Heinkel's He-100 is a relatively unknown aircraft, despite the fact that it twice held the worlds absolute speed record. The airplane was a private venture by Ernst Heinkel to capture the air speed record and to hopefully have a fighter that the Luftwaffe would consider buying. 

Like Messerschmitt's Me-209v1, the He-100 record aircraft was built strictly for the speed record however, it was much closer to a production-type aircraft than the diminutive and treacherous Me-209v1. After a short see-saw battle with the -209, Heinkel was told to stop and let Messerschmitt have the record. Most of the prototype aircraft were later sold to the Russians and a few to Japan as well where they were used to study aeronautical advancements. The author suggests that much of the He-100 was copied by these two countries and used in upcoming aircraft, however I find that to be a bit of a stretch. 

The author states that a total of 23 aircraft were produced, including the prototypes. Those that were not sold were used as part of the Heinkel factory protection flight and as test aircraft. However, the greatest use was as a 'propaganda' figher. 

Those few built to production standards were painted in various unit markings and photographed extensively. These photos were then published in German aviation magazines, all touting the new He-113, an aircraft that did not exist as such. So successful was the campaign that many British fighter pilots reported not only seeing the aircraft in combat, but also claiming a number of them as victories. To all knowledge, the He-100 was neither a victor or victim in any aerial combat.

Now on to the book itself. It is in the 'in Action' format, but without any profile paintings. Most of the photographs in the book have been seen by the reviewer in a number of other publications, however, there were some that were new to me. Most of them are well reproduced and clear.

The history section as such is not that large and basically only covers the prototype aircraft. The author gives a good accounting of the history of each prototype and its ultimate fate. That is where the historical section stops. The rest of the book is photographs. As a note, the font used in the historical section is quite small and would benefit from being larger. Considering that there is some 'white space' in the book, it would be a great help to have larger type.

If you have an interest in the type and no other references, then I can highly recommend this book. There is much in it that is helpful not only to the historically interested, but to the modeler as well.

Review sample courtesy of Drew Nix. Thanks for the loan.

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