Heinkel HE 5

The Heinkel HE 5, produced in Sweden as the Svenska Aero S 5 and nicknamed the Hansa, was a reconnaissance floatplane built during the 1920s. It was a further development of the HE 1 as a low-wing, strut-braced monoplane; the HE designation stands for Heinkel Eindecker, meaning monoplane. Two prototypes were built in 1926 and, after being entered in the German seaplane trials at Warnemunde, took first and second places in the speed trials. The Swedish Air Force ordered it and eventually 40 were built under licence by Svenska Aero. The Soviet Union ordered it in 1927 but kept it only until 1930, while in Germany it served until 1933 with Focke-Wulf-built machines equipping clandestine naval units. A Swedish S 5A shot down a Heinkel He 111 on 21 April 1940, the air force only air-to-air kill of the Second World War, and two HE 5s survive in museums.