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39-730: Following the successful career of Ernst Heinkel as the chief designer for the Hansa-Brandenburg aviation firm in World War I, Heinkel's own firm was established at Warnemünde in 1922, after the restrictions on German aviation imposed by the Treaty of Versailles were relaxed. By 1929, the firm's compressed air-powered catapults were in use on the German Norddeutscher Lloyd ocean-liners SS  Bremen and Europa to launch short-range mail planes from

78-775: A Pioneer of the Air Age in its US edition. In 1981, Heinkel was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum . Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen , Germany . It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group . Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop

117-567: A bomber. Heinkel's most important designers at this point were the twin Günter brothers , Siegfried and Walter, and Heinrich Hertel . The firm's headquarters was in Rostock later known as Heinkel-Nord (Heinkel-North), located in what used to be named the Rostock - Marienehe neighborhood (today's Rostock - Schmarl community, along the west bank of the Unterwarnow estuary), where

156-518: A fascination with Zeppelins , and in 1909 attended an international airshow in Frankfurt am Main . He decided that flight was the future of transportation, and the following year he built his first aircraft, working from a set of plans by Henri Farman . Heinkel crashed it in 1911 and suffered severe injuries. Soon afterwards, he got a job at Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft (LVG), who were building Farman aircraft. From there, he went to Albatros . after

195-446: A fixed nose extension. The "Tourist" had effective streamlining, perhaps unsurprising in view of its aircraft ancestry, and although it had only a 174 cc (10.6 cu in), 9.5 bhp 4-stroke engine, it was capable of sustaining speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) (official figures 58 miles per hour (93 km/h)), given time to get there. Heinkel also made a lighter 150 cc (9.2 cu in) scooter called

234-482: A mixture of gasoline and lubrication oil. Approximately twenty-seven thousand Perles were sold. Note: Official RLM designations had the prefix "8-", but this was usually dropped and replaced with the manufacturer's prefix. Ernst Heinkel Dr. Ernst Heinkel (24 January 1888 – 30 January 1958) was a German aircraft designer, manufacturer, Wehrwirtschaftsführer in Nazi Germany , and member of

273-733: A new design bureau and corporate offices in Vienna's Schwechat suburb, establishing manufacturing facilities in Zwölfaxing and Floridsdorf as the Heinkel-Sud complex for his firm, the original Rostock-"Marienehe" plant (today's Rostock-Schmarl neighborhood) becoming the Heinkel-Nord facility. It was at the Heinkel-Sud offices that Dr. Heinkel worked on the Heinkel He 274 four-engined high-altitude heavy bomber design—as one of

312-639: A research and development conglomeration in a joint venture with Bölkow and Messerschmitt , designed the EWR VJ 101A/He 231 , a VSTOL prototype, intended to protect West Germany's airfields against Soviet attack . P - Projekt Heinkel introduced the "Kabine" bubble car in 1956. It competed with the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt KR200 . It had a unit body and a four-stroke single-cylinder engine . Heinkel stopped manufacturing

351-472: A series of experimental engines, including the HeS 3B which powered the world's first jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 , in 1939. Hellmuth Hirth died in an aircraft crash in 1938. The RLM or Reichsluftfahrtministerium ("Reich aviation ministry") nationalised his company, and in 1942 it was taken over by Heinkel to form Heinkel-Hirth . While the existing piston engine series were continued, Heinkel also used

390-657: A time at Kransberg Castle, near Frankfurt. With Germany forbidden from manufacturing aircraft by the Allies, Heinkel used his company's facilities to build private transportation. In 1953 Heinkel began production of the Tourist scooter , followed by the Perle moped in 1954. In 1956 he introduced the Heinkel Kabine bubble car . Bubble car and moped production ceased shortly after the restriction on aircraft manufacture

429-467: The Heinkel He 162 A Spatz (sparrow) as the first military jet to use retractable tricycle landing gear, use a turbojet engine from its maiden flight forward, and use an ejection seat from the start, but it had barely entered service at the time of Germany's surrender. Heinkel was a major user of Sachsenhausen concentration camp labour, using between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners on the He 177 bomber. Following

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468-509: The Heinkel He 219 , which also suffered from politics and was produced only in limited numbers, but was the first Luftwaffe front-line aircraft to use retractable tricycle gear for its undercarriage design, and the world's first front-line military aircraft to use ejection seats . By contrast, the only heavy bomber to enter service with the Luftwaffe during the war years – the Heinkel He 177 Greif – turned out to be one of

507-538: The Heinkel-Hirth jet engines, and today specialises in small two-stroke engines for light aircraft and other applications. The company was founded by Hellmuth Hirth as Versuchsbau Hellmuth Hirth . The first commercial engine, the 4-cylinder inverted in-line HM 60 , first ran in June 1923 and was sold from the next year. Its quality was extremely high and it formed the foundation of the business. The company

546-666: The Imperial Japanese Navy . He installed a similar catapult on the ocean liner Bremen for launching mail planes . Between 1921 and 1924, the Japanese government placed several orders with Heinkel's company, and helped him skirt the Versailles Treaty , which banned the construction of military aircraft in Germany, by informing the company of facility inspections by allied commissions in advance. Japan

585-611: The Nazi Party . His company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke produced the Heinkel He 178 , the world's first turbojet -powered aircraft, and the Heinkel He 176 , the first rocket aircraft. Heinkel was born in Grunbach, today a part of Remshalden . As a young man he became an apprentice machinist at a foundry . Heinkel studied at the Technical Academy of Stuttgart , where he initially became interested in aviation through

624-519: The Second World War . This included the Heinkel He 59 , the Heinkel He 115 and the Heinkel He 111 . He was designated a Wehrwirtschaftführer (defence industry leader) by the German government for his commitment to rearmament. Heinkel was passionate about high-speed flight , and was keen on exploring alternative forms of aircraft propulsion. He donated aircraft to Wernher von Braun who

663-400: The trio of proposals for aircraft designs to succeed his firm's failed Heinkel He 177 A heavy bomber—including an unbuilt Amerikabomber design—until the war's end concluded the production of the firm's Spatz single-seat jet fighter. In July 1945 Heinkel was captured by American troops and held for possible exploitation and/or possible trial under Operation Dustbin , and was held for

702-475: The Heinkel 150. Heinkel built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957. The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame , rear suspension , a fully enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm , and interchangeable wheels. This high level of sophistication came at a high cost. As with most mopeds, it had a two-stroke engine with a displacement of 50cc that operated on

741-491: The Hirth facilities for development work on their series of jet engines . Although Heinkel-Hirth had some technical success with this programme, their jet engines were not put into production. Following World War II , Hirth re-emerged as an independent company once again. Because of the prohibitions on German aviation in this period, Hirth manufactured small marine and stationary engines , as well as motors for snowmobiles . In

780-518: The Kabine in 1958 but production continued under licence, first by Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland and then by Trojan Cars Ltd. , which ceased production in 1966. Heinkel introduced the "Tourist" motor scooter in the 1950s which was known for its reliability. A large and relatively heavy touring machine, it provided good weather protection with a full fairing and the front wheel turning under

819-620: The adaptation of the He 70 and, in particular, the He 111, to be used as bombers. Heinkel also provided the Luftwaffe's only operational heavy bomber , the Heinkel He 177 , although this was never deployed in significant numbers. The German Luftwaffe equipped both of these bombers with the Z-Gerät , Y-Gerät , and Knickebein , developed by Johannes Plendl , and thus they were among the first aircraft to feature advanced night navigation devices, common in all commercial airplanes today. Heinkel

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858-414: The early 1970s the company went into voluntary liquidation. The company was acquired by Hans Göbler , who continued making small two-stroke engines under the name of Gobler-Hirth Motoren Gmbh , and re-introduced aero engines to the range. In 2011 Gobler-Hirth were developing UAV piston engines to run on heavier jet fuel, because of its higher energy density and ease of handling. In 2018 Gobler-Hirth

897-405: The end of the war, the company was merged with engine manufacturer Hirth to form Heinkel-Hirth , giving the company the capability of manufacturing its own powerplants, including its Heinkel Strahltriebwerke turbojet engine manufacturing firm. The Heinkel name was also behind pioneering work in jet engine and rocket development, and also the German aviation firm that attempted to popularize

936-602: The firm additionally possessed a factory airfield along the coastline in the Rostock/Schmarl neighborhood roughly three kilometers (1.9 miles) north-northwest of the main offices, with a second Heinkel-Süd engineering and manufacturing facility in Schwechat , Austria, after the Anschluss in 1938. The Heinkel company is most closely associated with aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. This began with

975-448: The first operational military aircraft anywhere to use ejection seats . Heinkel's He 280, the firm's only twin-jet aircraft design to fly never reached production, however, since the RLM wanted Heinkel to concentrate on bomber production and instead promoted the development of the rival Messerschmitt Me 262 . Very late in the war, a Heinkel single-jet powered fighter finally took to the air as

1014-415: The liners' decks. The company's first post-World War I aircraft design success was the design of the all-metal, single-engined Heinkel He 70 Blitz high-speed mail plane and airliner for Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1932, which broke a number of air speed records for its class. It was followed by the two-engine Heinkel He 111 Doppel-Blitz , which became a mainstay of the Luftwaffe during World War II as

1053-548: The most troublesome German wartime aircraft designs, plagued with numerous engine fires from both its inadequate engine nacelle design and its general airframe design being mis-tasked. The 30-meter (100 ft) class wingspan design was to be built to be able to perform moderate-angle dive bombing attacks from the moment of its approval by the RLM in early November 1937, until this was rescinded in September 1942. From 1941 until

1092-491: The photographic interpretation unit at RAF Medmenham first saw evidence of the existence of the 280 in aerial reconnaissance photographs taken after a bombing raid on the Rostock factory. Thereafter, the Allies began intensive aerial reconnaissance intended to learn more about the German jet aircraft programme. The He 219 night fighter design was the first German frontline combat aircraft to have retracting tricycle gear, and

1131-460: The use of retractable tricycle landing gear , a relative rarity in early WW II German airframe design. In 1939, flown by Erich Warsitz , the Heinkel He 176 and Heinkel He 178 became the first aircraft designs to fly under liquid-fuel rocket and turbojet power respectively. Heinkel was the first to develop a jet fighter to prototype stage, the Heinkel He 280 , the first Heinkel design to use and fly with retractable tricycle gear. In early 1942,

1170-653: The war Heinkel claimed to have designed the Albatros B.II , a successful reconnaissance and trainer aircraft used during the early stages of the First World War , but its main designer was in fact Robert Thelen . His aircraft were used by the Austro-Hungarian army and Germany's Kaiserliche Marine during the war. After leaving Albatros, Heinkel designed several land- and seaplanes for the Hansa-Brandenburg company starting in 1914. In 1921 , Heinkel

1209-697: The war, Heinkel was prohibited from manufacturing aircraft and instead built bicycles , motor scooters (see below), and the Heinkel microcar . The company eventually returned to aircraft in the mid-1950s, licence building Lockheed Martin F-104 Starfighters for the West German Luftwaffe . In 1965, the company was absorbed by Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which was in turn absorbed by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1980 and later became part of Airbus . Entwicklungsring Süd ,

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1248-574: Was appointed head designer of the recently re-established Caspar-Werke , but soon left after a dispute over ownership of a design. In 1922 he established the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke company at Warnemünde . Due to the restrictions placed on German aircraft manufacturing by the Treaty of Versailles , Heinkel looked overseas for contracts, with some seaplane designs being licence-built in Sweden and working on catapult -launched seaplanes for

1287-483: Was awarded the German National Prize for Art and Science in 1938, one of the rarest honors of the German government. Heinkel Flugzeugwerke used forced Jewish labor, starting in 1941. In 1942 the government "nationalised" the Heinkel works. In practice, this meant that Heinkel was detained until he sold his controlling interest in his factories to Hermann Göring . Heinkel moved to Vienna and started

1326-413: Was followed by 6, 8 and 12-cylinder versions based on the same basic design. Over the next decade, Hirth became one of Germany's leading aero engine manufacturers. During the late 1930s Hans von Ohain developed a jet engine design while at Göttingen University . Despite having no engine facility, aircraft designer Heinkel employed him to continue his work. Together with Wilhelm Gundermann he developed

1365-475: Was investigating rocket propulsion for aircraft, as well as sponsoring the research of Hans von Ohain into turbojet engines, leading to the flight of the Heinkel He 178 , the first aircraft to fly solely under turbojet power, on August 27, 1939. Heinkel had been a critic of Hitler's regime, having been forced to fire Jewish designers and staff in 1933; he was, however, a member of the Nazi Party, and

1404-556: Was less successful in selling fighter designs. Before the war, the Heinkel He 112 had been rejected in favour of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 , and Heinkel's attempt to top Messerschmitt's design with the Heinkel He 100 failed due to political interference within the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM — Reich Aviation Ministry). The company also provided the Luftwaffe with an outstanding night fighter,

1443-620: Was lifted, but scooter production continued until 1965. In 1959, Heinkel's company was sued by Edmund Bartl for being enriched by slave labour during World War II; however, the German Supreme Court dismissed his claims for filing too late, and ordered Bartl to pay court costs and attorney's fees. Heinkel died in 1958 in Stuttgart . His autobiography, Stürmisches Leben , was published in 1956 and translated into English as He1000 in its British edition and Stormy Life: Memoirs of

1482-410: Was part of the inspection commission. Heinkel hid his aircraft in dunes behind his plant and they were never discovered during inspections. Heinkel noted in his memoirs that his company's relationship with Japan in the 1920s led to decades of cooperation. After Adolf Hitler came to power, designs by Heinkel's firm formed a vital part of the Luftwaffe 's growing strength in the years leading up to

1521-477: Was renamed Leichtmetall-Werke GmbH , Elektronmetall GmbH and eventually separated from the aero engine manufacturing to form Mahle GmbH as a manufacturer of light alloy engine components, specifically the magnesium alloy Elektron , including parts for aircraft engines. In 1931, Hirth renamed the much-expanded aero engine business as Hirth Motoren GmbH . An upgrade in the form of the HM 60R improved efficiency, and

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