Ernst Heinkel established his own company shortly after
the liquidation of Hansa Brandenburg, building a
series of single-engined
He-111
seaplanes (He 1 to He 8) in
Sweden to circumvent the ban on the construction of military
aircraft in Germany. The He 51 biplane fighter went
into production for the Luftwaffe in the 1930s and served
with the Condor
He-177 "Greif"
Legion in Spain. When the Heinkel He 70
passenger/mailplane appeared in 1932, ostensibly for
Deutsche Lufthansa, it was the most advanced aerodynamic
design then seen in Europe. A natural outgrowth of this design was the Heinkel He 111
He-178
twin-engined bomber
which served with the Luftwaffe throughout the Second
World War. A Rolls-Royce Merlin-engined version of the
He 111 was built by CASA in Spain, and served with the
Spanish Air Force until the late 1960s. Heinkel also
He-162 "Salamander"
produced
late in the war the He 162 Volksjager (People's
Fighter), a lightweight turbojet fighter constructed almost
entirely of wood. Heinkel had designed, built and flown the
world's first jet aircraft, the He 178, in 1939. Other significant
Heinkel projects included the He 177 Greif heavy
bomber and the He 219 Uhu nightfighter.
