Heinkel He 119

Bill,

Thanks for the response. I'm glad you are still monitoring this thread. I had not considered your hypothesis about a rebuilt V1, probably because I have no information about the extent of the record airplane's damage other than what Green put in his seminal book that it ran through a drainage ditch. I've never seen any photos of the damage; I always assumed the landing gear was shorn off but the aircraft was repairable.

It's a pity so little is known about these machines. Their historical significance is immense in light of the impact they had on the subsequent He-177. Both aircraft demonstrate the brilliance and failings of the Gunter brothers' and Heinrich Hertel's design philosophies in the mid thirties. The Gunters were overly idealistic and sacrificed far too much weight and structural complexity just to obtain what they considered to be purity of form. Hertel was something of a mechanical engineering pedant - just look at his landing gear designs on the He-177 and Ju-288! I suppose we should all be glad the highly complex engine and cooling systems on the He-119 apparently worked reliably when flown by highly trained test pilots and maintained by factory experts. Had the airplane gone into production, I've often wondered just how it was intended to do an engine change. I've come to the conclusion that the entire nose had to be removed from a parting line shown in the early V1 photo between the painted aft fuselage and the engine/nose section!

To me, the He-119 marked the "next step" for Heinkel after the He-70 and its progeny, which went "two and two" when it came to success and failure: The Blitz and He-111 twin Blitz were highly successful while the -112 and -118 were not. The -119 and its progeny were abysmal failures going "zero and four." The -100, while beautiful, was never going to be an operational warplane. The fact alone that it required a constant supply of ethyl alcohol for its oil cooling system doomed any chance it had. The Germans had enough trouble just getting fuel and oil to the front. Only the -219, essentially a twin -100 with conventional cooling system achieved any kind of limited success (~300 airframes), and that was far too little and too late to have any impact on Germany's position in the war. Although much maligned, the -177 just took too long to reach an operational capability, by which time Germany no longer had the ability to support it in its intended role.
 
JohnBr - Thank you for the feedback, it is appreciated. I really don’t know if the XR-4090-3 was ever built, and its 30 lb of additional weight seems suspect unless the two-speed prop gears were to be remote like the XH-9350’s two-speed prop gears were to be. Maybe more info will come to light on this engine someday.


DanF - This forum is one of the few that I check out just about everyday. It is amazing what the members here come up with. Below is the cash photo from "An Industry of Prototypes – Heinkel He 119", Wings of Fame, Volume 12 by David Donald (1998). Clearly the aircraft is D-AUTE.

If you look at the pump shed you will notice damage to the railing, concrete, and gutter downspout. It seems fairly reasonable to conclude this is where the right wing hit.

Notice the visible prop blade looks undamaged. It is an indicator to me that the engine was indeed stopped when the accident happened.

Notice the cover on the top of the aircraft. To me, this cover looks further to the front of the aircraft than where the sliding cover is on V2 to accommodate the radio operator/gunner. It also looks like the front of it is a different shape. Perspective can be a tricky thing however. But certainly D-AUTE does not have the windows for the radio operator/gunner that V2 had.

Take a look at the left aileron (between the main standing behind the wing and the tail). The aileron on the original wing had a fairly constant taper to the outermost point, kind of like a steak knife. The redesigned wing and a much more rounded tapper to the outermost point, much like a butter knife. To me, the aileron looks like that used on the original wing.

Certainly the above is speculative and even a bit silly with knife comparisons and all. But, based on this photos and all the others, I am stuck in the belief that whatever aircraft D-AUTE was, it had the original wing.

Regarding engine changes on the He 119, could the engine have been dropped out under the aircraft (again, purely speculative)? The widest part of the engine would be at bottom and given the layout of the aircraft, I think it would make sense to have it come out below rather than above. The engine sat a little in front of the wings, so the spar would have been behind the engine. I don’t see anything but the radiator in the way of dropping the engine out the bottom. Photo again from "An Industry of Prototypes – Heinkel He 119" Wings of Fame, Volume 12 by David Donald (1998).
 

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I can't find any information for imported He119 type, shape or photos in Japanese sources.
If any information still alive, it will be a good data for He119 mystery.
 
Bill,

Thanks for posting the D-AUTE crash photo. It's amazing what a brick pump house can do to an airplane!. I really appreciate the size perspective it offers with people standing around/on the airframe. The machine is somewhat smaller than I imagined. Judging from the damage, it seems unlikely that airframe was ever repaired. Both wings are significantly damaged and the fuselage "backbone" seems to be broken. I conclude that if two He-119s went to Japan, then at V-4 landplane with redesigned wings must have been built.

With regard to the engine bay, I have seen the bottom photo before (It's also in the recent "He-100 Record Breaker" book by Erwin Hood). An interesting feature of the photo is that, although the lower surface service panels have been removed, the upper fuselage above the engine is also off. There is what looks like some sort of truss above the engine. On the He-177 the coupled engines were mounted to a central truss beam that connected their inner mounting attachment points. That beam was then attached to the face of the main wing spar and served as the primary load bearing support for the engine(s). Although I have yet to find any photographic proof, I believe a similar method was used in the -119 (as opposed to hard points on the stressed skin fuselage as in the -100 and -219)

The engine would ultimately have to be lowered to the ground to change it, but the question I cannot answer is how it was to be supported during that procedure. As you have no doubt seen, an He-177 engine change was done using a crane erected on the top of the main spar to support the weight and to allow raising/lowering of the engine. Again, I suspect something like that was used or planned for the -119. The only alternative would be a ground jack, but the Luftwaffe seemed to have a preference for cranes. In any event, there are obviously a lot of structure to be removed and systems to be disconnected, which would require open access to the entire engine bay. After removing the lower service panels and upper fuselage (as shown in your posted photo) there is not much left to support the forward glassed nose section, and the quarters inside of it for working on the forward face of the engine would be extremely cramped. As far as I know, the engine gearbox was the only rear support for the propeller driveshaft. What a mechanic's nightmare.

I doubt any -119 ever made it to the ~300 hr. TBO of the DB601, and I'm assuming that same interval applied to the 606. As far as I know, all -119s had the 606. The engine photo posted earlier in this thread is actually the later 610. The differences are subtle, but the gearbox casing of the 606 was smaller and more triangular while that of the 610 was oval shaped as shown.

Another interesting area is the outboard exhaust design. The V-1 design must have been motivated by a desire to keep the exhausts mounted to the engine while it was dropped out. The later V-2 style exhausts project through the sides of the fuselage and something (either part of the fuselage/wing junction or the exhausts themselves) would have to be removed before the engine could be lowered.

Fascinating airplane. Thanks for your input.
 
For engines if they were available I would use the DB-604 or Ju-222.Has any one ever seen a photo of the cockpit.
 
Hi,


was this Heinkel He.119X a real design or not ?.


Flugzeug Classic 5/2000.
 

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hesham said:
Hi,


was this Heinkel He.119X a real design or not ?.


Flugzeug Classic 5/2000.


Haa, real or fake ?,here is the its paragraph.
 

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Translation of the answer by Dr. Volker Koos :" I don't know any evidence of existence
of this project. I would be possible, of course, that the method developed by Oscar Ursinus
to retract a single float was contemplated, when the He 119 was prepared for a number of
record attempts. But it's very doubtful, that it was at least proposed as a concept. If drag
would have been reduced at all, there would have been still the additional weight. And a complete
retraction was impossible due to the layout of the He 119 with a nose prop and the engines in
the center fuselage."

Even experts can be wrong, of course, but I would regard it as a What-If, as long, as we don't get
reliable sources.
 
Hi! He 119
http://adl-luftfahrthistorik.de/dok/Heinkel_He119.pdf

http://www.klassiker-der-luftfahrt.de/geschichte/flugzeuge/rekordflugzeug-heinkel-he-119/584648?skip=1#1
 

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V1 retractable radiator.
I imagine that engine ram airintakes were located wing root leading edge and engine exhaust nozzles were located side of the fuselage and bottom of the fuselage.

http://www.do214.mega-forschung.org/html/db_606.html
 

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what heinkel he 119 was the V5?The seaplane one?Because some source say that the V3 was the seaplane and the other say that V5 was the seaple,I'm a bit confuse here and did you have any drawing or further information about the military version(if they were one)?
19896_rd.jpg

http://adl-luftfahrthistorik.de/dok/Heinkel_He119.pdf
 
Even if I'll do the reco variant,I just want to be sure:Did heinkel wanted to do a reco seaplane variant or not(I know for the land one but the seaplane..not sure) and do you have any evidance about the existence of the he 519(because wikipedia...well :-\ ).
 
About the He 119 seaplane : You linked a source, that to my opinion is a very reliable one (http://adl-luftfahrthistorik.de/dok/Heinkel_He119.pdf)
and it only mentions the V3 as fitted with floats. As you can read there, the results were less, than impressive. A recce variant
is said to have been mentioned in December 1937 (project only).
That report concludes, that it was clear from the start, that no acquisition ofthe Heinkel type in relevant numbers was contemplated
by the RLM. The He 119 was an experimental aircraft, with a number of new features like coupled engines, prop driven via an extension
shaft and evoparitive cooling. Not quite surprisingly so, it suffered from a lot of technical problems and additionally from bad flight
characteristics and view from the cockpit.
About the "He 519", all hits I found look more or less identical and seem to come all from the same source. Of course I know,
that this designation was excavated again in the hype about that "unknown German project" (https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,20080.0.html)
...
 
Yes, the report says, that two aircraft were delivered to Japan, both soon crashed during landings.
And it is mentioned, that the clearance for export by the RLM in itself is a clue, that the type wasn't
regarded as useful and important for the German airforce.
 
There was an He 119 article in 'Klassiker der Luftfahrt' of Januari 2010, the text and photos of which can be found on the 'FlugRevue' website:

The drawings from that article are not on the website so I attach them here:
 

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I've put a couple of recently scanned items up for download via WeTransfer. The link will only be live for seven days.

https://we.tl/t-TyU3178sB6

He 119 article from Flying Review Vol XVI - 5.

Draft article by Gert Heumann based on his discussions with Buerkhard Hulsen which formed the basis of the Flying Review article. This was purchased on E-Bay along with some other water damaged items from Flying Review's former files.
 
In regards to the previous comment regarding the mistakes made by William Green, as far as the He 119 was concerned, these were acknowledged by the man himself. He admitted there was a host of additional information available latterly that was not around when he prepared the Flying Review article back in the 1950s. I had the pleasure of working with him in his final months before he took on his new set of wings.
 
I've put a couple of recently scanned items up for download via WeTransfer. The link will only be live for seven days.

https://we.tl/t-TyU3178sB6

He 119 article from Flying Review Vol XVI - 5.

Draft article by Gert Heumann based on his discussions with Buerkhard Hulsen which formed the basis of the Flying Review article. This was purchased on E-Bay along with some other water damaged items from Flying Review's former files.
In regards to the water damaged files this was thanks to a disastrous flood that overwhelmed the offices of Aerospace Publishing in the early 2000s. I will not go into how much stuff was damaged or destroyed but it was notable.
 
One thing I forgot to mention, in case anyone was wondering. Bill Green donated the majority of the Flying Review files, together with a substantial section of his other archive to Aerospace Publishing, hence why we held those files within our own archive.
 

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