Heinkel He 46
The Heinkel He 46 was a two-seat parasol-wing monoplane built for short-range reconnaissance and army co-operation, first flown in late 1931 as a biplane and redesigned when its small lower wing blocked the crew's view downward. It equipped the Luftwaffe's short-range reconnaissance squadrons through the mid-1930s, served in Spain and with Hungary and Bulgaria, and was being replaced by the Henschel Hs 126 from 1938, yet small numbers fought over Poland in 1939 and the type returned for night harassment missions on the Eastern Front in 1943.
Why It Mattered
The He 46 gave Germany's re-forming air arm a standard short-range reconnaissance aircraft just as that arm stepped into the open. It was designed in the early 1930s, before Hitler came to power, as a two-seat machine built to work with the army. By 1936 it filled the Luftwaffe's short-range reconnaissance squadrons, the units that watched the battlefield for the army. Few German types of its generation then matched its span of service: superseded from 1938, it still flew over Poland in 1939 and returned to front-line work in 1943. Exports to Bulgaria and Hungary, and service in Spain, carried the type well beyond the Luftwaffe.
Design Notes
The He 46a prototype that first flew late in 1931 was an unequal-span biplane, powered by a 450 hp Siemens-built Bristol Jupiter radial. Its small lower wing restricted the crew's downward view, a major handicap in a reconnaissance aircraft. Heinkel's answer was to remove the lower wing, lengthen the upper wing and brace it to the fuselage, making the aircraft a parasol monoplane. A third prototype in 1932 settled the formula: two crew, a 660 hp Siemens SAM 22B radial, later the Bramo 322B, and a single MG 15 machine gun in the rear cockpit. The production He 46C-1 could carry either a camera or 440 lb of small bombs under the rear cockpit. The He 46E-1's NACA cowling raised top speed by 16 mph, but it made maintenance harder and was often removed. A small number of He 46Fs, powered by 560 hp Armstrong Siddeley Panther engines, served with training units.
Operational History
Production ran from 1933 to 1936, and History of War puts the total at 478 aircraft: 200 built by Heinkel, with MIAG, Gotha and Fieseler building the rest. By 1936 the He 46 was the standard equipment of the Luftwaffe's Aufklärungsstaffeln (H), its short-range reconnaissance squadrons. Eighteen He 46C-2s, C-1s with an engine cowling, went to Bulgaria, and Hungary also received aircraft of the type. History of War records twenty He 46C-1s sent to Spain in September 1938. Replacement began early in 1938, as the Henschel Hs 126A-1 took over the short-range reconnaissance role. A few He 46s were still in use when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Hungary took its He 46s to war against the Soviet Union in 1941, equipping the 1st Short-Range Reconnaissance Squadron, and the 3/2 Squadron in 1942. Hungarian crews also used the aircraft as bombers before the Focke-Wulf Fw 189 replaced them during 1943. In 1943 the Luftwaffe, short of more suitable aircraft, brought the He 46 back for night harassment missions on the Eastern Front.
Afterlife
By the invasion of France in 1940, every He 46 had been withdrawn from Luftwaffe operational service, although training units kept flying the type. The 1943 revival drew its aircraft from those training units, which supplied the squadron-sized Störkampfstaffel harassment units. One airframe is traced beyond the war: an He 46D captured at Châteauroux airfield in France in August 1944 and passed to the French Armée de l'Air as No. 846. Goodall's warbirds directory follows that aircraft to display at the Musée des Trois Guerres at Diors in the 1960s and 1970s, and lists it stored with the Musée de l'Air at Paris-Le Bourget from 1990 to 2020. The directory's He 46 section lists that one aircraft and no other.