Strange Bird

This strange bird is the Heinkel He 119. It was a high performance reconnaissance bomber. It was developed as a private venture by a rather radical duo of aircraft designing brothers. Designing began in 1936, with the first prototype flying the next year. It featured a very streamlined fuselage with a rather radical cockpit - it was formed by the totally-glazed nose. A drive shaft from two mid-fuselage mounted Daimler-Benz DB 601 engines went right through the center of the cockpit. It was designed to outrun anyone who chased it. It had a crew of three (two pilots, one defensive gunner). Unfortunately, there were only a few prototypes, and the last of them were scrapped in 1942.

The naval seaplane variant of the prototypes. I doubt it would have very good performance with those floats!

Getting into the cockpit.

An up-close of the cockpit. Notice the many diagonal glass pieces. Good visibility, but expensive to produce.

A profile of the aircraft.