OK - this is a one-off.
But it's from my favourite period.
Ah, the Stuka that wasn't meant to be.
Heinkel He 118 V1.
Nice plane, but not built for purpose.
It's one of those "don't take a knife to a gunfight" things:
What the hell was going on in Heinkel's mind when he did this?
The competition was for a dive bomber, period.
The He 118 was arguably the cleanest design and looked very promising.
It was considerably more streamlined than the Junkers competitor, with retractable landing gear and an internal bomb bay.
But when you're asked to demonstrate the plane's capabilities in a
dive bomber competition and you go there and say "see here my pretty new design, looks much better than the others, only thing is: It cannot dive" then you simply missed the point.
Nevertheless the plane paved the way for the Yokosuka D4Y eventually.
Should I be the one with the baton, then please use this as an open round invitation as I'm on business trip at the moment
Best regards - Mike