CASA 2111 'Pedro', the story of the last bomber of the Spanish military aviation

Bombers have been a very relevant and prominent type of aircraft in the history of military aviation, up to the present day.

The new life of a Spanish HA-1112 Buchón fighter converted into a German Bf-109G
The HA-1112 Buchón fighter on display at a Michigan museum with its Spanish roundels

Invented in World War I, the golden age of bombers was World War II, when it became the aircraft par excellence for carrying out strategic attack missions. Today, only a few countries still have bombers in their air forces. In the case of the Spanish Air Force, the last bomber went out of service 51 years ago.

During the Spanish Civil War, the National side received some German Heinkel He-111 bombers, a medium bomber equipped with two inline propeller engines. In 1940, already at the beginning of the Second World War, the Spanish aeronautical company CASA signed an agreement with Heinkel to manufacture 200 He-111s under license for Spain, which would be called CASA 2111, being popularly known in the Spanish Air Force as "Pedro".

Due to the war, initially only 130 CASA 2111As were built with Junkers Jumo 211F-2 engines. In 1956, Spain purchased 173 Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-20 engines from the United Kingdom to equip the 70 CASA 2111s that had been stored due to a lack of engines, and also for the Hispano Aviación HA-1112 Buchón fighters (the Spanish version of the German Bf-109). Paradoxically, the Spanish version of the He-111 ended up using the same engines used by very famous British aircraft, such as the Supermarine Spitfire, the Avro Lancaster and the De Havilland Mosquito.

Like the He-111, the CASA 2111 was a fast bomber, capable of reaching a maximum speed of 440 km/h and with a range of 1,950 km. The CASA 2111 had several versions: the 2111A bomber, the 2111C reconnaissance aircraft and the 2111F training aircraft, all of them with Jumo engines. In addition, aircraft with Merlin engines were the 2111B bomber, the 2111D reconnaissance aircraft and the 2111E passenger aircraft. The CASA 2111 bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were in service until 1974, and the 2111E passenger aircraft were withdrawn from service a few years later. Thus, the CASA 2111 was the last Spanish bomber.

A total of 236 CASA 2111s were built, including all variants. Today only 14 survive, of which none are still airworthy, unfortunately. As a curiosity, some of the CASA 2111s were used in the film "Battle of Britain" (1969), in which Spanish HA-1112 fighters also took the role of German Bf-109s, and in several scenes in the film "Patton" (1970) .

This Friday, Fly By Wire Aviation has published an interesting video showing this CASA 2111B (the T.8B-97, 462-04), the bomber version with Merlin engines, preserved at the Cuatro Vientos Air Museum in Madrid:

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Main photo: Elentir. The CASA 2111 T.8B-97 (462-04) preserved at the Cuatro Vientos Air Museum, in Madrid, in a photo taken in 2011.