Henschel Hs 123

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Henschel Hs 123
Henschel Hs 123 A-1
Type: Ground attack aircraft
Design country:

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Manufacturer:

Henschel Flugzeug-Werke AG

First flight:

April 5, 1935

Commissioning:

1936

Production time:

1936-1937

Number of pieces:

265

The Henschel Hs 123 was a single-seat, single-engine biplane that was used as a light dive fighter and as a ground attack aircraft .

history

In February 1934, at the instigation of Ernst Udet , who was able to observe the successful attempts at the dive bomber principle in the United States at the beginning of the 1930s , the Army Weapons Office announced a design competition in which a light, single-seat dive fighter aircraft was required. In addition to Henschel Flugzeug-Werke AG , Hamburger Flugzeugbau , a subsidiary of Blohm & Voss , and Fieseler were also involved in the competition; all three companies were commissioned to build prototypes. Richard Vogt from Hamburger Flugzeugbau developed the Ha 137 , a monoplane with gull wing and fixed landing gear, and Gerhard Fieseler the biplane Fi 98 . Henschel's chief designer Friedrich Nicolaus also designed a double-decker, the dummy of which was shown in June 1934. The prototype Hs 123 V1 was ready on April 1, 1935, its maiden flight with the civilian registration D-ILUA took place on April 5, 1935.

Udet personally tried the machine on May 8, 1935. In the tests of the three competition types in Rechlin from June 1935 to January 1936 , the Hs 123 proved to be superior to its competitors and became the winner of the competition. Series production started in 1936.

construction

Hs 123 V5

The prototype Hs 123 V1 was a one-and-a-half-decker with fixed landing gear, open cockpit and normal tail unit in all-metal construction, a fuselage made in shell construction and the BMW-132 engine. The cockpit, which was moved far back, offered a good view up and down. The two-part, partially fabric-covered wing was connected to the small lower wing with a wide I-strut and had balanced ailerons, the lower wing had spread flaps. The oars were also all covered with fabric. The oversized NACA bonnet , with its smooth, aerodynamic cladding, was particularly striking .

Due to the lack of an engine brake, the engine over-revs and over-revs during steep falls, so that a fall angle limit of 70 ° was set. It was also found that the exhaust gases entered the pilot's cockpit through the slits in the control cables to the tail unit. The second prototype V2 therefore received the striking new NACA hood with dents for the cylinder heads of the Wright R-1820 F52 Cyclone radial engine with 770 hp take-off power, but was converted to the BMW 132A after a landing accident and as the Hs 123 V8 as the model for series production. Further prototypes followed, the V4 became the A-series sample machine. The V5 with BMW 132K and VDM propeller became the model aircraft for the B series. This aircraft took part in the International Air Meeting in 1937 Swiss Dübendorf part. Finally, the V6 followed as a model aircraft for the C series. The planned further development with a closed cabin, a more powerful BMW 123K engine with 960 hp take-off power and reinforced armament was abandoned in favor of the Ju 87 .

The machines of the A-1 series, equipped with a nine-cylinder BMW 132 Dc engine, reached a top speed of 345 km / h and a rate of climb of 900 m / min at a service ceiling of 9000 m and a range of 850 km. The armament consisted of two MG 17 and up to 200 kg of bombs. The machines were 8.3 m long, 3.2 m high and had a wingspan of 10.5 m. They weighed 1504 kg empty, the maximum operating weight was 2217 kg. The only difference between the B series was the reinforced sheet metal planking of the upper wing.

When the Reich Aviation Ministry finally announced a dive bomber in 1936, the Hs 123 was no longer paying any attention, as a modern monoplane with a closed cabin was required. The corresponding tender for a heavy, two-seat dive fighter aircraft, for which Arado developed the Ar 81 , Heinkel the He 118 and Junkers the Ju 87 , has nothing to do with the design of the Hs 123. However, both processes are often mixed up in the literature. However, the Hs 123 made a major contribution to convincing the concept of the dive bomber.

By the end of production in mid-1937, 250 Hs 123 were built (7 prototypes, 16 pre-series machines A-0 and 229 series machines A-1 and B-1).

Production numbers

Series production of the Hs 123 began in October 1936 and ended in December 1937.

Production figures for the Hs 123
version Henschel Ago total comment
V pattern 4th 4th W. no. 265-267, 670 V1-V4
A-0 7th 7th W. no. 628-634
B-0 10 10 W. no. 788-797, incl. V5 + V6
FROM 115 129 244
total 136 129 265

12 Hs 123 A were exported to China in March and April 1938 and used in the 15th Squadron of the Chinese Air Force. The Condor Legion deployed 18 Hs 123, 12 of which were handed over to Spain.

commitment

Pre-war photo of a Henschel Hs 123A squadron

Five Hs 123 were tested by the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War . Initially used as a fighter-bomber, the machines (Spanish nickname "Angelito") were soon replaced by the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and used as dive bombers. The Spanish Air Force later received 16 Hs 123 A-1 machines. Another 12 Hs 123 A-1s were sold to the Chinese National Air Force in 1938.

With the appearance of the Junkers Ju 87 , the Hs 123 was seen as outdated as a dive fighter aircraft, but it proved to be particularly efficient in combat use. The simple technology and the robust construction made it possible to deploy field airfields forward, combined with close contact with the rapidly advancing ground troops of the Wehrmacht. While the Ju 87 was used as a tactical bomber in the hinterland against important point targets, an attack pilot group was set up with the remaining Hs 123, which had the order to intervene directly in the battles of the infantry on the ground. The Hs 123 was used in 1939 during the occupation of the so-called rest of the Czech Republic and the invasion of Poland ; it proved so successful that the aircraft was also used in the French campaign, e.g. B. the II. (Battle) / LG 2 equipped with Hs 123 , which played a key role in the transition over the Meuse near Sedan . Then the remaining Hs 123 should be handed over to the flight schools.

In the following Balkan campaign, the machine called "Einszweidrei" or "Obergefreiter" in Landser jargon was also used and there, too, often carried the main load of the attack aviation. The Hs 123 of the II. (Battle) / LG 2 were often in action all day long in rolling action and in 1941 the aircraft type with the most combat missions. On the eastern front , the type was also used for ground combat missions and night battles, in which mainly disturbance attacks were flown. Compared to its Soviet counterpart in this role, the light Polikarpow Po-2 trainer aircraft , the Henschel Hs 123 was far more powerful. In addition, it was extremely maneuverable and so robust that it withstood operations under heavy fire. In 1942, it formed the main type of the newly formed close combat aviation units. It remained in service on the Eastern Front until 1944. Their new building was requested by the troops, but this was no longer possible due to the scrapping of construction devices and tool sets in 1938.

variants

Hs 123 before 1939
Hs 123 V1
Prototype (D-ILUA, serial number 265) with BMW 132A (725 PS) and 3-blade propeller
Hs 123 V2
Prototype (WkNr. 266), first with Wright Cyclone G R-1820-F 52 (770 PS), after an accident as an Hs 123 V8 with a BMW 132A (725 PS)
Hs 123 V3
Prototype (D-IKOU, WkNr. 267), with BMW 132A (660 PS)
Hs 123 V4
Prototype (D-IZXY, WkNr. 670), with BMW 132A (660 PS), model aircraft for the A-0 series
Hs 123 V5
Prototype (D-INRA, WkNr. 796), first with BMW 132G (830 PS), later BMW 132J (910 PS), then BMW 132K V109A (960 PS) and three-blade propeller
Hs 123 V6
Prototype (D-IHDI, WkNr. 797), BMW 132J (910 PS) or BMW 132K (960 PS) and three-blade propeller, closed cockpit, armament with 4 MGs, larger internal fuel capacity, bomb load up to 500 kg
Hs 123 V7
Prototype (D-IUPO) with BMW 132K V110
Hs 123 A-0
Pre-production aircraft, 16 built, WkNr. 628-635 and 788-795
Hs 123 A-1 / B-1
Series version, 229 built (100 from Henschel, 129 from AGO)
Hs 123 C
planned production version of the Hs 123 V6, not built

Technical specifications

Hs 123 A-1
Parameter Data Henschel Hs 123 A-1
crew 1
length 8.33 m
span 10.50 m above,
8.00 m below
Wing area 24.85 m²
height 3.20 m
Empty mass 1500 kg
Takeoff mass 2215 kg
Top speed 340 km / h at an altitude of 1200 m
Service ceiling 9000 m
Range 855 km (with 150 l additional tank)
Engines 1 × BMW 132 Dc radial engine , 647 kW (880 PS)
Armament 2 × 7.92 mm MG 17 , max. 450 kg bombs, alternatively max. 200 kg bombs and additional tank

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Henschel Hs 123  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Model aircraft maker ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 6, 2012
  2. ↑ cf. Fliegerweb , accessed January 6, 2012
  3. ^ Documents from the Federal Archives / Freiburg Military Archives, holdings RL 3
  4. ↑ Andersson, Lennart: A History of Chinese Aviation, Taipei 2008, p. 140
  5. ↑ Jet & Prop Photo Archive Volume 12, Zweibrücken 2004, p. 96 f.
  6. ↑ Fliegerweb , accessed January 6, 2012
  7. ↑ Luftfahrt International No. 2, 1974
  8. ↑ cf. Aerial archive , accessed January 6, 2012
  9. ↑ cf. Aerial archive , accessed January 6, 2012
  10. ↑ Herbert Ringlstetter: dive bombers from the very beginning . In: Flugzeug Classic . No. 11 , 2009, ISSN  1617-0725 , p. 36-41 .
  11. ↑ cf. Fliegerweb , accessed January 6, 2012