03/31/2013. During the course of attempts to produce effective supercharged engines for flight at extreme altitudes, a scheme was proposed known as the Höhen-Zentrale or HZ-Anlage, this comprising two normal 1,750 hp Daimler-Benz 603B twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled engines for propulsion and these being supplied with supercharged air by a 1,475 hp Daimler-Benz 605T engine located in the fuselage amidships and driving an enormous blower.

Such was the promise of this scheme that, in 1941, the Henschel team was ordered to redesign the Hs 130 A to take the HZ-Anlage, this development receiving the designation Hs 130 E. The initial project was designated Hs P.80 and was similar in size to the Hs 130 A-06, but early design work led to the lengthening of the fuselage and the provision of a high aspect ratio wing.

The Hs 130 E V1 first flew in September 1942, the V2 following two months later. For the initial flights neither prototype was fitted with the HZ-Anlage system, but during subsequent tests altitudes of up to 49,213 ft (15,000 m) were achieved. The Hs 130 E V2 was lost during its seventh flight, because of an engine fire, but was quickly replaced by the Hs 130 E V3.

Results were so encouraging that the RLM placed an order for one hundred Hs 130 E-1 production aircraft during the spring of 1943. The first of seven
Hs 130 E-0 pre-production aircraft flew in May 1943, but shortly afterwards the RLM reduced the production order to 30 and then, mainly because of unreliability and high fuel consumption of the HZ-Anlage system, abandoned the design altogether.