Originally shared by Jesse Day

This Day In Aviation

I claim nothing of this template. Gazing Skyward TV inspired me to come up with a post today. I am a huge fan of Heinkel aircraft and this day is one I’ve memorized, among many others. Here’s a bit inspired by John Chvatal and his other page, Gazing Skyward TV . Thanks, old bean.

March the 30th, 1939 | The Heinkel He-100 sets a world speed record of a stunning 463 mph (745km/h).

Though the Luftwaffe ordered the Messerschmitt Bf 109 as its front-line fighter, Ernst Heinkel proposed a much faster aircraft. This was the He 100, completed in 1937, a small, sleek, clipped-wing single-seat aircraft with an inverted vee 12-cylinder Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine. On March 30, 1939, piloted by Hans Dieterle, the He 100 set a new world speed record when the eighth prototype aircraft flew at 746.6 km/h, delighting Hitler with a global propaganda coup. While a number were sold to the Soviet Union and Japan, the rest were taken by the Luftwaffe to form the Heinkel-Rostock defense unit. In 1940, this unit was used by Goebbels to convince Britain that Germany had another fighter in service, the fake ‘He 113’.

A prototype aircraft, never put into service but promising good fighters to come, the He 100 paved the way for latter aircraft that would soon dominate European airspace during the upcoming years of the war. Possessing the outlines of the Me-109 and the Fw-190, the Heinkel record breaker certainly was a tester that proved itself to be a pioneer of WWII air technology.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/he100.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_100

Some other pages to check out:

Gazing Skyward TV 
John Chvatal 
Chris Buff 
Tatiana Youngblood 
Clayton J. Stott 
Jeff Greger Photography