3D model
Turn it over
A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Werknummer 701152, a Heinkel He 111 H-20/R1 paratroop transport built in 1944, taken over by the USAAF’s 56th Fighter Group at Boxted in 1945, flown to Farnborough for the German aircraft exhibition that November and displayed at RAF Museum London since 1978, painted as it is shown there in 1944 factory colours: an RLM 70 and 71 splinter over RLM 65 light blue undersides, black crosses edged in white, the factory code ‘NT+SL’ on the fuselage and under the wings, swastikas on the fin, the glazed asymmetric nose, the ventral gondola, the dorsal gun position faired over without its turret, a replacement radio mast and D/F loop, the annular-radiator cowlings of its two Junkers Jumo engines and dark green three-blade propellers; the upper wing and tailplane are not visible in photographs of the museum’s aircraft, so their splinter pattern is a generic one. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (2.1 MB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight24 February 1935
- Built~22,000
- Top speed292 mph
- Engine2 × Junkers Jumo 211F inverted V-12s, 1,340 hp each
- Crew4–5
- Wingspan22.6 m
- Length16.4 m
- Height4 m
- In service1936–1945
- RoleMedium bomber
- MakerHeinkel, Germany
- UK collections2
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the He 111 H-20 modelled here.
History
The He 111
The He 111 was designed at Heinkel by the twin brothers Siegfried and Walter Günter as a fast, twin-engined monoplane that could be shown off as an airliner for Lufthansa while it was really built to be a bomber for the secret new Luftwaffe. It had a smooth, all-metal fuselage and an elliptical wing like that of the smaller He 70. Gerhard Nitschke flew the first prototype at Rostock-Marienehe on 24 February 1935. A handful of airliners went to Lufthansa, but the bombers mattered far more, and He 111Bs first saw action with the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
The early aircraft had a conventional stepped windscreen. In the P and H series of 1938 and 1939 it gave way to the shape everyone remembers: a fully glazed, slightly lopsided nose with no step at all, in which the pilot sat offset to port beside the bomb aimer. The He 111H, with Junkers Jumo 211 engines, became the main version and was built in larger numbers than any other. With the Dornier Do 17 and the Junkers Ju 88 it carried the Luftwaffe’s daylight attacks on Britain in the summer of 1940, when it proved too slow and too lightly armed to survive the Hurricanes and Spitfires without a heavy escort. It moved to night bombing and became the backbone of the Blitz, with the specialist unit Kampfgruppe 100 flying along radio beams to mark targets such as Coventry on 14 November 1940.
As faster bombers took over, the He 111 found other work. It dropped torpedoes against the Arctic convoys, towed gliders, carried supplies and paratroops and, in 1944 and 1945, launched V-1 flying bombs at England from over the North Sea. The H-20, the last major version, was built as a transport and paratroop carrier, a glider tug or a bomber. German production ended in 1944 after more than 6,000 had been built. In Spain CASA went on making it as the 2.111 into the 1950s, latterly with Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, and the Spanish Air Force flew them until the early 1970s.
This airframe
He 111 H-20/R1 Werknummer 701152 (NT+SL)
Werknummer 701152 was built in 1944 as an He 111 H-20/R1 paratroop transport, with seats for 16 paratroops in two compartments; they are still in it. Its wartime service is not known. In May 1945 it was chosen for Colonel Harold Watson’s collection of German aircraft bound for the United States and flown to Cherbourg, but there was no room for it on the ship. Instead it was ferried to Boxted in Essex on 2 July 1945, where the 56th Fighter Group adopted it, painted it black with red trim and flew it to open days at American bases. When the group went home it was flown to North Weald and then Heston, and on 3 November 1945 it made its last flight, to Farnborough for the German aircraft exhibition. It joined the Air Historical Branch collection, was stored at Sealand, Stanmore Park, Wroughton, Fulbeck and Biggin Hill, appeared on Horse Guards Parade for Battle of Britain week in 1954 and 1955, and lost its dorsal turret by 1967. It became 8471M at St Athan, was repainted at Kemble in 1944 factory colours, and has been displayed at Hendon since the Battle of Britain Museum opened in November 1978. The model shows it as exhibited: an RLM 70 and 71 splinter over RLM 65 light blue undersides, black crosses edged in white, the factory code “NT+SL” on the fuselage and under the wings, swastikas on the fin, the ventral gondola, the dorsal position faired over, a replacement radio mast and D/F loop, and no guns. The museum’s records say it has Jumo 213 E-1 engines; the cowlings are modelled from photographs of the aircraft. Its upper wing and tailplane do not show in any photograph we could find, so they carry a generic splinter pattern.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the He 111 in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.