Hs 129
Country | Germany |
Manufacturer | Henschel & Sohn |
Primary Role | Ground Attack Aircraft |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseThe Hs 129 aircraft were developed as ground attack aircraft with particular specialty in anti-tank operations. Because low-flying ground attack aircraft were vulnerable to small arms fire, these aircraft were designed with a single piece of steel enclosing the entire nose areas of the aircraft, protecting their pilots up to head level. Because there were so little room inside the cockpit. some instruments and the gun sight were mounted outside the cockpit in an unorthodox manner. In the end, because of the heavy armor, the aircraft maneuvered poorly, but the design was accepted anyway because the Luftwaffe decided the aircraft was cheap enough to become a base of a continuous experiment for a better ground support aircraft. By the time the war ended, only small numbers were built. Pilots of the few deployed Hs 129 aircraft nicknamed them Panzerknacker for their ability to take out enemy armor with a few well-placed shots with their armor-piercing cannons.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Mar 2007
SPECIFICATIONS
B1
Machinery | Two Gnome-Rhône 14M 14-cylinder radial engine rated at 700hp each |
Armament | 2x7.92mm MG 17 machine guns, 2x20mm MG 151 cannons, up to 8x50kg bombs or 1x30mm armor piercing gun |
Crew | 1 |
Span | 14.20 m |
Length | 9.75 m |
Height | 3.25 m |
Weight, Empty | 4,060 kg |
Weight, Loaded | 5,110 kg |
Speed, Maximum | 408 km/h |
Rate of Climb | 7.08 m/s |
Service Ceiling | 9,000 m |
Range, Normal | 880 km |
Photographs
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Visitor Submitted Comments
21 Jul 2011 06:55:22 AM
Agree. That's not the 30 mm cannon in photo #2
4 Nov 2021 06:27:19 AM
its aculy a 45 mm canon it was very hard o make a gun that is small for the shells
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9 Jul 2009 09:02:41 AM
That nose cannon looks suspiciously like the 75mm Variant ModelC of which onlt 25 were produced..