Heinkel He 46

The Heinkel He 46 was a German two-seat aircraft designed in 1931 for close reconnaissance and army co-operation. As designed it was a sesquiplane of mixed construction, and the German air ministry wanted aircraft that could be built quickly and in large numbers to swell the Luftwaffe inventory. The first prototype flew in late 1931, a more powerful engine went into the second prototype and a rear-seat machine gun into the third. Production began in 1933 with the He 46C-1, which could carry a camera or 200 kg of bombs. About 500 had been built by 1934 and by 1936 every Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance wing flew it. The Henschel Hs 126 began replacing it in 1938 and it had left operational units by 1940. In 1943 it returned to war as a night harassment bomber over the Soviet Union, and it also served with the Hungarian Air Force.