The failure of the German Bomber B project forced the Luftwaffe to continue operating the He 111 in combat roles until the end of the war.

Manufacture of the He 111 ceased in September 1944, at which point piston-engine bomber production was largely halted in favour of fighter aircraft.

[5] Kesselring was hoping to build a new air force out of the Flying Corps being constructed in the Reichswehr, and required modern aircraft.

[8] The He 111 was a twin-engine version of the Blitz, preserving the elliptical inverted gull wing, small rounded control surfaces and BMW engines, so that the new design was often called the Doppel-Blitz ("Double Lightning").

[13] The design would have achieved a greater total speed had the 1,000 hp (750 kW) DB 600 inverted-V12 engine that powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109s tenth through thirteenth prototypes been available.

Should either bright sunshine or rainstorms be encountered, the pilot's visibility could be dangerously compromised either by glare throwback or lack of good sighting.

[14] In the mid-1930s, Dornier Flugzeugwerke and Junkers competed with Heinkel for Ministry of Aviation (German: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) contracts.

In production terms, the He 111 was more prominent with 8,000 examples produced[12] against just 846 Ju 86s,[9] and was therefore the Luftwaffe's most numerous type at the beginning of the Second World War.

The He 111P and subsequent production variants were fitted with fully glazed cockpits and a laterally asymmetric nose, with the port side having the greater curvature for the pilot, offsetting the bombardier to starboard.

The resulting stepless cockpit, which was a feature on a number of German bomber designs during the war years in varying shapes and formats, no longer had the separate windscreen panels for the pilot.

[15] Sliding and removable panels were manufactured into the nose glazing to allow the pilot, navigator and or bomb aimer to exit the aircraft quickly, without a time-consuming retreat into the fuselage.

The space between the bomb bay and rear bulkhead was used up by Funkgerät radio equipment and contained the dorsal and flexible casemate ventral gunner positions.

The outer leading edge sections were installed in the shape of a curved "strip nosed" rib, which was positioned ahead of the main spar.

It was powered by the BMW VI engine and could manage a range (depending on the fuel capacity) of 1,000 to 2,000 km (620 to 1,240 mi)[21] and a maximum speed of 310 km/h (190 mph).

[11] Engines of suitable quality were kept for military use, frustrating German airline Luft Hansa and forcing it to rely on the BMW VI or 132s.

Due to insufficient capacity, Dornier, Arado and Junkers built the He 111B series at their plants in Wismar, Brandenburg and Dessau, respectively.

[31] The E-1s came off the production line in February 1938, in time for a number of these aircraft to serve in the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War in March 1938.

[32] The RLM thought that because the E variant could outrun enemy fighters in Spain, there was no need to increase the defensive weaponry, which would prove to be a mistake in later years.

[32] The RLM had acquired an interest in rocket boosters fitted, for the sake of simplicity, below the wings of a heavily loaded bomber, to cut down the length of runway needed for takeoff.

One of the more obvious changes started with the He 111F models, which moved from the elliptical wing to one with straight leading and trailing edges, which could be manufactured more efficiently.

The rear-facing dorsal gun position, enclosed with a sliding, near-clear view canopy, and for the first time, the ventral Bodenlafette rear-facing gun position, immediately aft of the bomb bay, that replaced the draggy "dustbin" retractable emplacement became standard, having been first flown on the He 111 V23, bearing civil registration D-ACBH.

In October 1938, the Junkers Central Administration commented:Apparent are the externally poor, less carefully designed components at various locations, especially at the junction between the empennage and the rear fuselage.

[43]The new design was powered by the DB 601 Ba engine with 1,175 PS[29] The first production aircraft reached Luftwaffe units in Fall 1938.

[45] The P-2, like the later P-4, was given stronger armour and two MG 15 machine guns in "waist" mounts on either side of the fuselage and two external bomb racks.

Owing to the uncertainty surrounding the delivery and availability of the DB 601 engines, Heinkel switched to 820 kW (1,100 hp) Junkers Jumo 211 powerplants, whose somewhat greater size and weight were regarded as unimportant considerations in a twin-engine design.

[48] A count on 2 September 1939 revealed that the Luftwaffe had a total of 787 He 111s in service, with 705 combat ready, including 400 H-1 and H-2s that had been produced in a mere four months.

Engines were two 1,000 kW (1,300 hp) Junkers Jumo 211F-2, allowing this variant to carry a 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) load to a range of 2,340 km (1,450 mi).

Later in 1943, He111Zs helped evacuate German equipment and personnel from the Caucasus region, and during the Allied invasion of Sicily, attempted to deliver reinforcements to the island.

[75] The Heinkel He 111 served the Luftwaffe across the European theatre as a medium bomber until 1943, when a loss of air superiority resulted in it being relegated to a transport role.

[77] Five original German-built He 111s are on display or in museums around the world (not including major components):[93] Data from Heinkel He 111: A Documentary History [99]General characteristics Performance Armament