He 51 B-2/H

This page is about the German hydroplane He 51 B-2/H. For other versions, see He 51 (Family).

He 51 B-2/H

He 51 B-2/H

Germany

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Fighter

Hydroplane

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Description

The He 51 B-2 /Hydroplane is a gift rank I German hydroplane fighter with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It has been in the game since the start of the Open Beta Test prior to Update 1.27. It was a reward for the 2014 War Thunder's birthday and the 2015 Day of German Unity. It was later reintroduced in April 2019 as a battle trophy vehicle in the Warbonds shop.

When paired up against other reserve fighters in the game, the He 51 can hold its own, though it will not win any speed records, nor will its machine guns out fire some of the early Soviet fighters, however, there is a place for the He 51 B-2/H. Diving straight into a cluster of fighters rolling around with each other is not the best tactic, it is better to pick a target and go after it, however, if cornered, the slower speed and manoeuvrability of the He 51 can get it out of tight spaces and potentially down a few enemy aircraft in the process. With two 7 mm machine guns, tracer rounds work best against early aircraft, especially those which are fabric covered and have non-sealing fuel tanks. Though the pilot may find themselves up-tiered against mono-wing aircraft of faster speeds, the He 51 B-2/H can quickly turn the tables and put the faster enemy fighter on the receiving end of a stream of bullets, and only a few hits are enough to hobble the enemy aircraft allowing the Heinkel to catch up and finish the job.

General info

Flight performance

Arrestor gear

Accelerates braking by grabbing the brake cable on the deck of the aircraft carrier

Max speed

at 0 m315 km/h

Turn time16 s

Max altitude6 500 m

EngineBMW VI

TypeInline

Cooling systemWater

Take-off weight2 t

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at sea level)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	306	291	6500	16.6	17.2	14.9	14.8	190
Upgraded	327	315		15.5	16.0	19.6	17.2

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	✓

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
500	500	498	469	320	~11	~5

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 180	< 300	< 300	> 190

Survivability and armour

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural0 km/h

Gear500 km/h

• No armour plating
• No armour glazing
• All critical components located in front of aircraft (fuel, pilot, engine, controls)

Like many biplanes before and contemporaries of the He 51 B-2/H, armour was not an option, survival was based on the pilot's grit. Armour added weight, weight the early biplanes could not afford to carry and still be a viable fighter. Flying in open cockpit and fabric-covered aircraft, the only protection the pilot had was to place his engine between him and his enemy, otherwise, the pilot was vulnerable. Typically aircraft like this have the engine at the nose of the aircraft, followed by the fuel tank and then the cockpit, all three critical components relatively crammed together. The pilot's toolbox had to contain situational awareness as he needed to know where the enemy was around him. Tracer rounds could easily ignite the fabric-covered aircraft or large fuel tanks, so it was imperative the pilot was the attacker, not the one being attacked and knowing where the enemies are at can help avoid getting shot at.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB384

RB187

SB251

Crew training450

Experts3 000

Aces45

Research Aces220 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 20 / 40 / 130 %

2 × 100 / 100 / 100 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Radiator Compressor Wings repair Engine	Airframe Cover	mg_belt_pack mg17_new_gun

Armaments

Offensive armament

Weapon 12 x 7.92 mm MG 17 machine gun

Ammunition1 000 rounds

Fire rate1 200 shots/min

The He 51 B-2/H is armed with:

• 2 x 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns, nose-mounted (500 rpg = 1,000 total)

When comparing offensive armament between reserve aircraft, the He 51 B-2/H is on par with most nations, however, it lacks when compared to aircraft from France, Great Britain or the Soviet Union and to some extent the United States and their use of a heavy machine gun. The He 51 found itself between two great wars and to some extent was a fossil in regards to its armament. For a light biplane fighter, the He 51 B-2/H only sported two 7.92 mm machine guns with a few options of ammunition types available for use.

Some of the reserve aircraft the He 51 B-2/H will face utilise a heavy machine gun, up to 4 x 7 mm machine guns and a couple of premium versions even pack on a massive (massive for a reserve aircraft) 20 mm autocannon. Though coming in at a severe weapons disadvantage in some instances, the He 51 B-2/H can still dominate a match and come out the king of the hill. While the two 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns may seem insufficient, they do a job and they do it well, though it may take a bit of practice to land the bullets where they will do the most damage.

Default ammunition what every pilot starts out with, though not the best it will cause critical hits and down enemy aircraft, though it may take a bit more patience and a few more rounds. When available to upgrade the ammunition belt modules, two other choices come into play which will allow the pilot to change tactics and fight more on their terms. Tracer ammunition is a fantastic choice for use against early biplane and monoplane fighters, especially since most of these aircraft are covered in fabric (as opposed to later aircraft covered in metal skin) and most if not all of the early fuel tanks are not self-sealing or do not vent exhaust gasses into the fuel tanks to stave off potential fireballs.

Tracer rounds, though do little impact damage, their powerful punch comes from igniting aircraft on fire causing the enemy to fall to the earth in a flaming heap. One huge disadvantage to the tracer rounds is that it lets everyone know where you are with the bright coloured rounds flying through the air. To combat this, some pilots will switch stealth rounds, which just means that this belt is without any tracer rounds. Two advantages here are first, the removal of the tracer round adds in another damage round and secondly, there are no tracer rounds to give away your position, especially if your first shots don't land where you want them to, enemy pilots will need to spend precious seconds looking around to find where the shots came from before reacting or they may react blindly and to your advantage. One challenge with stealth rounds is they are more difficult to tell where they are landing especially with distance shots and will take practice to know where they are hitting, though when used in close, they are easier to track and pack in a surprise for the enemy pilot they may not be able to recover from.

Suspended armament

List of setups (1)

Setup 16 x 10 kg SD10C bomb

The He 51 B-2/H can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

• Without load
• 6 x 10 kg SD10C bombs (60 kg total)

Early versions of the He 51 were not outfitted with bombs, it wasn't later in the aircraft's service it was deemed unacceptable as a fighter and was repurposed as a close support aircraft, not only able to use its machine guns to destroy ground targets but also being outfitted with six 10 kg bomb. At first one might think this is the equivalent of just throwing hand grenades out the cockpit, but this isn't so. While these are not 50 kg or 100 kg bombs which will do significantly more damage against ground targets, the He 51 B-2/H can still find success in bombing light targets, especially open-top trucks and anti-aircraft artillery. The first and second pass can be used for dropping the bombs on target and subsequent passes can utilise the machine guns to clean up. The He 51 B-2/H has had a successful history of close support, even with a significant loss of aircraft in this role, tactics derived from its missions later became Luftwaffe doctrine for close-air-support and dive-bombing roles during World War II.

While hunting ground targets, it can become really easy for the pilot to have tunnel vision, only focusing on what is one the ground and destroying it. The pilot must also pay attention to their surroundings in the air to ensure an enemy fighter does not sneak into the air space and pounce on the ground pounder, if necessary the He 51 B-2/H can covert from ground attack to air defence and attack, if successfully neutralizing the enemy fighter, the He 51 B-2/H can then return to picking off ground targets.

Usage in battles

In Simulator, the He 51 is overall not an ideal plane to fly. Its advantages include the pair of fast-firing 7.92 mm MGs, allowing you to put enough bullets into the opponent when led correctly. It also has very stable handling (will not spin out as much) and great side and rear views with nothing at all to obstruct your view. You can even see your whole tail. At last, the He 51 has good rate of climb in comparison to most other equivalent battle rating aircraft allowing it to play the energy tactic well. This is good because the He 51 is a slow bird and has trouble catching virtually any other plane in level flight, but given its slow speed, it also sports an exceptional turn radius allowing it to turn a death-spiral into a turkey shoot. However, its disadvantages are that the front view offers an extremely restricted panorama and it is difficult to anticipate targets with a thick wing in your face, which will very often cause you to lose track of your target. As with all bi-planes, this characteristic tends to dissuade its use in SB. Its good manoeuvrability is also countered by every other reserve aircraft as they can turn equally well. In addition it can get quite wobbly when manoeuvring at low speeds which can cause you to miss the shot. The MGs also have a really low one second burst mass, so to effectively damage an opponent you need to constantly lead correctly, which is not always possible. Therefore, the He 51 can only perform dogfights with other biplanes, and ground pounding. Bring at least 30 minutes of fuel for prolonged patrolling and fighting, and set the convergence to around 300 m.

For dogfighting, it is crucial to know what the target is. If the opponent is a biplane, combine your turn rate, combat/takeoff flaps and decent climb rate to gradually get an advantage and get onto its tail. Now you want to be more careful to not lose track of it as your upper wing is very annoying. Smooth the aim to extend your firing window as much as possible, to utilise the great rate of fire and avoid the low burst mass. Most biplanes cannot survive too many hits. However if it is a monoplane, try to lure it into a turnfight. If an energy fighter (e.g. Yak-1) uses BnZ tactic on you, do what you do in Arcade/Realistic: roll to one side and pull under it to avoid the dive and to dodge under its belly. Now average Sim players tend to struggle to trace you, if not immediately losing track of you. Repeat this until they lose patience and start to turn with you. However, if you see a plane with an I-15's short and fat fuselage, a flat radial engine and triangular stabilisers located right after the low-mounted mono wings, consider disengaging. The I-16 is faster than you, turns equally well and can cripple your fragile He 51 even with 2 x MGs. If an I-16 is on your tail, a tactic to counter it is to utilise your stableness. Deflect both your ailerons and elevators for around 70% to get into a barrel roll. If the I-16 is to follow and cut inside your roll, it is super likely to enter a flatspin due to its instability in manoeuvres. Perform the barrel roll tighter and tighter until the I-16 loses control and spins, then turn around and shoot. Or, do simple flat turns but turn tightly, a tight-turning I-16 is also prone to enter flatspins, however this is at risk of getting shot before it loses control.

For ground pounding with bombs, your targets are trucks, AAA and howitzers, since the small bombs cannot effectively destroy harder targets. Due to the small blast radius and varying bomb-dropping skills of individuals, you might use up all 6 bombs on one target. Dive at the target at a rather shallow angle, and release the bombs when the target fills out half of the gunsight, with the gunsight right above it. This seems dangerously close but it is better to get close to drop accurately, the He 51 is able to pull up quickly. Your targets remain the same when only using the MGs. First you need some separation between you and the target so you have enough time to stabilise the plane. The He 51 can get quite wobbly. Dive at it and first stabilise the plane so the gunsight stays overall still at the target. Then, once the target fills out around 1/6 of the gunsight, open fire. If your aim is accurate you can destroy one target in a single pass. However, each MG only has 500 rounds and their rate of fire is pretty fast, so control the trigger to save some ammo for any unexpected dogfights.

Landing is easy thanks to the low stall speed and lovely handling. Line up and approach the airstrip at treetop, decrease speed to at most 200 km/h and deploy combat, takeoff and landing flaps in order. The touchdown speed should be no more than 140 km/h to avoid bouncing up. Release brakes immediately as soon as the nose starts dipping down to avoid propeller strike.

Enemies worth noting

• Su-2 (Family): given your weak firepower, even an average attacker will appear to be super robust. The Su-2 has tough airframes that will not easily get damaged by your MGs and a rear facing, rapid-firing ShKAS that can easily cripple you. Think twice before engaging. Its appearance is quite common, the most noticeable features can be the cockpit & turret that roughly resemble a TBF's, a protruding chin, olive green camo and a large and tipped spinner.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Not controllable Not auto controlled	Controllable Not auto controlled	Combined	Not controllable 1 gear	Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Very manoeuvrable
• Bomb load option allows for ground attack
• Often underestimated by enemy pilots, allowing you to take them by surprise
• Improved fuel capacity over predecessors
• Good speed by biplane standards
• Has floats, can capture the base in Naval battles

Cons:

• Susceptible to tracer fire, fabric-covered and non-sealing fuel tanks
• Slow in comparison to other low rank aircraft
• Open exposed cockpit
• Carrying bombs reduce roll rate speed
• Poor forward visibility (Simulator battles)
• Has a tendency to tip over while landing at a speed higher than 120 km/h.

History

History and development

In the early 1930s, the most advanced biplane aircraft in Germany was the Arado Ar 65, though it was quickly becoming obsolete. The German Luftwaffe, operating in secrecy against resolutions set after World War I, did not want to fall behind in technology. Though military aircraft and vehicles could not be built, trainer and transport aircraft were designed and built but had a hidden dual purpose which would allow them to easily be converted into fighters and bombers. Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was one such aircraft manufacturer which was designing what was to be the Ar 65's replacement. Günter brothers, Walter and Siegfried were the lead designers on a new biplane design in 1931 which labelled as an "advanced trainer", would easily be converted into a fighter when necessary. Early prototypes were designated He 49 with several variants resultant of modifications and upgrades performed to address shortcomings found during testing.

In 1933, the Luftwaffe ordered the He 49 (now designated He 51) into pre-production. The design of the aircraft is relatively simple, all-metal frame construction with a fabric covering. Like many early aircraft, it was powered by a v-12 engine, this one a glycol-cooled (ram air radiator) BMW VI engine and two 7.92 mm machine guns mounted in the upper fuselage/cowl of the aircraft allowing the pilot to point the aircraft where he wanted to shoot and then fire without having to make any considerations for convergence, with the exception of bullet drop over longer distances, however, when fired up close, the guns did considerable damage.

By the time the aircraft was rolling off the production lines in 1935, the He 51 A was already considered outdated which goes to show how fast technology was developing during these years. Modifications were made to the aircraft and the next in line production variant the He 51 B was produced in greater numbers and enjoyed early air superiority in the Spanish Civil War, only until modern Soviet fighters and bombers showed up.

Seeing that the He 51 B was no longer a capable fighter even as a short stint as a night fighter, it was quickly modified and the final production variant, the He 51 C rolled out as a dedicated ground-attack variant. The He 51 C was a very capable ground-attack fighter, coupled with its extreme manoeuvrability and slow loiter speed, the aircraft could attack a ground target and within a few seconds could have the plane turned around and be attacking again before any ground defences had the chance to regroup and retaliate. Towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, losses of the He 51 were starting to mount up as anti-air technology was catching up and more and more of the slower biplane were picked off from ground weapons.

It was during this time when World War I ace pilot Wolfram von Richthofen flew the He 51 in a ground attack role, through this process, he refined and honed his skills as a close support fighter. The tactics he learned through trial and error became invaluable later on during World War II when as a Field Marshal, he passed on these tactics and how to effectively dive bomb with aircraft. Though only 55 aircraft survived front-line service through 1938, they continued to be of use through the first few years of World War II as the aircraft they were originally designed to be, advanced trainers.

In-game description

Heinkel He 51 B-2 single-engine floatplane fighter

In March 1935, Germany officially refused to comply with the Treaty of Versailles clause that restricted the country's military power. And although June 18, 1935 saw the signing of a naval treaty between Germany and Great Britain which stated that the number of Kriegsmarine ships could not exceed 35% of the Royal Navy's combined strength, the path to the German fleet's quick growth was open. An adequate buildup of naval aviation was immediately required. So, E. Heinkel's suggestion to create a floatplane fighter based on the He 51 was received with favour at the Kriegsmarine Headquarters. It was planned that, if necessary, seaplane tenders could be equipped with such fighters to provide air cover for Kriegsmarine ships at sea and at unfitted anchoring positions.

The Heinkel Flugzeugwerke designers had already laid considerable groundwork for the He 49 V2 floatplane fighter, so the He 51's assembly progressed very quickly. The second prototype fighter was mounted on two single-step, all-metal floats and was designated the He 51w. One production He 51 A-1 fighter was converted into the second prototype He 51 floatplane. After it was equipped with floats, it was designated the He 51 A-2. Its armament and airborne equipment were similar to the land version.

The floatplane fighter passed its tests quickly and showed no problems. The Heinkel company received an order for eight hydroplanes, and a second order for 30 machines followed. By that time, only aircraft of the "B" version were being released, so production floatplane fighters came to be designated as He 51 B-2. Planes of this variant were equipped with underwing bomb racks to suspend six 10 kg fragmentation bombs.

1.Ku.J.St./136, the only Navy fighter squadron that still had a dozen rather obsolete HD 38d aircraft in service, was rearmed with He 51 B-2s in the first half of 1936 and expanded into the I./JG136 Fighter Wing, comprising three squadrons. A combined total of 38 He 51B-2 floatplane fighters entered service with the 1st and 2nd squadrons of Coastal Fighter Group (Kustenjagdgruppe) 136, based in Kiel-Holtenau and Jever.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the He 51 B-2/H from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #214 - Air Triathlon section at 09:59 discusses the He 51 B-2/H.

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Polikarpov I-15
• Gloster Gladiator
• Kawasaki Ki-10
• Fiat CR.32

External links

• Official data sheet - more details about the performance