Design
Designed by the Günter brothers, the He 118 followed many of the design notes of the Günter's designs of the era, notably the elliptical wing planform and rounded tail surfaces. The He was, in many ways, an aluminum version of the mixed-construction Heinkel He 70 Blitz, suitably strengthened for the dive bomber role.
It was a conventional cantilever monoplane with an inverted gull wing of elliptical planform mounted mid-way up the fuselage. It was considerably more streamlined than the Junkers competitor, with retractable landing gear and an internal bay for its bombs.
The design was intended to fill a role similar to an attack bomber like the Henschel Hs 123 rather than the pure dive bomber like the Stuka. It was intended to bomb from a shallow angle, more properly known as "glide bombing", with the second crew member acting as the bomb aimer using a bombsight.
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