Heinkel HD 23

Heinkel HD 23

After the end of World War I, Ernst Heinkel worked externally for Caspar-Werke and Svenska Aero AB for a short time, but in 1922 he decided to become independent. And so on December 1, 1922, he founded his own factory, Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, in Warnemunde. The first fighter type that the factory developed was the HD 23 type for the Japanese Navy. After all, Japan was an important trading partner for the factory throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The Japanese Navy required a type capable of taking off and landing from aircraft carriers, while allowing a safe emergency landing on the water surface. The factory has focused heavily on this aspect. The aircraft received a waterproof hull of the boat shape, a waterproof lower wing with partitions, a discardable landing gear and, in the event of landing on the water, automatic inflatable bags in the fuselage. The fuselage had a metal and wings wooden structure. The aircraft was powered by a BMW VIa engine with an output of 485 kW (660 hp). The first prototype was flown in the summer of 1925, the second a year later. However, the plane turned out to be too heavy and clumsy. Subsequently, in 1927, they were sent to Aichi in Japan. Aichi, who was to manufacture them under license, decided to lighten the plane. A new engine Hispano-Suiza 12H with a power of 450 horses. However, the results did not come and so the Japanese navy rejected this type. Instead of the originally planned HD 23, Nakajima Type 3 was put into service. This aircraft was actually modified Gloster Gambet. Nevertheless, this cooperation with Heinkel was not completely useless for the Japanese aerospace industry, as the production processes and equipment tested on the HD 23 were used in Nakajima Type 3.

Sources used:
L + K 11/2007
www.csd.uwo.ca