In July 1940, the Battle of Britain began. This was the name given to the German military operation aimed at conquering the airspace over southern England. According to the German command, this was to undermine the morale of the British people. To protect the airspace over large cities, the British used barrage balloons with taut cables. To break through the barriers, the Luftwaffe used converted airplanes on which special steel structures with cutters were installed. The cutters were also called paravans, similar to devices for protecting against sea mines. Among the converted aircraft were He 111 bombers, this modification was designated He 111H-8. Piloting such aircraft was quite difficult, as the massive structure of the paravan worsened the flight characteristics of the aircraft. Some of the see aircraft were lost during 1941, and the remaining ones were later used as conventional bombers.
– A model of a bomber equipped with an original barrage defense system;
– The possibility of building the aircraft as a conventional bomber with bombs is preserved;
– The decals include 3 versions of the He 111H-8 aircraft with cutter paravans.
– Time period: WW2
Markings:
He 111H-8 Paravane, unknown unit, 1941
He 111H-8 Paravane, IV./KG27 "Boelcke", France, 1941
He 111H-8 Paravane, 9./KG55 "Greif", France, spring 1941
The Heinkel He-111 is a German, twin-engine, metal, semi-shell, low-wing, low-wing bomber from the Second World War. The prototype flight took place on November 17, 1934. In the period 1934-1935, three prototypes for the Luftwaffe were created, marked V1, V2 and V3, the last of which became the basis for the creation of a pre-production batch (He-111A-0), but it turned out to be unsuccessful due to too weak engines. This resulted in further research and experimentation with other engines, which ultimately led to the development of the He-111H, which was produced on a large scale from 1940 onwards. Two Junkers Jumo 211 engines with 1100 HP each were used as the drive unit (from the H-3 version). It was this version that was used on a large scale during the Battle of Britain in 1940. During World War II, a dozen or so versions of the He-111 were created, and each of them had their own modernizations. The most important, apart from the aforementioned "H", which also served as a torpedo bomber (He-111H-6) and, for example, an aircraft marking targets for other bombers (He-111 H-18), is the "P" version using two Daimler-Benz DB engines 601A-1 and used min. during the September campaign. On the other hand, the most original version is the He-111Z "Zwilling" (German: twins), which is an example of an unusual "combination" of two He111 bombers. The task of this unusual machine was to tow a giant Me 321 glider or three Go-242 gliders. A version of the He-111Z2, which was supposed to carry 4 Henschel Hs-293 missiles, also appeared, but it was not used in combat. A total of approximately 6,500 all versions of the He-111 were manufactured. Technical data (version He-111H-6): length: 16.4 m, wingspan: 22.6 m, height: 4 m, maximum speed: 440 km / h, rate of climb: 4.3 m / s, maximum range: 2300 km, ceiling maximum 6500m, armament: 7.92mm MG15 or MG81 machine guns, one MG FF 20mm cannon and one 13mm MG131 cannon, suspended - up to 2000 kg of bombs.
