Figure 1.-- Dr. Ernst Heinkel was born in Grunbach (1888). He was was a German aircraft designer, and manufacturer. It shows Dr. Ernst Heinkel with his son in 1941 showing him how the He-111 bomber works. It would Germany's most effective bomber during the War. A year later, Luftwaffe chief Herman Göring would seize control of his company.

Dr. Ernst Heinkel was born in Grunbach (1888). He was was a German aircraft designer, and manufacturer. He began as a machinist at a foundry, but Heinkel studied at the Technical Academy of Stuttgart and eventually earned a PhD. He became interested in aviation, primarily because of the Zeppelins. He built his first aircraft before World War I and was almost killed when it crashed. During the World War I he was involved with the Albatross, a successful reconnaissance plane early in the War. He designed several land- and seaplanes for the Hansa-Brandenburg company which he joined (1914). He founded Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, one of Germany's two most important aircraft builders (1922) The was frustrated by Allied restrictions on German aviation and evaded them by working in Sweden. He also worked with Japan to evade Allied inspection teams. He joined the NAZI Party before Hitler seized power, primarily because of the Allied restrictions on his company. He ran into trouble with the NAZIs at an early point because they forced him to fire valuable Jewish employees (1933). The NAZIs recognized him as a Wehrwirtschaftsführer--an executive of an important company to the war effort. He was locked into major competition with Willy Meeserschmidt who was more compliant with NAZI demands. Heinkel Flugzeugwerke began using forced Jewish labor (1941). 【Crowe】 We are not sure about details of Heinkel personal involvement. Ongoing problems with the NAZIs resulted in Luftwaffe Chief Herman Göring seizing his company. Heinkel was detained until he agreed to sell controlling interest in his factories to Göring (1942). Heinkel moved to Vienna and opened a new design bureau. Heinkel aircraft played an important role in the War. The He-111 was the Luftwaffe's most important bomber during the War. The He-177 was the Luftwaffe's greatest failure, but this was primarily the result of interference from the Luftwaffe director of research and development, Ernst Udet. Heinkel was in a constant competition with Willy Meshermitt, generally losing out, but not always because of design quality. A good examole was te comoetition for the Luftwaffe's first mjodern fighter. Messermmitt barelybwon out with the Me-109. Messershmitt was very good at cultivating reklations with Göring, Milch, and Udet, although he did enconter some oblems with Milch. Both Heunkel and Messermsmitt put considerable effort into jet development, but resistance from Luftwaffe administrators were basically rebuffed. This would delay the arrival of German jets by about 2 years. Both Heinkel and Messersmitt developed a workable jet aircraft. butb again Messesmitt bareky won out with the Me-262. The biggest problems both Heinkel amd Messermitt encountered with the jets was the lack of alloys that could deal with the high tempertures generated in a jet engine.

Sources

Crowe, David. "Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his Life (Westview Press: 2004).

Created: 9:33 PM 9/20/2023
Last updated: 9:33 PM 9/20/2023