Flight, September 1937

AN ATLANTIC HEINKEL
Four Low-powered Engines

   FORMULAE for experimental transatlantic aircraft are becoming increasingly varied. In service at the moment are large flying boats typified by the Short Empire and Sikorsky S.42B. types, catapult seaplanes and flying boats (Blohm and Voss and Dornier) and large landplanes, as exemplified by the Farman Centaur. On test we have the Albatross and the Mayo composite effort; America is building sub-stratosphere landplanes and 80,000 lb. flying boats; France has the revised six-engined Latecoere and a 250 m.p.h. Marcel Bloch landplane; while Germany is hoping for big things from a landplane version of the Blohm and Voss and a low-powered Heinkel monoplane, which is the subject of the following notes. The photograph is reproduced by courtesy of Shell Aviation News.
   In general layout the He.116, as the machine is known, resembles the familiar He.111 model, having a slim fuselage of fine aerodynamic form and a low cantilever monoplane wing with the characteristic Heinkel sweep-up at the roots. A striking feature is the sub-division of the power plant into four small units mounted, in line abreast on the wing, the nacelles of the inner pair receiving the retractable undercarriage. The engines are of the Hirth HM.508B type - inverted vee-eight type of 240 h.p. each.
   All of which means that, in essentials, the new Heinkel follows the design of our own Albatross, although it has little more power than a D.H.86.
   Data are: Span 72 ft. 6 in., length 44ft. 9 in., wing area 677 sq. ft., weight empty 8,543 lb., gross weight 15,763 lb., wing loading 23.35 lb./sq. ft., power loading 16.42 lb./h.p., cruising speed 188 m.p.h., maximum speed 205 m.p.h., range 2,670 miles, landing speed 68 m.p.h.