AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 152 / 311

Plate 152 of 311 · Second World War · Night fighter

Heinkel He 219 Uhu

He 219 A-2 W.Nr 290202, painted as He 219 A-2 Werknummer 290202, the only surviving Heinkel He 219 Uhu, found at Grove in Denmark in May 1945, taken to the United States for evaluation as FE-614 (later T2-614), transferred to the Smithsonian in 1949 and restored for the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia: a purpose-built two-seat night fighter with two Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines in annular-radiator nacelles, a stepped cockpit in the nose, a high-set shoulder wing, twin fins and rudders, a ventral gun tray and a tall tricycle undercarriage: black undersides, nose, lower fuselage, nacelle sides and fins, light grey upper surfaces under a dense grey mottle, thin corner-angle crosses on the fuselage and wings, a white-outlined swastika above ‘290202’ on each fin, off-white radiator rings, black spinners and propellers, and a clean nose with no radar aerials, as photographed at Udvar-Hazy (no He 219 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from a Wikimedia Commons three-view checked against photographs, with the undercarriage lengthened to the Smithsonian’s 4.10 m height as the photographs show; the mottle follows the photographs rather than tracing each blotch, the fuselage camouflage is mirrored side to side and the small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as He 219 A-2 Werknummer 290202, the only surviving Heinkel He 219 Uhu, found at Grove in Denmark in May 1945, taken to the United States for evaluation as FE-614 (later T2-614), transferred to the Smithsonian in 1949 and restored for the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia: a purpose-built two-seat night fighter with two Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines in annular-radiator nacelles, a stepped cockpit in the nose, a high-set shoulder wing, twin fins and rudders, a ventral gun tray and a tall tricycle undercarriage: black undersides, nose, lower fuselage, nacelle sides and fins, light grey upper surfaces under a dense grey mottle, thin corner-angle crosses on the fuselage and wings, a white-outlined swastika above ‘290202’ on each fin, off-white radiator rings, black spinners and propellers, and a clean nose with no radar aerials, as photographed at Udvar-Hazy (no He 219 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from a Wikimedia Commons three-view checked against photographs, with the undercarriage lengthened to the Smithsonian’s 4.10 m height as the photographs show; the mottle follows the photographs rather than tracing each blotch, the fuselage camouflage is mirrored side to side and the small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (He 219A); engine, crew and dimensions are for the He 219 A-2 W.Nr 290202 modelled here.

History

The He 219 Uhu

By 1941 the Luftwaffe’s night fighters were all conversions of day fighters and bombers such as the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88. Heinkel offered a design built for the job from the start: a twin-engined two-seater with the pilot and radar operator sitting back to back in a stepped cockpit right at the nose, where the pilot had a clear view ahead, a high shoulder wing, twin fins and a tricycle undercarriage. It was backed by General Josef Kammhuber, who commanded the night-fighter force, and the first prototype flew at Rostock-Marienehe on 6 November 1942.

The He 219 was the first operational aircraft fitted with ejection seats, fired by compressed air, and several crews owed their lives to them. Lichtenstein and later SN-2 radar aerials sprouted from its nose, cannon were carried in the wing roots and a tray under the fuselage, and many had a pair of 30 mm cannon behind the cockpit firing upwards and forwards, the ‘Schräge Musik’ that let a night fighter attack a bomber from below, out of its crew’s sight. Pilots liked its speed and handling, and the name Uhu, eagle owl, suited a night hunter.

Production never matched the promise. Field Marshal Erhard Milch, in charge of aircraft production, preferred to build more Ju 88s and tried more than once to cancel the type, and bombing of the Heinkel factories added to the delays. Only about 300 were completed, most of them serving with Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 in the Netherlands and western Germany, before the war ended in May 1945. Several were taken to Britain and the United States for testing. Only one survives, in the United States; no He 219 is in a UK museum.

This airframe

He 219 A-2 W.Nr 290202

290202The airframe modelled

Werknummer 290202 was built in 1944 and was among the He 219s found at Grove in Denmark when Germany surrendered in May 1945. It was taken to the United States for evaluation as FE-614, later T2-614, and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1949. Its restored fuselage was first shown on its own at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia, and it now stands there complete with its wings, engines and tail, the only He 219 in existence. The model shows it as photographs of it there do: black undersides, nose, lower fuselage, nacelle sides and fins, light grey upper surfaces under a dense grey mottle, thin corner-angle crosses on the fuselage and wings, a white-outlined swastika above ‘290202’ on each fin, off-white radiator rings, black spinners and propellers, and a clean nose with no radar aerials. Its shape comes from a three-view drawing checked against the photographs; the undercarriage is lengthened to the Smithsonian’s published 4.10 m height, as the photographs show, the mottle follows the photographs rather than tracing each blotch, and the fuselage camouflage is mirrored side to side.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only survivor is held by the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

All 311 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.