Heinkel HE 8

The Heinkel HE 8 was a German single‑engine floatplane developed in the late 1920s by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke as a successor to the earlier HE 5. Intended primarily for naval reconnaissance and light bombing, the aircraft first flew in 1928 and entered service with the Reichsmarine and several foreign operators, notably the Soviet Union and Japan under license. The HE 8 incorporated a welded steel‑tube fuselage, wooden wings covered with fabric, and twin wooden floats, giving it good endurance over water. Powered by a 750 hp (560 kW) BMW VI V‑12 liquid‑cooled engine, it could reach a top speed of about 230 km/h (143 mph) and a service ceiling of 5 500 m. Its armament typically consisted of a forward‑firing 7.7 mm machine gun for the pilot, a rear flexible gun for the observer, and up to 250 kg of bombs carried beneath the wings. The aircraft’s robust construction and reliable performance made it a popular trainer for seaplane pilots and a stepping stone toward more advanced Heinkel designs such as the He 111. Although it never achieved the fame of later combat types, the HE 8 demonstrated the potential of all‑metal engines combined with wooden airframe structures, influencing interwar naval aviation development worldwide.

Heinkel

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