Heinkel claimed a top speed at rated altitude of around 480 kph or 300 mph. Yet, foreign users claimed no more than 420-430 kph could be attained.
Hi Baron,
That sounds interesting. Do you have sources for this claim of 420-430 km/h from foreign users?
I'm asking since all sources I could find state that the B-0 reaches 490-500 km/h, the B-1 500-510 km/h and the B-2 510-520 km/h, each at rated altitude.
The 420-430 km/h sound exactly like the B-1's speed
at sea level, but if that was what it was able to reach at rated altitude, then the plane would likely have been returned to Heinkel immediately.
One more evidence for the top speed being in the 500 km/h's range is that in April 1937 Yugoslavia intended to buy 30 He-112B-1's, provided that Heinkel could guarantee that each plane could reach 500 km/h fully armed with 100% fuel.
This was right on the edge of the B-1's flight envelope and the deal was too risky for Heinkel, so he wanted to put the new Jumo 210G engine with fuel injection in (like on the B-2), which would guarantee that the plane could reach 500 km/h in any case at rated altitude (!).
The problem was that the RLM didn't allow the 210G engine to be exported at that time.
The permission wasn't granted before August 1938, but at that time the british aircraft manufacturers already conquered the yugoslavian airplane market.
Looked at the opposite way, this means that the He-112
was capable to reach speeds at about 500 km/h, in detail the B-1 was more or less exactly on that spot and the B-2 was safely above that margin, otherwise the whole deal's process would not have taken place at all.
Best regards - Mike