Heinkel He 219

The Heinkel He 219 Uhu, meaning Eagle-Owl, was a German night fighter designed and produced by Heinkel and used by the Luftwaffe in the later stages of the Second World War. The design began in mid 1940 as the multi-purpose P.1055, was reworked as a night fighter and carried the Lichtenstein SN-2 intercept radar. It was an advanced aircraft for its time, with a pressurised cockpit and twin ejection seats, and it was the first operational military aircraft to carry ejection seats and the first operational German aircraft with tricycle landing gear. The prototype flew on 6 November 1942 and the type entered combat in June 1943, but rivalry between officials and the complexity and cost of the aircraft and its Daimler-Benz engines slowed development and production.