Background
Ernst Heinkel was born on January 24, 1888 in Grünbach, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
1939
Heinkel 111P dropping bombs over Poland, September 1939
(The Heinkel He 111 was a German aircraft designed by Sieg...)
The Heinkel He 111 was a German aircraft designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after the First World War prohibiting bombers, it masqueraded as a civil airliner, although from conception the design was intended to provide the nascent Luftwaffe with a fast medium bomber.
(In 1930, Ernst Heinkel began developing an aircraft for t...)
In 1930, Ernst Heinkel began developing an aircraft for the Reichsmarine. To conceal the true military intentions, the aircraft was officially a civil aircraft. The He 59B landplane prototype was the first to fly, an event that took place in September 1931, but it was the He 59A floatplane prototype that paved the way for the He 59B initial production model, of which 142 were delivered in three variants. The Heinkel He 59 was a pleasant aircraft to fly; deficiencies noted were the weak engine, the limited range, the small load capability and insufficient armament.
manufacturer aircraft designer
Ernst Heinkel was born on January 24, 1888 in Grünbach, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
As a young man Ernst Heinkel became an apprentice machinist at a foundry. He studied at the Technical Academy of Stuttgart (now University of Stuttgart), where he initially became interested in aviation through a fascination with Zeppelins, and in 1909 attended an international airshow in Frankfurt am Main. He determined 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 the plane in 1911 and suffered severe injuries.
After working as a designer under Franz Schneider, Ernst Heinkel joined the Albatros Company, leaving in 1914 to become chief designer and technical director of the Hansa-und-Brandenburgischen Flugzeugwerke. He gained employment at Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft (LVG), who were building Farman aircraft.
In 1921, Ernst Heinkel was appointed head designer of the recently re-established Caspar-Werke, but soon left after a dispute over ownership of a design. He founded his own firm in 1922, making principally seaplanes. Ernst Heinkel designed and built the seaplane catapult used on the Atlantic liner Bremen in 1927. He was the first European to design a plane using American advances in streamlined transport airplane design.
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 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.
Ernst 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 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 by Erich Warsitz on August 27, 1939.
In 1942 the government "nationalised" the Heinkel works. In practice, this meant that Ernst Heinkel was detained until he sold his controlling interest in his factories to Hermann Göring. He moved to Vienna and started 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-"Marienhe" 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 the trio of proposals for aircraft designs to succeed his firm's failed Heinkel He 177A heavy bomber - until the war ended.
With Germany forbidden from manufacturing aircraft by the Allies, Ernst 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 was lifted, but scooter production continued until 1965.
Ernst Heinkel died in 1958 in Stuttgart.
(German Edition)
1940Ernst Heinkel had been a critic of Hitler's regime concerning being forced to fire Jewish designers and staff in 1933, however, he was a member of the Nazi party. He used forced Jewish labor starting in 1941, in which his company was considered a "model for slave labor."