Heinkel's Forgotten and Most Elegant Plane | Heinkel He 70 'Blitz'

when a certain political party who shall remain nameless from fear of angering the youtube gods rose to power in germany in 1933 they claimed to have rebuilt the german aviation industry from nothing however this was not the case all they really did was provide a quantitative expansion of the industry german companies were already sufficiently well established to take on the demands of the resurgence of luftwaffe and an excellent example of this was the sleek heinkel ag-70 this aircraft also known as the blitz for its high speeds was one that proved to be the forerunner of the company's modern military aircraft although it was as much a military failure as it was a commercial success and i find it to be an aircraft that is often overlooked in the autumn of 1931 lockheed unveiled their model 9 orion a sleek compact monoplane transport with a retractable landing gear that boasted a top speed of miles an hour this threatens not only to upset the balance of the rapidly expanding market for smaller civil transports but also rob german aviation of its prestige for at the time their transports were some of the best in europe as a result of this in 1932 deutsche lufthansa commissioned ernst heinkel to design an aircraft with which the airline could maintain said prestige against the orion work quickly began on the he65 monoplane however in may this project was abandoned as this design which had a non-retractable landing gear was slower than the orion and it had been learned that swiss air had just taken on lockheed's plane in numbers for their zurich munich vienna route heinkel quickly moved on to a new low wing monoplane design the ag-70 and he put brother designers siegfried and volta gunter in charge of the project every effort was made in the pursuit of aerodynamic refinement so keen were they to wipe lockheed's eye the engine a 12-cylinder bmw 6z was enclosed in a closely fitted cowling which blended into the oval cross section of the fuselage it was cooled by ethylene glycol instead of water and the higher evaporation rate permitted the use of a smaller radiator and this radiator was retractable which helped to further reduce drag at higher speeds the fuselage itself was a duraluminium and steel monocoque and this was clad in a stressed metal skin that used countersunk rivets which gave a very smooth finish the wing and tail surfaces were elliptical and the wing was a two spa structure with trailing edge flaps and highly polished plywood coverings the undercarriage was now retractable with the main wheels retracting into the wings which was a new feature in germany but something that would rapidly become a commonplace with smaller aircraft and fighter designs the he70 was designed to carry two crew members a pilot and a radio operator as well as four passengers who sat in pairs the cockpit was set low into the plane and it had a low windscreen sliding canopy and a long fairing running back from the headrests of the seat that blended with the cabin behind it all of this improved streamlining however it would have made for atrocious visibility for takeoff and landing and so the cockpit was slightly offset to the port side so that the pilot had a good view of the ground by june 1932 the preliminary design work had been completed and soon after this work began not only on a prototype but also on an initial production series the prototype the he70v1 made its first flight on the 1st of december 1932. this aircraft had its undercarriage fixed down for safety and to somewhat counteract this the gear and wheels were enclosed in a streamlined fairing the extra drag turned out to be not much of a hindrance as during its test flights the he70 sustained a level speed of 377 kilometers an hour a speed which outclassed most contemporary fighter aircraft at the time let alone civil transports and it was for this reason that when the first production model the he70a was completed it had the name blitz painted on the side of its nose something that quickly became general practice for all of the production models it soon lived up to this name as over the course of march and april 1933 flight captain r untucked a well-known lufthansa pilot set eight new speed records across various categories with the he70v2 this then culminated in the ag-70 being displayed at the 1933 paris show in november which did much for the public image of both heinkel and deutschlatanza after a series of flight trials the he70a entered commercial service on the 15th of june 1934. at the same time as this several examples of the ag 70b c and d were introduced these were mostly identical to the a series with the biggest difference on the d model being a newer and improved 750 horsepower bmw engine the same engine would also be fitted to the he70g which would be the last civil model that was designed the g model also had several other physical modifications the cockpit was moved to the center of the fuselage and it was slimmed down with provision only for a single pilot one of these aircraft would find its way to britain in 1935 where it was modified to take a rolls-royce kestrel engine here it would remain being used as a flying test bed for rolls-royce all the way up to 1944 at one point attaining a maximum and level speed of 410 kilometers an hour along with lufthansa the luftwaffe still at the time lurking in the shadows also took an interest in heinkel's sleek monoplane and they acquired more than a dozen of the g1 models in 1934 to be used for liaison and fast transport duties by the time the luftwaffe made its presence known to the world in 1935 they also now operated the first military versions of the aircraft and these were the he70e and f-series from the beginning the ag-70 was of great interest to the luftwaffe which considered it ideal as a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft as such the e-series was designed to carry a 300 kilogram bomb load and it had a rear mounted mg17 machine gun for defense meanwhile the f series was designed for long range reconnaissance the latter model was powered by an upgraded bmw 6 7.3 zed and it was manned by a three-person crew which consisted of a pilot radio operator and a rear gunner the first of these planes entered service with the luftwaffe in 1934 and in 1936 they equipped at least one of the newly formed long-range reconnaissance squadrons their use as a recon aircraft would be relatively brief as the appearance of the dornier do-17f quickly overshadowed them and while the f-series had been considered an acceptable reconnaissance aircraft there were fewer kind opinions about the e-series luftwaffe high command viewed the heinkel favorably partly as a result of some well-placed members being on good terms with ernst teingel himself but luftwaffe pilots felt the plane was unsuitable as a light bomber its defensive armament was too light and unlike the emerging ju-87 stuka it was poorly armored this poor opinion was made worse on the 3rd of june 1936 when the luftwaffe chief of staff general walter viva a well-regarded military strategist was killed in dresden while personally flying an ag-17 the accident turned out to be the result of human error as the aileron locks had not been removed during pre-flight checks but viva's death still left its mark and indeed it had far-reaching implications viva was a vocal supporter of the strategy of strategic bombing and he was one of the few men in a position of authority who wanted the luftwaffe to build up a powerful strategic bomber force his death played a major role in this force being denied to the luftwaffe and this of course hampered germany's effectiveness with large-scale bombing during the second world war had he lived things may have turned out very differently as with many of the luftwaffe's pre-war aircraft the ag-70 made its combat debut in the spanish civil war 18 he70fs were sent in the autumn of 1936 as part of the condor legion during the war they carried out both the roles of reconnaissance and light bombing the reconnaissance role was particularly important as they had the range to reach republican airfields and more importantly they had the superior speed which allowed them to outrun any fighters that were sent to intercept them early in 1937 a new design of the aircraft emerged as the he-170 and this was specifically an export model intended for hungary it was equipped with a 910 horsepower 14 cylinder gnome rhone radial engine which while powerful somewhat contradicted the sleek lines of the airframe following the initial prototype 20 he-170s were delivered to hungary and they served with the first independent long-range reconnaissance group on the 26th of june 1941 they were flown into action against soviet ground forces however their light defensive armament made them far too vulnerable to air attack and they were withdrawn from frontline service after just one month the last aircraft developed was the one-off he270 which first flew in 1938. this was the most powerful version being powered by a 1175 horsepower daimler benz 601a it was designed as a dual purpose light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft and it had a top speed of 460 kilometers an hour however its light armament of just one forward-facing machine gun plus two rear-facing defensive guns made it unsuitable for service in light of combat experience gained in spain and the type never entered production the poor military qualities of the ag-70 did nothing to endear it to luftwaffe air crews and their spanish counterparts seem to have been the only ones which had any liking for the type as a military aircraft nevertheless the he70 fared much better in the commercial sector building much prestige in the civil transport role the role it was actually designed for and it was a key milestone in the development of heinkel aircraft its influence can be seen in various designs particularly the he-111 and the he-112 altogether 324 examples of the ag-70 and its various production models were built including 28 for export no surviving models of this often forgotten aircraft can be found today however he70s were still on the spanish aircraft register as late as the 1950s before finally being scrapped as always thank you all so much for watching and an even bigger thank you goes out to the patrons with a special shout out to delliardo kevin bain and fb for their support as wing commander to your patrons thank you all so much for watching and i'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 118,308

Keywords: world war 2, world war ii, short documentary, Heinkel, heinkel he 70, heinkel he 111, heinkel he 112, heinkel 70, heinkel 70 blitz, heinkel he 70 blitz, ernst heinkel, luftwaffe, lufthansa, Heinkel He 70 'Blitz', Heinkel's Forgotten and Most Elegant Plane, heinkel aircraft, documentary, aviation, history, military aviation, rex's hangar, spanish civil war, condor legion, ww2 documentary, aviation documentary, blitz

Id: 5bf3wRceDro

Length: 12min 5sec (725 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 19 2022