WesWorld

Technical Description

Shoulder-wing cantilever monoplane. Wing of single-spar stressed-skin construction built as a single unit, the spar being continuous through the fuselage. Straight leading edge but sharp sweep-forward on the trailing edge outboard of the nacelles, increasing at the inner ends of the ailerons. Fowler flaps between ailerons and nacelles, and nacelles and fuselage. Ailerons are aerodynamically and mass-balanced and have geared tabs. Part of the tab on the port wing is adjustable for trimming.

Fuselage of rectangular section with rounded corners. Stressed skin metal structure in two sections. The front section forms the nose and cockpit, and the rear or main section houses the three self-sealing fuel tanks. Aft of the rear tank is the electrical and wireless equipment, the master compass and emergency seat, access to which is through a trap door under the fuselage. The extreme end of the fuselage houses the trailing aerial.

Cantilever monoplane type tail unit with twin fins and rudders. Tailplane is one unit and is provided with moderate dihedral. Two fins and rudders are slightly toed in.

Retractable tricycle type undercarriage. Each main unit consists of a single oleo leg and twin wheels and is raised backward into the engine nacelle. Nose wheel also retracts backward and the wheel turns through ninety degrees to lie flat in the fuselage. Hydraulic retraction.

Two 1,900 hp Daimler-Benz DB603G twelve-cylinder inverted Vee liquid cooled engines driving three-bladed constant speed airscrews. Annular radiators surround the airscrew shafts. The nacelles are unusually long and are faired to points well aft of the trailing edge of the wings. Armour plate at the rear of each engine. Three self-sealing fuel tanks in the fuselage: the front tank holds 1,100 litres, the centre tank 500 litres and the read tank 1,000 litres.

Crew of two seated in the nose of the aircraft. Emergency seat in rear fuselage. Entrance to the nose cockpit is through the roof. Full armour plating.

Four 20mm MG201 cannon in a detachable fairing under the fuselage with 300 rounds per gun, and two 20mm MG201 cannon with 200 rounds per gun in the wing roots.

Span 18.5 metres; Length 15.6 metres; Height 4.4 metres. Wing area 44.4 metres. Empty weight 11,200 kg; loaded weight 15,300 kg.

Maximum speed at 7,000 metres 670 kph; normal cruising speed 540 kph. Absolute ceiling 12,700 metres, initial climb rate 10.9 metres/second. Range at maximum continuous speed 1,520 kilometres; range at economical cruising speed 2,140 kilometres.

In the drawing there appears to be a big bulge on the belly, just abreast of the engines; it looks a tad odd to my eyes, but it's on photos of the historical plane, too. Is that some sort of weapons bulge or something?

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
In the drawing there appears to be a big bulge on the belly, just abreast of the engines; it looks a tad odd to my eyes, but it's on photos of the historical plane, too. Is that some sort of weapons bulge or something?

Indeed it is, as noted in the technical description

Quoted

Four 20mm MG201 cannon in a detachable fairing under the fuselage with 300 rounds per gun

With the intention of fitting radar equipment in the nose of the aircraft, the armament has to be shifted aft. The shock and vibration from a quartet of 20mm guns can do a number on electronic equipment. I've witnessed gear that's failed a gunfire vibration test - it isn't pretty.

Ah, I missed that in the writeup. It just looked odd as I didn't recall that bulge from the photos, and when I went to check, none of the photos I've got showed the bulge very clearly.

It's not so much of a detachable weapons pack in the historical versions but a more faired-in version of the weapons packs in the similar Ju88 nightfighters. Essentially the fuselage just deepens at that point and there is sufficient clearance for guns to fire forward.

One fine aircraft. Heinkel was out of favour during the war the He-219 never really acheived its full potential. In WW I can see this aircraft going far, perhaps even as a multi-role type, a real German-Mosquito.

I'm not really convinced of the He 219; the good historical reputation the aircraft seems to enjoy seems to be rather at odds with the actual facts. It was underpowered, a bit unstable, quite slow with radars, and not very manoeuverable. Not a large improvement over the existing Ju88.

Likewise I'd be skeptical about the multi-role capability of the aircraft. Nightfighter and recon aircraft yes, but it can't really do bomber or strike roles without hanging lots of draggy stuff outside.