A copy of the He-111

[LCharnes]

This more than answered my question. Thanks!

Why I asked: This is for my novel-in-progress involving an aviatrix-turned-spy trying to get secrets out of the Condor Legion in 1937. The first He-111s to reach Spain have just landed in Seville. She's supposed to get all the information she can about them for her SIS handlers. My idea: the Soviets (who ran much of the Republicans' security apparatus) try to hornswoggle her into delivering the information to them instead of the British. Before I started writing that, I wanted to know what the ultimate outcome might've been. It still works even if there never was a Red 111 clone; it sets up a potential recurring antagonist who can dog her through and beyond WWII.

 

[Shortround6]

There were some He 111s flying around Europe as airliners. Granted many of the early He 111s used the old BMW V-12 engines which are pretty much a pair of WW I 6 cylinder engines running on one crankshaft so there wasn't much the British didn't know about the engines.

 

[GrauGeist]

Regarding the three of four captured interned B-29s (the fourth was returned to the U.S. along with it's crew), two were built in Wichita and the other was built at Tacoma.
So regarding variances between the three, it wouldn't have been much, two of them being assembled under the same roof.

 

[Wurger]

This more than answered my question. Thanks!

Why I asked: This is for my novel-in-progress involving an aviatrix-turned-spy trying to get secrets out of the Condor Legion in 1937. The first He-111s to reach Spain have just landed in Seville. She's supposed to get all the information she can about them for her SIS handlers. My idea: the Soviets (who ran much of the Republicans' security apparatus) try to hornswoggle her into delivering the information to them instead of the British. Before I started writing that, I wanted to know what the ultimate outcome might've been. It still works even if there never was a Red 111 clone; it sets up a potential recurring antagonist who can dog her through and beyond WWII.

You also may have a look at ... The He 111 and the FW 200 at Air Forces Scientific Research Institute

 

[SaparotRob]

Total historical accuracy didn't get in the way of Martin Caiden's success. Just sayin'.

 

[buffnut453]

Total historical accuracy didn't get in the way of Martin Caidan's success. Just sayin'.

Including his "non-fiction" books.

 

[pbehn]

If you were going to reverse engineer the He 111 why not do the Ju88 which was a much better plane.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If this isn't the right place for this post, please let me know where that place is...

Does anyone know why the Russians didn't build a copy of the He-111 the way they did the A-20, B-25, B-29, Do-17, C-47, yadda yadda? Or did they, and it's very obscure?

Why the He.111?

The Spanish copied it with the CASA 2.111.

 

[GrauGeist]

Spain obtained licenses from several German aircraft companies.

CASA manufactured:
Ju52 - 352
Go145 - 1145
Bü131 - 1.131
Bü133 - 1.133
He111 - 2.111

Hispano manufactured:
Bf109G - HA-1109/HA-1112

 

[Shortround6]

The Spanish copied it with the CASA 2.111.

Spain obtained licenses

That was part of it.

Having licenses and access to factory drawings and and engineer or two (or more) helped and awful lot when setting manufacture.
Don't forget, Spain was rather torn up (destroyed) by the Civil War so they took what they could get, and was easy to manufacture.
Spain was dependent on Germany for engines so disrupting whatever trade relations there were may have been counter productive.

 

[NVSMITH]

My point is that reverse-engineering aircraft was not the fastest way to get aircraft into service at all. The practical problems caused by not having access to the original blueprints and engineers are quite significant. Aircraft technology was moving very, very fast in WWII. Reverse-engineering a design would generally be a good way to have a second-rate design by the time it actually reached production.

The TU-4 was a bit of an exception because it was dramatically more advanced than anything the Soviets even had on the drawing board (or at least that's what Stalin was convinced of), and because it was such a radically advanced design for the time, it was likely to still be competitive once it got into the air, especially given the drawdown caused by the end of the war.
In the event, it took the Soviets about two years to get their first TU-4s in the air.

If the Soviets had taken, say, a captured HE-111H in mid 1941 and bolt-for-bolt copied it and gotten it into production just in time for, say, the Battle of Kursk, would there have been any advantage to it vs. the Tu-2 already in series production by then?

-Last gasp of the Tu-4 was the AWACS version either built by or built for the ChiCom PLAAF. Radome on top and turboprop engines. Photo from Wiki.