DISCONTINUED Special Hobby 72100 Mavage Heja II

The Italian Re-2000 "Falco" fighter, constructed at the end of the 1930s, initially did not attract the attention of the Regia Aeronautica and was produced almost exclusively for export. Several countries were interested in buying the plane, incl. Finland, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary, and even ... Great Britain. Ultimately, the Italians concluded contracts for the supply of these fighters with Sweden and Hungary. At the end of December 1939. the Hungarian military mission purchased 70 Re-2000 fighters in Italy and started negotiations on the purchase of license production rights. The Italian planes were given the Hungarian name "Héja" (Falcon). Deliveries from Italy started in the spring of 1940, but to the disappointment of the Hungarians, the progress was extremely slow. The first copy of "Heja" was delivered to Hungary only on May 21, 1940, and by the end of 1940 only 7 copies were delivered to the country. Until June 21, 1941. in Hungary there were 48 machines in total, and by the end of this year - 57. The remaining 13 machines were to arrive in Hungary in 1942, but the last of them finally reached the recipient only on May 29, 1943. The license Re-2000 was named "Héja" II in Hungary. They differed from the Italian originals by a few modifications visible from the outside: they were slightly longer, the engine cover was smaller in diameter, side windows were mounted in the fuselage hump behind the pilot's cabin, the radio antenna on the fuselage and the carburetor air inlet on the engine cover were removed and moved to the rear under-fuselage air inlet to the oil cooler, an additional self-sealing fuel tank with a capacity of 100 liters was installed in the fuselage, and the pilot's seat was covered with 8 mm thick armor plates. Contrary to the Re-2000, the propeller in "Héja" II lacked a hubcap. Finally, the Hungarian machines were armed with 12.7 mm machine guns in place of the Italian Breda-SAFAT. They had drum ammo racks, which led to the appearance of bulbous covers on the spine of the fuselage in front of the windbreak. Hungarian MÁVAG "Héja" II fighters took part in air combat only once, when on April 13, 1944. Eight aircraft of this type, belonging to 1/2 Fighter Squadron from Szolnók base, attacked, along with other MKHL fighters, a large formation of 567 bombers from the 15th Air Force USAAF escorted by 228 P-38 "Lightning" fighters from the 1st Fighter Group, bombing targets in Budapest , Brod and Gyor. Of this group, two planes were reported to have been shot down by American P-38 fighters, but in fact the "Lightning" only slightly damaged one Hungarian fighter, and two more were damaged by bomber gunners from the 454th Bomb Group (one of which had to forcibly land) . The four "Héja" IIs failed to catch up with the bombers, but clashed with the P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighters of the 325th Fighter Group. American pilots shot down one plane and damaged the other. There were no successes on the Hungarian side. From then on, the "Heja" II fighters were directed almost exclusively to training tasks, and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109G fighters took over the burden of Hungarian air defense. Two examples of "Heja" II were also tested in 1943-1945 as light dive bombers, which was postulated by the Hungarian Ministry of Defense in 1941. They received electrically opened air brakes on the lower surface of the wings, a bombing sight in a diving flight and two bomb hooks under the wings (between the main landing gear chambers and aerodynamic brakes) for bombs weighing 250 kg or one hook under the fuselage for a bomb with a maximum mass of up to 500 kg. Later, the third "Heja" II was also adapted to the role of a dive bomber - none of the "Heja" II bombs were ever used operationally. Technical data: length: 8.39 m, wingspan: 11 m, height: 3.1 m, maximum speed: 485 km / h, maximum range: 900 km, maximum ceiling 8100 m, armament: fixed - two 12.7 mm machine guns.