Heinkel HE 12

The Heinkel HE 12 was a pontoon-equipped mail plane built in Germany in 1929 and designed to be launched by catapult from a liner at sea. Norddeutscher Lloyd saw that a seaplane based on a liner could take off with the airmail while still far from port and so cut delivery time sharply. Heinkel designed both the catapult and the aircraft, a derivative of the military HE 9, and Deutsche Luft Hansa provided operating support. On 22 July 1929, still 400 kilometres from New York, the liner Bremen launched the HE 12 and the mail from Berlin reached New York in six and a half days. The aircraft, named New York, flew regularly from Bremen until it was badly damaged in an accident on 5 October 1931. A slightly larger sister aircraft, the He 58, flew from the liner Europa.