Heinkel HD 26

The Heinkel HD 26 was a reconnaissance seaplane developed in Germany during the 1920s for production in Japan. It was intended as a smaller, single-seat counterpart to the two-seat HD 25, serving as a spotter aircraft for warships that could take off from a short ramp. The HD 26 was a conventional biplane with staggered wings, twin floats and an open cockpit. The pattern aircraft supplied by Heinkel had a 300 horsepower Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine, while the single example built by Aichi as the Navy Type 2 Single-seat Reconnaissance Seaplane used an Aichi-built 420 horsepower Bristol Jupiter VI. Launching ramps were built on the battleship Nagato and the cruiser Furutaka for trials, but by then the HD 25 and HD 26 were already obsolete. The Aichi-built version had a wingspan of 11.8 metres and a top speed of 211 kilometres per hour.