Ernst Heinkel was a designer at the German aircraft company Hansa-Brandenburg during WWI. After the Treaty of Versailles relaxed aviation restrictions in 1922, he started his own company, Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, in Warnemünde. By 1929, his company was using compressed air-powered catapults on the German ocean liners SS Bremen and Europa to launch short-range mail planes. Heinkel’s first big success was the Heinkel He 70 Blitz, a single-engine, all-metal airliner that set several speed records in 1932. The company then developed the Heinkel He 111 Doppel-Blitz, which became an important bomber for the Luftwaffe during WWII. In addition to the He 111, the Heinkel company is mainly known for the He 177, Germany’s only operational heavy bomber, though it was not deployed in large numbers. These bombers used advanced night-navigation devices developed by Johannes Plendl. Today, these devices are common in commercial airplanes. During WWII, Heinkel faced back-to-back setbacks as the He 112 lost the competition to the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and the He 100 was canceled for political reasons. However, the company did develop the He 219 fighter, the first aircraft in the Luftwaffe to have retractable tricycle landing gear and ejection seats, but it was produced in small numbers. The He 177 Greif, the war’s sole heavy bomber, was plagued by engine fires and design flaws that hampered its performance.
From 1941 until the end of the war, the company merged with engine manufacturer Hirth to create Heinkel-Hirth. The merger allowed the company to make its own engines, including its Heinkel Strahltriebwerke turbojet engines. The Heinkel name was also involved in important work on jet engines and rockets. It was also the German aviation company that made an effort to promote the use of retractable tricycle landing gear, which was rare in early WWII German aircraft design. In 1939, the Heinkel He 176 and Heinkel He 178, both piloted by Erich Warsitz, were the first planes to fly with liquid-fuel rocket and turbojet power, respectively. Heinkel was the first to create a jet fighter prototype, the Heinkel He 280. The He 280 became Heinkel’s first jet fighter prototype and featured retractable tricycle landing gear. In early 1942, RAF Medmenham noticed the He 280 in aerial photos taken after a bombing raid on the Rostock factory. The discovery prompted the Allies to conduct extensive reconnaissance to learn more about Germany’s jet aircraft program. The He 219 night fighter was famous as the first German frontline combat aircraft to have retractable tricycle landing gear and the first military aircraft anywhere to use ejection seats.
Although the Heinkel He 280 was the company’s only twin-jet design to fly, it never went into production. The Reich Aviation Ministry prioritized bomber production and instead pushed for the development of the rival Messerschmitt Me 262. Toward the end of the war, a single-engine jet fighter, the Heinkel He 162A Spatz (sparrow), made its first flight. It was the first military jet to feature retractable tricycle landing gear and a turbojet engine from its maiden flight, as well as ejection seats from the start. However, it had barely entered service by the time Germany surrendered. Heinkel used a lot of labor from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, employing between 6,000 and 8,000 prisoners to work on the He 177 bomber. After the war, Heinkel could not make aircraft and instead produced bicycles, motor scooters, and the Heinkel microcar. The company resumed aircraft production in the mid-1950s, building Lockheed Martin F-104 Starfighters for the West German Air Force. In 1965, Heinkel merged with Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which then became part of Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1980 and later joined Airbus.
