of Glace Bay after a flight time of 9.5 hours , but then flew on to Sydney, just 25 km away. During the four-hour break, the radio operator Wagenknecht is said to have worked there almost continuously on the engine. Shortly after midnight, the plane took off on its onward flight to New York. About 300 km southwest of Sydney, the plane crashed over Cobequid Bay . The machine was found the next day at low tide. From the remains it was concluded that the pilot Fritz Simon tried to land with an engine failure and mistaken the mudflats for the water surface. The pilot's body was also found three days later. Rudolf Wagenknecht's body could not be found.

This remained the only serious accident until the end of the catapult flights by the express steamers in 1935. After the pilot Fritz Simon, Lufthansa named the Junkers Ju 52 WNr.5489 D-AQUI in 1936 . After a changeful fate, this aircraft belongs to the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Foundation today and was the last aircraft to take off from Berlin-Tempelhof Airport on October 30, 2008 before it was officially closed.

Europe and the new planes

Europa , which came into service the following year , received a more powerful catapult and a similar but somewhat heavier floatplane, the Heinkel HE 58 . This aircraft (D-1919 Bremen ) had a wider fuselage in which the crew sat next to each other. The engine was also partially covered. The machine was used on the Bremen in 1932 until it was replaced by new Junkers Ju 46 aircraft in 1933 .

Technical specifications

Parameter	HE 12	HE 58
crew	2 (pilot and radio operator)
length	11.56 m	11.73 m
span	16.80 m	17.20 m
height	4.55 m	4.685 m
Wing area	48.46 m²	49.40 m²
payload	200 kg mail	200 kg mail?
Empty mass	1580 kg	1850 kg
Takeoff mass	2600 kg	3140 kg
Top speed	216 km / h	204 km / h
Cruising speed	180 km / h	175 km / h
Range	approx. 1600 km	approx. 1600 km
Engine	a 9-cylinder radial engine Pratt & Whitney Hornet A with 450 hp

literature

• Jörg-M. Hormann: Flugbuch Atlantik, German catapult flights 1927–1939. Delius Klasing Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-7688-1973-6 .
• Siegfried Graf Schack von Wittenau: Pioneering flights by a Lufthansa captain 1926–1945. Motorbuch Verlag, 1981, ISBN 3-87943-764-5 .
• H. Dieter Köhler: Ernst Heinkel - pioneer of high-speed aircraft. Bernard & Graefe, 1983.

Web links

Commons : Heinkel HE 12  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ picture of HE 58 Bremen (accessed on September 21, 2009)