Heinkel He 63

The Heinkel He 63 was a German single‑engine biplane developed by the Hamburg‑based firm Heinkel in the early 1930s as a primary trainer for the Luftwaffe. Designed in 1932 under the direction of Ernst Heinkel’s chief designer, the aircraft featured a conventional mixed‑construction layout: a steel‑tube fuselage covered with fabric, wooden wing ribs and spars, and a pair of equal‑span, staggered wings with a modest 6° of sweep. Power was supplied by a 240 hp Argus As 10V inverted V‑8 air‑cooled engine, driving a two‑bladed fixed‑pitch propeller. The He 63 incorporated dual open cockpits with dual controls, a fixed, split‑axle undercarriage with shock‑absorbing struts, and a modest fuel capacity that gave it a range of roughly 500 km. Although flight testing in 1933 demonstrated stable handling and reliable performance, the aircraft was rejected in favor of the widely produced Arado Ar 68 and later the Messerschmitt Bf 108. Consequently only a handful of prototypes were built. The He 63 remains notable as an example of Heinkel’s transitional experiments between the biplane era and the monoplane designs that would dominate the Second World War, illustrating the rapid evolution of German trainer aircraft in the pre‑war period.

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