Heinkel He 219

He 219 Uhu
Role Night fighter
Manufacturer Heinkel
Designer Robert Lusser
First flight 6 November 1942
Introduction 1943
Status Retired
Primary user Luftwaffe
Number built ~300
Variants Hütter Hü 211

The Heinkel He 219 Uhu ("Eagle-Owl") was a night fighter that served with the German Luftwaffe in the later stages of World War II. A relatively sophisticated design, the He 219 possessed a variety of innovations, including Lichtenstein SN-2 advanced VHF-band intercept radar, also used on the Ju 88G and Bf 110G night fighters. It was also the first operational military aircraft to be equipped with ejection seats and the first operational German World War II-era aircraft with tricycle landing gear. Had the Uhu been available in quantity, it might have had a significant effect on the strategic night bombing offensive of the Royal Air Force but only 294 of all models were built by the end of the war and these saw only limited service.[1]

Design and development

Development and production of the He 219 was protracted and tortuous, due to political rivalries between Josef Kammhuber, commander of the German night fighter forces, Ernst Heinkel, the manufacturer and Erhard Milch, responsible for aircraft construction in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM — the German Aviation Ministry). The aircraft was also complicated and expensive to build; these factors further limited the number of aircraft produced.

When engineer Robert Lusser returned to Heinkel from Messerschmitt, he began work on a new high-speed bomber project called P.1055. This was an advanced design with a pressurized cockpit, twin ejection seats (the first to be planned for use in any combat aircraft), tricycle landing gear (featuring a nose gear that rotated its main strut through 90° during retraction, to fit flat within the forward fuselage) and remotely controlled defensive gun turrets similar to those used by the Messerschmitt Me 210. Power was to be provided by two DB 610 "coupled" engines then under development, weighing on the order of about 1–1⁄2 tonnes apiece, producing (2,200 kW/2,950 hp) each, delivering excellent performance with a top speed of approximately 750 km/h (470 mph) and a 4,000 km (2,500 mi) range with a 2,000 kg (4,410 lb) bomb load.

The RLM rejected the design in August 1940 as too complex and risky. Lusser quickly offered four versions of the fighter with various wingspans and engine choices in order to balance performance and risk. At the same time, he offered the P.1056 a night fighter with four 20 mm cannons in the wings and fuselage. The RLM rejected all of these on the same grounds in 1941. Heinkel was furious and fired Lusser on the spot.

About the same time as Lusser was designing the P.1055, Kammhuber had started looking for an aircraft for his rapidly growing night fighter force. Heinkel quickly re-designed the P.1055 for this role as the P.1060. This design was similar in layout but somewhat smaller and powered by two of the largest displacement (at 44.5 litres/2,700 cu. in.) liquid-cooled aviation engines placed in mass production in Germany, the DB 603 inverted V12 engine, using annular radiators similar to the ones on the Jumo 211-powered Junkers Ju 88 A but considerably more streamlined in appearance, and which, after later refinement to their design, were likely to have been unitized in a Heinkel-specific Kraftei engine unit-packaging design, also used on the four prototype He 177B prototype airframes built in 1943-44. The early DB 603 subtypes had poor altitude performance, which was a problem for Heinkel's short-winged design, but Daimler had a new "G" version under development to remedy the problem. Heinkel was sure he had a winner and sent the design off to the RLM in January 1942, while he funded the first prototype himself. The RLM again rejected the He 219 in favour of new Ju 88- and Me 210-based designs.

Construction of the prototype started in February 1942 but suffered a serious setback in March, when Daimler said that the DB 603G engine would not be ready in time. Instead, they would deliver a 603A engine with a new gear ratio to the propellers, as the DB 603C with the choice of using four-blade propellers, as the similarly-powered Fw 190C high-altitude fighter prototypes were already starting to use into early 1943, with the DB 603.[2] DB 603 engines did not arrive until August 1942 and the prototype did not fly until 6 November 1942.[3] When Kammhuber saw the prototype on the 19 November, he was so impressed he immediately ordered it into production over Milch's objections. Milch—who had rejected the He 219 in January—was enraged.

Stability problems with the aircraft were noted but Heinkel overcame these by offering a cash prize to engineers who could correct them. Further changes were made to the armament during the development of the prototype He 219V-series. the dorsal rear defensive guns—mounted atop the fuselage and firing directly rearward from a fixed, internally mounted, rear-facing dorsal "step" position, at a point just aft of the wing trailing edge—were removed due to their ineffectiveness. The forward-firing armament was increased to two 20 mm cannons in the wing roots, inboard of the propeller arcs to avoid the need for gun synchronizers, with four more guns mounted in the ventral tray, which had originally ended in a rearwards-facing "step" similar to and located directly under the deleted rear dorsal "step"—this rearwards-facing feature was also deleted for similar reasons. The A-0 model featured a bulletproof shield, that could be raised in the front interior cockpit, hiding the entire bottom portion of the windscreen, providing temporary pilot protection and leaving a sighting slot by which the gunsight could be aimed at a bomber. Production prototypes were then ordered as the He 219 A-0 and quickly progressed to the point where V7, V8 and V9 were handed over to operational units in June 1943 for testing.

The earlier prototypes, with four-blade propellers for their DB 603 engines[4] (also used on the Fw 190C prototypes, with the same DB 603 engine) had metal nose cones designed to use the quartet of forward-projecting masts for the Matratze 32-dipole radar antennae on the noses of at least the first five prototypes, used with the early UHF-band Lichtenstein B/C or C-1 radar installation.[5] These early He 219V-series prototype airframes also had cockpit canopies that did not smoothly taper aftwards on their upper profile, as on the later production He 219A-series airframes, but instead ended in a nearly hemispherically-shaped enclosure.[6][7] The "V4" (fourth) prototype, equipped with the earlier canopy design, had a small degree of internal metal framing within the rearmost hemispherical canopy glazing, apparently for a rear dorsal weapons mount or sighting gear for the deleted fixed "step"-mount rearwards-firing armament. The idea for the rear-facing dorsal and ventral "step" features on the original He 219 fuselage design, for armament emplacement locations was later carried into the May 1943 revised fuselage design, for what became the Heinkel Amerika Bomber design contract competitor, the He 277, as its ultimate design general arrangement Typenblatt drawings show the early He 219 V-series' rearwards-facing "steps" being inherited by the He 277 revised fuselage design, in similar locations on its aft fuselage, with the ventral emplacement only moved rearwards by two meters, to provide space for the seven-meter long bomb bay. The adopted "step" locations provided for the Amerika Bomber's dorsal and ventral, generally rearwards-firing aft fuselage turrets, with each turret placed at the position of the "step" features, being armed with a pair of MG 151/20 cannon apiece.[8]

Milch repeatedly tried to have the He 219 program cancelled and in the process, Kammhuber was removed from office. Production ceased for a time but was restarted because the new Junkers Ju 388s were taking too long to get into service.

Operational history

A production He 219A with Hirschgeweih VHF radar antennas

The He 219 had an auspicious combat debut. On the night of 11–12 June 1943, Werner Streib flew the V9 and shot down five bombers between 01:05 and 02:22 hours, before crashing on landing.[9][10] Claims have been made that, "In the next ten days the three Heinkel He 219A-0 pre-production aircraft would shoot down a total of 20 RAF aircraft, including six of the previously "untouchable" de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers. Greatly encouraged, Kammhuber continued to press for immediate production."[11] No record of corresponding Mosquito losses or any documentary evidence exists, that He 219 pilots claimed six Mosquitos.[12][13][14][15]

The first major production series was the He 219 A-0, although initially the pre-production series, it matured into a long running production series, due to numerous changes incorporated into the design, along with the cancellation of several planned variants. Production problems as a result of Allied bombing in March meant the A-0 did not reach Luftwaffe units until October 1943.[16] The A-0 was usually armed with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon in the wing roots and up to four 20 mm or 30 mm cannon in a ventral weapons bay. The first 10–15 aircraft were delivered with the 490 MHz UHF-band FuG 212 "Lichtenstein" C-1 radar with a 4 × 8-dipole element Matratze antenna array. 104 He 219 A-0s were built until the summer of 1944, the majority of them at EHW (Ernst Heinkel Wien) or Heinkel-Süd in Wien-Schwechat.

The first planned version to reach production was the He 219 A-2 model, which had longer engine nacelles containing extra fuel tanks, unitized 1670 PS DB 603AA engines with higher critical altitude and often also two 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon, as an offensive Schräge Musik upward-firing system in the rear fuselage. With Schräge Musik, the ventral weapons bay held two cannon due to space limitations.[17] The A-2 featured an updated, 90 MHz VHF-band Telefunken FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 radar system, complete with its larger, high-drag 4 × 2-dipole element Hirschgeweih aerials. It initially had a longer minimum range than the C-1 radar but improved accuracy and resolution and was also less vulnerable to chaff jamming, through the late summer of 1944. A total of 85 He 219 A-2s were built until November 1944, most at EHR (Ernst Heinkel Rostock) or Heinkel-Nord in Rostock-Marienehe (now Rostock-Schmarl).

The He 219 was a capable fighter aircraft and the pilots were free to hunt down any detected Allied bombers. Ground control sent the aircraft into the right area, where the pilots took over and guided themselves towards the bombers with the Lichtenstein VHF radar's information. The SN-2 radar's 4 km (3 mi) range was greater than the distance between the bombers. While the performance of the A-2 was not extraordinary—approximately 580 km/h (360 mph) speed—it was enough of an advance over the Messerschmitt Bf 110Gs and Dornier Do 217Ns, for the crew to chase several bombers in a single sortie.

To improve its ability to intercept the Mosquito, the He 219 had excess weight removed. With some weapon and radio systems deleted, the aircraft was able to attain a speed of 650 km/h (400 mph). This version was given the designation A-6. None of these were produced but similar weight saving measures could be done at the unit level.

The last major production version was the A-7 with improved, unitized DB 603E engines. The A-7 typically had two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon in the wing roots (inboard of the propeller arcs), two 20 mm MG 151/20 in the ventral weapons bay and two 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108s as Schräge Musik. Production of 210 aircraft was to start November/December 1944 but the number produced is not known as original documents have been lost or contained no sub-version number.

Further developments

The troublesome Jumo 222 multibank engine, meant for the He 219B and -C subtypes

The follow-on series to the He 219As in service was to be the He 219B fitted with new but troublesome 1,864 kW (2,500 hp) Junkers Jumo 222A/B 24-cylinder engines—a multibank, liquid-cooled inline engine, with six rows of cylinder blocks having four cylinders each—which would have allowed the He 219 to reach 700 km/h (440 mph), each of which were almost the same displacement in their A/B and E/F versions and only very slightly heavier, compared to the Double Wasp radial engines in the American P-61 night fighter. The He 219B wing, was also to have had an increased span of 22.06 m (72.38 ft) for better high altitude performance. The Jumo 222 did not reach production status, with just under 300 examples built in at least three differing displacement sizes. Only a few test machines were fitted for the engines; some additional airframes with the enlarged wing, were slated to fly with high-altitude versions of the DB 603 but only one or two test machines flew with them.

A further adaptation would have been the He 219C, also intended to use the big wing and Jumo 222 powerplants as well as an all-new fuselage of 17.15 m (56.27 ft), with a complete three-man Ju 388J cockpit section forward, converted to accept the He 219A's standard nose gear layout (the Ju 388 itself used the Ju 88's conventional gear), the same HL 131V Hecklafette "quadmount" four-gun manned tail turret intended for later He 177A versions and the He 177B-5, as well as more than one Amerika Bomber strategic bomber design competitor.[18] Day bomber and night fighter versions were proposed and metal was cut for the project but, without the over-1,500-kW output Jumo 222 engines getting out of their strictly experimental status, they never flew.

Paper projects include the very-high-altitude He 219E with a vastly increased wingspan of 28.5 m (93.5 ft) and DB 614 engines, which were apparently an uprated version of the never-produced DB 603G inverted V12, capable of the desired 1,491 kW (2,000 hp) power output level that Germany had so much trouble crafting into combat-reliable aviation powerplants.

A more reasonable project was the Hütter Hü 211, a design by Wolfgang Hütter that took a standard He 219 fuselage and tail and added a long-span, high aspect ratio wing of 24.55 m (80.54 ft) to create a fast, high altitude interceptor. Since this design was also meant to be powered by the ill-fated Jumo 222 it never flew, although work continued on two sets of wings until they were destroyed by Allied bombing.

The He 219 was the only piston-engined night fighter capable of facing the British Mosquito on equal terms, given its speed, manoeuvrability and firepower,[19] but it never played a significant role in the war because the industry failed to make it available in sufficient numbers.[16]

Variants

He 219 A-0
Initially used for pre-production aircraft but became first major production version with 1,750 PS DB 603A engines, 104 built as of 30 November 1944,[20]
He 219 A-1
Proposed reconnaissance-bomber aircraft; project abandoned
He 219 A-2
Similar to A-0 but extended engine nacelles with additional fuel tanks, 1,670 PS DB 603AA engines, 85 built as of 30 November 1944 [20]
He 219 A-5
Planned three-seat night fighter, only some prototypes known to have been built from A-2 airframes
He 219 A-6
Planned Mosquito-hunter, stripped-down version of the He 219 A-2, armed with four 20 mm MG 151/20s
He 219 A-7
Improved night fighter version, powered by two 1,800 PS DB 603E engines, 210 ordered as of 30 November 1944 [20]
He 219 D-1
He 219 A-7 airframes adapted for Jumo 213E engines, five known to be delivered in 1945
He 319
An unbuilt multi-role aircraft project entirely unrelated to the He 219; only having the number sequence in common
He 419
Various derived projects culminating in He 419 B-1/R1, six of which were flown; use of the He 319 tail, very long-span wing of 59 square metres (635 sq ft), two 20 mm MG 151/20 in the wings and four 30 mm MK 108 in ventral housing. Speed of 679 km/h (422 mph) to 13,600 m (44,600 ft).
Letov LB-79
Two He219s built from recovered components in Czechoslovakia during 1950, with one being used as a jet engine test-bed.

Operators

 Czechoslovakia
 Germany

Survivors

Heinkel He 219 A-2 fuselage and twin DB 603 powerplants preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Heinkel He 219 A-2 fuselage preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

When the war had ended in Europe, the U.S. Army Air Forces Intelligence Service, as part of "Operation Lusty" (LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY), took control of three He 219s at the Grove base of the 1st Night Fighter Wing (Nachtjagdgeschwader 1) in Jutland, Denmark starting on 16 June 1945. These aircraft were made flight-worthy by "Watson's Whizzers" and flown to Cherbourg, France. He 219 A-2 Werknummer 290 202 was shipped to the United States with 21 other captured German aircraft on board the British escort carrier HMS Reaper, and was reassembled at Ford Field, Newark, New Jersey.

Werknummer 290202 was given the foreign equipment number FE-614, and later T2-614. The aircraft was flown to Freeman Field, Indiana for flight testing along with a second of the three He 219s: a He 219 A-5 prototype, Werknummer 290 060 and given the foreign equipment number FE-612. The fate of Werknummer 290 060 is unknown. Following testing, He 219 A-2 Werknummer 290 202 was then moved to Orchard Place Airport in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1946. It was stored in a vacant aircraft factory and then transferred to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum on 3 January 1949. Finally, the He 219 was crated and shipped to the Smithsonian's Silver Hill, Maryland storage facility in early 1955.

He 219 A-2 Werknummer 290 202 is undergoing restoration in the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., USA. The fuselage has been put on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center by Dulles Airport, however, the wings were not attached as of late January 2016. The wings had been stored at the Paul Garber Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland. The repainted wings were displayed during the January 30, 2016 open house in the restoration hangar paint shack. As of 2016, the completely restored fuselage and tail surfaces, along with the aircraft's partially restored DB 603 engines and nacelles (possibly as Heinkel-designed specific, Kraftei unitized powerplant installations) displayed nearby, can be seen displayed near the museum's Dornier Do 335 and Arado Ar 234, the only surviving examples of each aircraft existing in 21st century aviation museums anywhere, and which were aircraft that accompanied WkNr. 290 202 across the Atlantic over 60 years ago.[21] By August 2014 the wing structure (without control surfaces fitted) had been essentially restored, and was ready for the trip to the NASM's Udvar-Hazy shops to join the fuselage and engine nacelles there, with replacement Hirschgeweih VHF-band radar antenna components to be fabricated, based on a preserved example located in Europe and loaned to the NASM for replication, as part of the ongoing restoration process.[22]

In April 2012, a previously unknown He 219 was salvaged from the sea bed, 100 meters from the beach, north of Hirtshals, Denmark. The remains are in several pieces, but will undergo restoration and eventually be displayed at Aalborg, Denmark. As of late April 2012, no information was available as to the sub-model or Werknummer of the aircraft.[23]

Specifications (He 219 A-7)

3-way drawing of Heinkel He 219A-7/R1

Data from Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II[24]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Related lists

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Boyne 1997, p. 330.
  2. ↑ Wagner and Nowarra 1971, p. 246.
  3. ↑ Green and Swanborough 1989, p. 12.
  4. ↑ He 219 V5 fifth prototype photo
  5. ↑ "Heinkel He 219." Livevehicles.com. Retrieved: 23 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Heinkel He 219." falkeeins.blogspot.com, November 2010. Retrieved: 23 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Archive - Pictures - H - Heinkel He 219 Training picture series - He 219 Lehrb. Reihe 224 - Kanzel, Seitenansicht - Bild #31". deutscheluftwaffe.de. Heinkel Flugzeugwerke. 1943. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ Griehl and Dressel 1998, p. 159.
  9. ↑ Chef für Ausz. und Disziplin Luftwaffen-Personalamt L.P. [A] V Films, Film C. 2027/I", Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv, Freiburg.
  10. ↑ Smith and Kay 1972, p. 298.
  11. ↑ "Air International Magazine", Volume 9, No. 1, July 1975, p. 24, see also Wings of the Luftwaffe, Airlife, 1987.
  12. ↑ Chorley 1997
  13. ↑ Chorley 2004
  14. ↑ Franks 2000
  15. ↑ Abschüsse auf He 219. Mitteilung 1/44 TAD/Se, dated 25.7.44, detailing all claims made on the He 219 to 17.7.44 List is reproduced with additions to November 1944 in Joachim Dressel and Manfred Griehl, "Heinkel He-219 Uhu"
  16. 1 2 Greenhous 1994, p. 705. I
  17. ↑ He 219 A-0 aircraft manual, section 8A Beiheft 1 Schrägbewaffnung, October 1944.
  18. ↑ Heinkel Typenblatt general arrangement drawing." ermanaircraftwwii.com. Retrieved: 23 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Kay and Smith 2002, p. 154.
  20. 1 2 3 "BA/MA RL 3/1024 Flugzeug-Programm 227 Ausgabe 1, 9." Military archive Freiburg, January 1945.
  21. ↑ "Heinkel He 219 A-2/R4 Uhu (Eagle Owl)." Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved: 25 April 2012.
  22. ↑ "NASM’s Heinkel He-219 Restoration Update." www.warbirdsnews.com , 6 August 2014. Retrieved: 29 December 2014.
  23. ↑ Christensen, Abildgaard. "Sjældent fly til Aalborg" (in Danish). tv2nord, 24 April 2012.
  24. ↑ Bridgeman 1946

Bibliography

  • Berliner, Don. Surviving Fighter Aircraft of World War Two: Fighters. London: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2011. ISBN 978-1-8488-4265-6.
  • Boyne, Walter J. Clash of Wings. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN 0-684-83915-6.
  • Bridgeman, Leonard (editor). “Heinkel He 219.” Jane’s Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London: Studio, 1946. ISBN 1-85170-493-0.
  • Chorley, W.R. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 5, 1944: Amendments and Additions. London: Ian Allan Publishing, 1997. ISBN 978-0-904597-91-2.
  • Chorley, W.R. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 6, 1945: Amendments and additions. London: Ian Allan Publishing, 2004. ISBN 978-0-904597-92-9.
  • Franks, Norman L.R. Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War: Volume 3. Operational Losses: Aircraft and Crews 1944-1945 (Incorporating Air Defence Great Britain and 2nd TAF): 1944-1945. Hersham, Surrey, UK: Midland Publishing, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85780-093-7.
  • Green, William. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., Fourth edition 1979, First edition 1970. ISBN 0-356-02382-6.
  • Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. "Heinkel's Nocturnal Predator... The He 219". Air Enthusiast, Issue Forty, September–December 1989, pp. 8–19, 70–72. Bromley, Kent: Tri-Service Press.
  • Greenhous, Brereton. The Crucible of War: 1939-1945. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8020-0574-8.
  • Griehl, Manfred and Joachim Dressel. Heinkel He 177 - 277 - 274. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-85310-364-0.
  • Kay, Anthony and John Richard Smith. German Aircraft of the Second World War: Including Helicopters and Missiles (Putnam's History of Aircraft). London: Putnam, 2002. ISBN 0-85177-920-4.
  • Nowarra, Heinz J. Heinkel He 219 "Uhu". Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Inc., 1989. ISBN 0-88740-188-0.
  • Remp, Roland. Heinkel He 219: An Illustrated History Of Germany's Premier Nightfighter. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Inc., 2007. ISBN 0-7643-1229-4.
  • Smith, J.R. and Antony L. Kay. German Aircraft of the Second World War. London: Putnam, 1972. ISBN 978-0-370-00024-4.
  • Wagner, Ray and Heinz Nowarra. German Combat Planes. New York: Doubleday, 1971.

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