Heinkel He 111Z (Zwilling)

History of Heinkel He 111Z (Dual)

The He 111 Z (or "Twin") was a relatively successful combination of two He 111 medium-range bombers (detailed elsewhere on this page), combining existing airframe designs designed to carry The large Messerschmitt Me 321 cargo glider. He 111 Z became a possible solution, the purpose of which was that a large wing area with five engines was sufficient.

Visually, this work is nothing more than two He 111 fuselages attached to a common wing section with an additional (fifth) engine attached to the attachment structure.

A pair of twin-engined He 111 H-6s as the base mods for Heinkel Zwilling's new design. Two He 111 Z prototypes were subsequently built from the He 111 H-6, connected by a central chord structure containing the fifth engine. When evaluated by Rechlin's pilots, the design was generally sound, which led to the ordering of 10 He 111 Zs. The port fuselage accommodated the pilot, primary mechanic, dedicated gunner and radio operator/navigator, while the starboard fuselage accommodated the co-pilot, secondary mechanic and another gunner, bringing the total crew to seven (the co-pilot). The driver can also act as a navigator). when the situation is urgent).

The pilot gets the full instrumentation, while the co-pilot gets only a limited instrument panel. Therefore, the system has no real redundancy, as expected in this design arrangement. The pilot was given five throttle levers for full control of the five engine units.

Control of the radiator flaps takes place between the port and starboard cockpits, and each person can control the radiator flap on their side. Both cockpits can control the landing gear.

Self-defense is managed by various machine gun arrangements, mostly centered around 7.7mm machine guns and/or 13mm machine guns and 20mm cannons. However, armament varies and depends largely on what the "donor" He 111 H-6 airframe chooses to convert.

Engine configuration includes five Junkers Jumo 211F 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled, inverted-V engines, each producing up to 1,340 hp. These engines are mounted through five separate nacelles along the leading edge of the wing, three on the central chord and two on the outboard sides of the respective fuselage in the usual manner. Despite the multi-engine layout, the He 111 Z was still somewhat underpowered when trying to tow a fully loaded Me 321 glider. The remedy was the use of rockets to increase thrust (RATO - "Rocket Assisted Takeoff") - which was not entirely unusual at the beginning of the jet age.

However, if one or all of the three center-wing engines fail, the twins can keep flying - a no-brainer sign of the importance of outboard motors. This range can be extended with up to four external drop tanks, giving the design the durability it needs.

By the end of the war, only four He 111 Twins were known to be in operation, although a total of about a dozen were produced. The missing twins were reported missing as a result of Allied operations while in the air or while still on the ground.

Regardless, the Zwilling proved to be a (limited) success, fully capable of carrying dozens of casualties while also providing much-needed glider tugs for the massive Messerschmitt Me 321 glider.

Several production brands of the He 111 Z were planned, although only the original He 111 Z-1 was ever manufactured to any degree of quantification, while the proposed Z-2 long-range bomber and Z-3 long-range reconnaissance platform never materialized . Both variants will be based on work already done on the Z-1 production program.

Specification

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Performance

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Changes