ICM 1/48 Heinkel He 111H-3 by PeteR Barker
MAINSTAY OF THE
LUFTWAFFET
he Heinkel He 111 was
designed by Siegfried
and Walter Günter at
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in
1934, ostensibly as a modern,
rapid airliner and transport
for civilian use by Lufthansa,
but with the full intention of
creating a medium bomber for
the then-nascent Luftwaffe.
A previous successful design- the Henkel 70 - was used as
the starting point, evolving into
a larger twin-engine aircraft,
initially powered by a pair of BMW
VI engines of 660 hp each. The
first flight took place on February
24th 1935 and testing showed that
despite its modern, streamlined
design, the top speed was
inadequate for what was intended.
Thereafter many more variants
appeared, identified by different
letters of the alphabet, with a
number of experimental versions
being given the letter “V”. The
aircraft illustrated in ICM’s kit, and
the one used in the Battle of Britain,
was the He 111H, which came into
being when the DB600A engines of
the ”P ”variant were replaced with
Junkers Jumo 211A power plants
(1,100hp), whose somewhat greater
size and weight were regarded as
unimportant considerations in
a twin-engine bomber design.
This was the most numerous
of the Luftwaffe bombers during
the early stages of the Second
World War, but the Heinkel, which
had fared well in combat before
the Battle of Britain, proved
to be barely adequate once its
weak defensive armament was
exposed. Nevertheless, it was
capable of remaining airborne
after sustaining heavy damage.
As the war progressed,
the He 111 was used in a
variety of roles on every
front in the European
theatre. Apart from its role as a
strategic bomber during the Battle
of Britain, it served as a torpedoBOMBER
Blitz
6 • SEPTEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
BY SACCO DE VRIES
HEINKEL HE 111H-
BY PETER BARKER
1/006-13-FEAT-He111-0918.indd 6 16/08/2018 17: