Heinkel He 51

[Lennart Andersson]

Although this is interesting, I do not want to be involved in a discussion about He 51 production batches, because there is much more to the picture than indicated here. I just want to address the version designation issue.

Could we please one and for all (I know that won't happen...!) get rid the old fantasies invented by Green, Nowarra, etc: There never existed any He 51 A-0, He 51 B-0, He 51 B-1, He 51 A-2, etc. Not even the "He 51 W" designation that Green mentions.

The only versions built in series were the He 51 C (Land) and He 51 D (See), and the latter was often referred to as the He 51 S or He 51 See. This is apparent to anyone who has studied original RLM documents.

The designations of the prototypes are more difficult to ascertain and there is conflicting information in different documents. For example, both of the first two prototypes were at one stage called the "He 51 A" and it also seems that they were first referred to as He 49s. It must be kept in mind that aircraft, especially prototypes, were assigned new version letters after major modifications.

Lennart Andersson