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Heinkel He 280

1941 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2

History of Heinkel He 280

Turbojet technology was still in its infancy during World War II (1939-1945), but was soon used to change the fortunes of many world powers. The Germans have come a long way with their development-oriented private company, the Heinkel He 178 (detailed elsewhere on this site), which became the world's first aircraft to fly exclusively on turbojet engines.

Through this work, the company was able to introduce a more advanced monoplane form in the He 280 - the world's first aircraft designed from the ground up as a military fighter jet.

The earlier He 178 was able to record its maiden flight on August 27, 1939. The aircraft has a nice streamlined profile with a forward-facing cockpit, shoulder-mounted midship wings and a conventional single-tail unit. The trailing undercarriage was conceived for ground operations, and a single HeS 3-series turbojet with 992 lbs of output thrust was sucked in through a truncated nose section.

The frame of the He 280 is now as good as set.

Work on the new aircraft continued until 1940, when the war in Europe was entering a critical phase for the Allies and Germany. Once again, his development is focused on a private venture capital program that Heinkel is eyeing, as German authorities are not too keen on investing at the moment - by then, the war is more or less "on track".

The He 280 project was born in late 1939 as "He 180", led by a certain Robert Lusser. A selection of HeS 8-Series turbojets (1,543 pounds of thrust) powers the new form.

The aircraft features a streamlined fuselage, this time with a covered nose cone. The cockpit is further aft in design, but still amidships. The wing main plane is mounted in the center and is straight with a rounded trailing edge. Unlike the He 178, the engine mounts are now suspended below the main-wing aircraft, and two engines will be used to power this model - necessary given the relatively low power output of earlier turbojets.

The fins were also rewritten as two vertical fins that spanned the horizontal plane. The bottom run uses a more modern three-wheel gear arrangement - all three legs are retractable into the design.

The aircraft was completed in the mid-1940s, but its maiden flight was delayed somewhat due to technical problems associated with the HeS 8 turbojet. On September 22, 1940, the plane took off, basically as a glider. The first flight of its turbojet had to wait until March 30, 1941, with the He 280 V1 prototype. During this operation, the engine is turned on for easy access to key components.

It was presented to the German authorities on April 5, 1941, but the project has again sparked interest.

The program eventually resulted in a total of nine aircraft, but they only existed in prototype form (i.e. no production-grade units ready for mass production). The He 280 V1 recorded the first use of the power ejection seat when its controls froze in flight.

Test pilot Helmut Schenk survived, but the prototype was lost in action.

The He 280 V2 and He 280 V3 were a pair of early form aircraft, the latter completed in 1943 with some modifications - especially regarding the problematic HeS 8 engine. The former will eventually be retrofitted with Junkers Jumo 109-004 turbojets.

In December of the same year, the He 280 V3 reappeared before the German authorities in a mock melee with Germany's best fighter, the classic single-engine piston-powered monoplane Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

It was this idea that finally persuaded the German top brass to invest in the fighter jet program and awarded a contract for 20 pre-production forms to eliminate design flaws at the operational level. If successful, another three hundred hunters will be ordered from Heinkel.

So far, the He 280 is known to have weaknesses in its tail design (resulting in tail flapping in flight), and its tricycle landing gear is weak on all runways except those that are prepared. Due to the layout of the twin turbojets proved very fuel-hungry, armament was limited and fuel supplies were limited.

The He 280 V4 was followed by a BMW 109-003 turbojet, which was then modified to accept six Argus 109-014 pulsejets. The He 280 V5 was fitted with the HeS 8 engine, which was then upgraded to the BMW 109-003 engine. The V5 is also equipped with 3 x 20mm MG151 automatic cannons as standard armament.

The He 280 V6 uses the same front fixed battery. The 280 V7 was equipped with a BMW 109-004 turbojet engine and was tested at high speed during its life cycle. The He 280 is powered by a BMW 109-004 turbojet, but with a V-tail arrangement to differentiate it from the previous He 280 brand.

The last prototype, the He 280 V9, was powered by a BMW 109-003 engine.

Due to ongoing problems with the HeS8 and HeS 30 jet engine models, the Luftwaffe finally forced the aircraft manufacturer to use the newer, more advanced HeS 011 series jet engines. However, the advanced nature of this new engine also created problems for the engineers.

Here, the pulse jet has at least made some progress on the He 280 prototype. Likewise, the BMW 003 and Junker Jump 004 turbojets are optional.

Due to its inherent limitations, the Messerschmitt Me 262 "Schwalbe" twin-engine fighter was chosen instead of the He 280, becoming Germany's first war jet fighter. As a result, the He 280 was completely phased out on March 27, 1943, and Heinkel was forced to focus on German bomber production and development for the remainder of the war.