A Brief History
On March 30, 1939, the Heinkel 100 single engine piston powered fighter prototype set a new World Speed Record at 463 mph (745 kph). Incredibly, although then the fastest plane in the world, the He 100 was not put into production! Reasons given for not producing this potential super-fighter plane vary with the source, but the bottom line is that the fortunate Allies did not have to face a German fighter 4 years ahead of other fighter types.
Digging Deeper
German planners knew that war would be starting soon, and in an effort to streamline wartime weapons production decided to stay with the already proven Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter as the primary German fighter plane. Messerschmitt would be given priority on fighter development and Heinkel would be given broad authority over the development and production of bomber aircraft. The Bf-109 was already in production and had proven excellent in combat during the Spanish Civil War, and both planes would compete for production of the same engine. In fact, historians debate the “real” reasons the He-100 was not produced, with a variety of explanations of which none are definitive.
In 1939, the models of fighter planes in service were slowpokes in comparison to the 416 mph the production model of the He-100 was designed for. The early Bf-109 (E and F models), the British Supermarine Spitfire, and the American Curtiss P-40 were about 50 mph slower than the production version of the He-100 which seems as if it would have dominated the air war in Europe until at least 1943. Plus, this does not take into account the evolutionary improvements all the other fighters underwent during the war.
Armament for the He-100 was to be a single 20mm cannon firing through the propeller hub and 2 cowl mounted 7.92mm machine guns, providing concentrated firepower in a narrow cone of fire. The same armament arrangement was used by the Bf-109 of the time. An alternative armament package was loaded onto a prototype He-100 featuring 2 wing mounted 20mm cannon and 4 cowl mounted 7.92mm machine guns, which would have made the He-100 the most heavily armed fighter in the world in 1939. When equipped with weapons, the He-100 failed to meet its designed top speed of 430 mph, but still achieved over 400 mph, which would have made it the fastest fighter in the world.
Powered by a Daimler Benz DB 601M V-12 liquid cooled engine, supercharged to produce 1159 horsepower, the He-100 achieved its aerodynamic superiority by streamlining through the use of a no radiator type of cooling system for its liquid cooled engine. Air cooled aircraft motors required a large surface area inducing high levels of drag (giant nose area of the P-47 Thunderbolt and F-4U Corsair for example, as well as most bomber engines) and other in-line and V style water cooled engines required drag inducing radiators (Bf-109 and Spitfire under the wing, P-51 under the rear fuselage, and P-40 under the nose). Cooling the He-100’s engine was accomplished by an innovative system of allowing the hot coolant to boil and the steam to then re-condense into liquid within a labyrinth of pipes and chambers from the engine to the wings.
Germany made serious blunders regarding aircraft development and production during World War II, such as delaying the development of the Me-262 twin-jet fighter and wasting so much time and effort on the Me-110/Me-210 series of heavy fighters that never panned out. Germany also failed to grasp the incredible numbers of aircraft and pilots that would have to be produced, although the Bf-109 became the most produced fighter plane of all time with over 33,000 built. (Russo-philes will tout the IL-2 Sturmovik, but that was a ground attack plane.)
Another fortunate break for the Allies was the failure of Germany to deliver detailed plans and machinery to the Japanese who wanted to produce the wonderful He-100. Had Japan actually produced the He-100, the war in the Pacific may have been much harder on American pilots.
Aviation history is chock full of “what might have been” and the He-100 is one of those cases. Question for students (and subscribers): What interesting aircraft that were never followed up on to production capture your imagination? If you have any favorites, please tell us which might have been planes and why you like the thought of them. Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Chant, Christopher. Aircraft of World War II. Barnes & Noble, 1999.
Mondey, David. The Hamlyn Concise Guide to Axis Aircraft of World War II: The Warplanes of Germany, Italy and Japan During World War II. Chancellor Press, 200.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of a Heinkel He 100 from http://base13.glasnet.ru/text/nem_sled/2-09.htm, is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less.
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