What is this early 30s German monoplane?

I stand corrected.  Thank you for putting me right. Should have looked harder at the url before putting fingers to keyboard.

There are a large number of Flight magazines available on archive.org, viscount. Only up to and including 1934 but, as AA says, it is better than nothing. If using the Search box make sure to select the “text contents” button underneath it.

Archive.org link to Flight magazines here – https://archive.org/details/Flight_International_Magazine?tab=collection

By: viscount – 30th December 2021 at 12:03 – Edited 30th December 2021 at 13:00

As a final comment, I was quite surprised when ‘Moth Minor’ provided a link to the “Flight International” archive.  I know that the withdrawal of the archive received much negative comment here, must have missed the announcement that it was back up and running again.

Whilst I stand to be corrected, I don’t think that the hyperlink provided by MM is to the FlightGlobal Archive (as was). That used to be accessed via the www.flightglobal.com website. Using the hyperlink which was effective before the archive went offline now produces only a ‘page not found’ message. Thus I assume that that the site to which MM’s hyperlink takes one is independent of the official website. But whatever, something is better than nothing because I perceive, from my correspondence with FlightGlobal, that the archive is unlikely to be re-instated online (at least not for other than paying customers).

Hi All,

Right then we now know what the aircraft is and more than likely what it was doing at Hooten Park, well here is a web site (You will need to click icon for English language) full of facts,figures,articles and imagery all about the Heinkel 64:- https://he64.com/?lang=en&site=The%20Plane

This web site contains all the info you’ll need to know about the Aircraft, The Designer,Variants etc.etc.etc. plenty to read through for you all.

Geoff.

Beyond my current PC skills, but I have been forwarded a screen shot from the film to share, showing the aircraft that required identification that sparked the thread.  Looking at the image, the tall water tower beyond is at the Bowaters Plant (now gone) that has been used as a location identifier for other Hooton Park photos.

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I’ve been examining both the Flight International and the film links again, much more closely. 

The ‘Flight International’ link has two articles regarding events at Hooton Park on Saturday 3rd September 1932.  The first is an International Touring Competition “Weekend Aerien”, flying to various airfields around Britain with an overnight stop at Hooton, with accommodation and celebration in central Liverpool.  ‘Flight’ provides a good list the aircraft involved, which includes the 3 Heinkel He-64s: D-3201, D-3202, D-3204.

The other event was a Liverpool to Manchester Air Race, Hooton Park to Barton and back, described in some detail and with a list of the 15 competitors flying Moths, Comper Swifts or Avians.  The text mentions that Comper Swift G-AAZF was entered by Lewis’s Store, Liverpool (with another by Lewis’s Manchester) and there is a clear clip of G-AAZF race number 42 with “Lewis’s” in as large letters as it was possible to get on the side of a diminutive Swift.  

Close examination of the film using ‘pause’ permits at least 7 aircraft registrations to be clearly read off, and all are listed as entrants in the Air Race.  So the place, date and events are clearly Hooton Park Aerodrome, Saturday 3rd September 1932.  Although the film doesn’t appear to show aircraft from the Weekend Aerien and Air Race in the same shot (they may well have been parked separately) I am more than happy that all the OP questions, the what, when, where and why have been fully answered.  Thank you Avion Ancien and Moth Minor, your expertise is valued and a successful outcome for the now much quieter Forum, glad we all stayed with it.

As a final comment, I was quite surprised when ‘Moth Minor’ provided a link to the “Flight International” archive.  I know that the withdrawal of the archive received much negative comment here, must have missed the announcement that it was back up and running again.

Right, let’s go back to what it is – rather than which one it is!

Looking further, all the aircraft which participated in the International Touring Competition of 1932 seem to have carried a striped-tail scheme.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Challenge1932_Frenc…

I hate to tell you this, AA, but I think they all had that scheme!

If you look at the photos on the He64 website (yes, there is a dedicated site for the type)…. https://he64.com/?lang=en&site=Gallery

Crikey, MM, I hadn’t realised that the German Heinkel pilots had come over mobhanded in 1932! I simply put two and two together and may have made five. It now seems that it could just as easily have been have been D-2301, D-2302 or D-2304 as D-2305, the example which subsequently found its way onto the UK civil register. I suppose the only way to narrow the field would be to seek out photos of the other three to see if any of those better matches the colour scheme of the Heinkel in the film – and hope that they didn’t all carry that same distinctive colour scheme as D-2305.

What is of note is that the Heinkel in the film does not have the long undercarriage legs that are seen in photos of G-ACBS/VP-YBI – but that may have been because they were fitted subsequently in connection with the slot and flap research for which it was used by Handley Page.

I wonder if the Heinkel is one of those which featured in the “Weekend Aerien” referred to in Flight magazine of 9th September 1932. Several took part in the event which included a visit to Hooton – D-2301; 2302 and 2304 are mentioned. There is a photo of the Heinkel pilots being greeted at Hooton Park.

https://archive.org/details/Flight_International_Magazine_1932-09-09-pd…

Many thanks “Avion Ancien” for some interesting detail and background, so it is an early Heinkel, didn’t expect that.   The Speke (Liverpool) Airport opening day air display was 1st July 1933 images of which have been cut into by those of a different display.  A 1932/1933 date for D-2305 certainly fits the context of the film, although the trees in the background are in full leaf, so it is during summer, which does slightly confuse a specific date.  Other events on the film such as the opening of the Mersey Tunnel were in July 1934, while I am told that the identifiable steam train, 5608 is LNWR Prince of Wales 4-6-0 ‘Wolverine’; and withdrawn in 1935, 

I am also advised directly by a non-member of the ‘FlyPast’ forum, that the location most certainly is Hooton Park on the Wirral.  The WWI hangars still exist, one of them now housing the TAC Avian G-EBZM and a few other of the aircraft recently evicted from MoSI, Manchester.  Also the Comper Swift, of which there are a number on the film were constructed there. 

‘British Civil Aircraft Registers 1919 – 1999’ gives the UK registration date of G-ACBS as December 1932. I do not know if it took up those marks immediately on their allocation by the Air Ministry or whether it arrived in the UK before December 1932. Maybe it’s worth taking a closer look at the film to see if the relevant sequence betrays the time of year when it was taken?

I think that it is a Heinkel He. 64C, more specifically D-2305 which became G-ACBS. It was imported by the Air Council in December 1932 and allocated to Handley Page for slot and flap research. In July 1933 it became K3596 when it was transferred to the RAE at Farnborough. In September 1935 it was restored to the UK civil register by Flt/Lt. A.H. Paddon. In January 1937 it was flown to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where it survived until being scrapped in 1952.

I can’t help with the ‘where’ or the ‘why’. But as to the ‘when’, presumably it was between December 1932 and July 1933. I’d hazard a guess that it was nearer the earlier date than the latter. Unfortunately the relevant sheet is missing from the CAA records (q.v. G-INFO) and so I don’t know exactly when it was registered as G-ACBS. Nor do I know when it arrived in the UK, the delivery flight presumably being made with the German registration mark D-2305.

[Primary source: A.J.Jackson, ‘British Civil Aircraft’, vol. 3, p.266]