Heinkel He 111

The Heinkel He 111 was a twin-engined German medium bomber and airliner designed by the brothers Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Because the Treaty of Versailles barred Germany from building bombers, it was presented to the public as a civil airliner even though it was conceived to give the new Luftwaffe a heavy bomber. The first example flew on 24 February 1935, and the type became the most numerous Luftwaffe bomber in the early part of the Second World War, recognisable by the extensively glazed nose of its later versions. It served as a strategic bomber, a torpedo bomber and a transport on every European front, and about 8,000 were produced before manufacture ceased in September 1944. A Spanish licence-built version, the CASA 2.111, continued after the war.