what is it?
The Heinkel He 118 was a prototype German monoplane dive bomber design that lost out to the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka in the 1930s, and was never ordered by the Luftwaffe.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · low wing · 15 m wingspan
base stats
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 3.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 15 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
- Range of 1,250 km: 7× Amsterdam to Brussels.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1935
- number built
- 15
- role
- dive bomber
- origin
- German Reich
- makers
- Heinkel
- engines
- 1× Daimler-Benz DB 600C / Daimler-Benz DB 601 / Daimler-Benz DB 600 / Kestrel V
- crew
- 2
- length
- 11.8 m
- wingspan
- 15 m
- height
- 3.1 m
- max take-off weight
- 3,775 kg
- top speed
- 394 km/h
- cruise speed
- 335 km/h
- range
- 1,250 km
- ceiling
- 8,500 m
- wings
- low wing
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q552841, Wikipedia: Heinkel He 118 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.