Heinkel He 031

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Heinkel He 031 foil
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Type: Interceptor (interceptor)
Design country:

Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany BR Germany

Manufacturer:

Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke

First flight:

only project

The Heinkel He 031 Foil was the design of an interceptor made by the German manufacturer Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the 1950s. A special feature of the construction was a mixed drive (turbine + rocket engine) in order to be able to reach a sufficient height as quickly as possible to intercept enemy bombers.

history

The forerunner of the He 031 can be seen in the design of the single-jet He 011 designed as a delta wing , which was developed by Heinkel between 1954 and 1956 on behalf of the Egyptian government. The development team was headed by Siegfried Günter , who was already responsible for many of Heinkel's designs during the war years.

The intended drive was the Heinkel HeS 053 engine, which was designed by Fritz Gosslau and which was ready for the test bench. It delivered a thrust of 64.4 kN (6500 kp), had an eleven-stage axial compressor, a two-stage axial turbine and weighed 1565 kg.

A group of German engineers in Heluan built another 1: 1 dummy of this so-called Egypt hunter ; However, after the Egyptian government withdrew its order, further development was stopped. A few months later, Egypt signed a contract with the Soviet Union for the delivery of MiG-15 fighter aircraft.

As early as 1955, however, Heinkel produced a second delta hunter, which was developed on behalf of Spain. This was first called He 021 , later C-He 101 and was a typical lightweight fighter with a flight weight of 4000 kg. The design was designed as a middle-decker with side air intakes for the proposed Bristol-Orpheus engine. However, the He 021 did not get beyond the design stage.

After the occupation statutes were repealed in May 1955 and the Federal Republic of Germany regained full sovereignty, the Federal Ministry of Defense issued a competitive tender for the development of a German interceptor. The requirements were:

  • Flight services:
    • Top speed: Mach 2.0
    • Landing speed: 200 km / h
    • Climbing time: 3 minutes at an altitude of 25,000 m
    • Service ceiling: 25,000 m
  • Engine:
    • The De Havilland Gyron Jr. was recommended because a German engine was not yet available.
    • In addition, the installation of a De Havilland Specter Jr. was recommended in order to achieve the required speeds with certainty.
  • Navigation and FT equipment
    • Double UHF system
    • Radar with ranges from 30 to 50 km
    • TACAN
    • IFF plant
    • Target aircraft on jammers and on-board radar devices, sighting device with automatic triggering
  • Armament:

The required mixed drive was also used in the British test aircraft Saunders-Roe SR.53 around the same time and was also to be used as a drive for the supersonic fighter design SR.177 . Heinkel took part in the tender and won it with the draft He 031 submitted in February 1957, which in some cases exceeded the requirements mathematically.

Initially the plan was to design, manufacture and test four test aircraft. Series production would have started in full in 1962 and the Air Force could have taken over the first machines in 1963.

However, it was no longer necessary to build a model aircraft, as the NATO air force command staff had turned to the vertical take-off as a new, promising category of fighter. On December 2, 1957, the Federal Ministry of Defense issued a tender calling for an all-weather fighter with VTOL properties. Then the Dassault Balzac V was developed in France , the Hawker Kestrel (later Harrier ) in England and the EWR VJ 101 C in Germany .

construction

The design of the He 031 provided for a middle decker with delta-like trapezoidal wings. The fuselage was divided into three assemblies. An adjustable multi-shock diffuser , which should also accommodate the radar device, was housed in the front part . Two armored scrap tubes for 50-mm Oerlikon missiles were located below the tip of the fuselage.

The Gyron Jr. PS 50 jet engine was installed in front of the final bulkhead of the central part of the fuselage. The complete afterburning system and the rocket engine Specter Jr. were, however, in the fuselage tail.

The delta-like trapezoidal wings had a nose sweep of 45 ° and a profile thickness of 5%. They were designed as a three-pillar design, the wing tanks had a volume of 1,100 l. To increase lift, 12% of the compressor air was tapped from the engine, piped to the wing tips and blown out at the joints of the landing flaps and ailerons with high pressure. A technical specialty was the detachable front part of the fuselage, similar in design to the later implemented rescue capsule of the General Dynamics F-111 .

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 1
length 13.85 m
span 8.64 m
height 3.87 m (in roll position)
Wing area 24.90 m²
Empty mass 4110 kg
Max. Takeoff mass 8000 kg
Top speed Mach 2.6 with post-burn
at 18,000 height
Service ceiling 30,000 m at G = 6000 kg
Range 2600 km, 3300 km with external tank
Engines 1 × De Havilland Gyron Jr. PS 50
with 44.5 kN (4540 kp) thrust
1 × De Havilland Specter Jr.
with 19.6 kN (2000 kp) thrust
Armament 60 × 50 mm air-to-air missiles (Oerlikon)
2 × air-to-air missiles (Falcon or Sidewinder)

See also

literature

Hans Brenner: Heinkel Florett , Flug Revue 12/1967, p. 18ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Redemann: V / STOL weapon system VJ-101, part 1, He 231 , p. 18