Heinkel He 116

what is it?

The Heinkel He 116 was an extremely long-range mail plane designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was designed during the latter half of the 1930s to fulfil a request by the German flag carrier Deutsche Luft Hansa for a suitable aircraft to carry long distance airmail between Germany and Japan. Derived from the He 70, furnished with an all-new semi-monocoque duralumin fuselage and powered by a total of four newly-developed Hirth HM 508C V8 inverted piston engines, the He 116 was designed specifically for this role, specifically the airline's route over the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 piston engines with propellers · 22 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 325 km/htop speed
• range 4,100 kmwithout refuelling
• size 7,130 kgmax take-off weight
• built 14made 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 89 years ago, in 1937.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 22 m: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 4,100 km: 23× Amsterdam to Brussels.

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

spec sheet

first flight

1937

number built

14

role

mail plane / reconnaissance aircraft

makers

Heinkel

engines

4× Hirth HM 508C

length

13.7 m

wingspan

22 m

height

3.3 m

max take-off weight

7,130 kg

top speed

325 km/h

cruise speed

300 km/h

range

4,100 km

ceiling

6,600 m

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