He 219 A-5, Are their any pictures of it? (1 Viewer)

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This is the best I could find so far Jim, an A-5/R1

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I'll keep looking.

Geo
 
I think R. Francis Ferguson has researched this subject about as extensively as anyone. Here's what he says about this type:

He 219 A-5

The He 219 A-5 never reached production status, as confirmed in Heinkel factory documentation. The He 210 A-2 variants produced at Schwechat have been incorrectly described as A-5 variants. This confusion is almost certainly due to the influence of the Entwicklung der He 219 Baureihen document, which contains numerous errors of fact, including an erroneous assertion that six A-5s were delivered in late June 1944."

If he's correct then there are no photos.

Cheers

Steve
 
Some prototypes or A-0s may have been modified to test an A-5 like configuration. No A-5 were produced.
 
Found another book that would confirm what Steve says. This is from a list of projected variants...

jim.JPG


The four other photos I found show what the captions say, is an A-5 captured at Lechfeld, Spring '45, they look like the same aircraft. Yours if you still want.

Geo
 
"German Combat Planes" by Wagner and Nowarra has a picture of a He 219A-5 prototype.

I haven't seen the photo in question, but that is a 1971 publication and a lot has changed since then. In the light of later research it is entirely possible that the photograph is mis-captioned. It wouldn't be the first, or last :)

Cheers

Steve
 
Remp's book is widely acknowledged to contain errors, though it was the best info available at the time. Ferguson's work is probably the most complete and accurate on the subject right now though don't have a copy.
 
I haven't seen the photo in question

Steve, this is a quick snap of it from Wagner's book. I'm no expert on the 219 but it's that stock photo you see nearly everywhere...

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The one with the Fairey Firefly in the background...

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So...no 3 seat 219. Or at least no pictures of it. It would have had a highly modified cockpit, towards the rear.
From what I understand, the He219A-5/R1 was a two-seat night fighter, no rear armament (MG151 removed) hence the rear of the cockpit was faired into the fuselage.

The A-3 high-speed bomber project was a three-seater...

As far as a photo, the book "German Aircraft of the Second World War" by Smith/Kay has a photo on page 301 along with a 3-view of the A-5/R1, the caption "The He219a-053, prototype for the A-5/R1 which carried an armament of two 20mm and two 30mm cannon."

The photo is somewhat similar to the one shown above, but was taken at a different angle and different location.

I'm away from computer at the moment, but can add that photo to this post in a little while.
 
The image depicts a machine from NJG 1, often labelled with G9+TH and Werknummer 290123 (should be 290126) and is a Schewchat-built A-2. Standard cockpit so no 3-man A-5. Don't know if it really shows a rear gun but I would assume some kind of field modification to add some rear defense.
 
Found another photo showing the left side of the photo on page 1, caption says....He 219A-5/R1-DV+DL, tested with FuG 220 radar, Munich Airport, late 1944. I don't know anything about this aircraft, just throwing it out there for the guys who do know.

Geo
 
This is what I'm talking about. Some sources seem to say a few were built, however I have never seen one and was wondering if anybody else had... (Note the highly modified rear cockpit)

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Ferguson's work is probably the most complete and accurate on the subject right now though don't have a copy.

The third edition is what I quoted in my initial answer. The quote explains the source of the error which led earlier authors to misidentify a handful Schwechat built aircraft as A-5s.

Cheers

Steve
 

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