Heinkel He 111

what is it?

The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and medium bomber 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 was presented solely as a civil airliner, although from conception the design was intended to provide the nascent Luftwaffe with a heavy bomber.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · 22.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 440 km/htop speed
• range 2,300 kmwithout refuelling
• size 14 tmax take-off weight
• built 6,508made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 91 years ago, in 1935.
• 🏎️Top speed is 3.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 22.6 m: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 2 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,300 km: 13× Amsterdam to Brussels.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1935-02-24

introduced

1936

retired

1945

status

retired

number built

6,508

role

medium bomber

origin

🇩🇪 Germany

makers

Heinkel, Arado Flugzeugwerke

engines

2× Junkers Jumo 211F-1 or Junkers Jumo 211F-2 / Junkers Jumo 211

crew

5

length

16.4 m

wingspan

22.6 m

height

4 m

max take-off weight

14 t

top speed

440 km/h

range

2,300 km

ceiling

6,500 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.