Junkers Ju 88 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ju 88
A Ju 88A over France in 1942.
Role	Tactical / dive / torpedo bomber Night / heavy fighter Reconnaissance aircraft
Manufacturer	Junkers
Designer	Ernst Zindel, W. H. Evers, and Alfred Gassner
First flight	21 December 1936
Introduction	1939
Retired	1951 (France)
Primary user	Luftwaffe
Number built	15,183
Variants	Junkers Ju 188

The Junkers Ju 88 was a German World War II Luftwaffe twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called Schnellbomber (fast bomber) that would be too fast for fighters of its era to intercept. It suffered from a number of technical problems during its development and early operational periods but became one of the most versatile combat aircraft of the war.

Like a number of other Luftwaffe bombers, it served as a bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, heavy fighter and at the end of the war, as a flying bomb.

Despite protracted development, it became one of the Luftwaffe's most important aircraft. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants, more than any other twin-engine German aircraft of the period. Throughout production the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged.

It was used for the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain.

Design and development

Junkers Ju-88, operator Germany Air Force. Located at Moscow, Russia

In August 1935, the German Ministry of Aviation submitted its requirements for an unarmed, three-seat, high-speed bomber with a payload of 800–1,000 kg (1,760–2,200 lb). Design of the Ju-88 began with a study which evolved into two parallel designs, Ju-85 and Ju-88. The Ju 85 was a twin-engined bomber aircraft prototype, designed by Junkers in 1935. The Ministry of Aviation requested the aircraft, which differed from the Ju 88 due to the use of a twin fin tail unit. The aircraft was never put into service.

The aircraft's first flight was made by the prototype Ju 88 V1, which bore the civil registration D-AQEN, on 21 December 1936. When it first flew, it managed about 580 km/h (360 mph) and Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe was ecstatic. It was an aircraft that could finally fulfill the promise of the Schnellbomber, a high-speed bomber.

Production was delayed drastically by developmental problems. Although planned for a service introduction in 1938, the Ju 88 finally entered squadron service (with only 12 aircraft) on the first day of the invasion of Poland in 1939. Production was painfully slow, with only one Ju 88 manufactured per week, as problems continually kept cropping up. The Ju 88C series of heavy fighter was also designed very early in 1940, but kept secret from Göring, as he only wanted bombers.

Images for kids

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  Standard Ju 88 main landing gear installation, from the V6 prototype onwards

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  Annular radiator on a wrecked Ju 88

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  Ju 88 assembly line, 1941

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  Three Ju 88s in flight over Astypalaia, Greece, 1943

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  Ju 88 preparing for take off, Tunisia, c. 1942–43

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  Ju 88C series heavy fighter in flight

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  The Matratze 32-dipole antenna for the Lichtenstein UHF radar

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  Ju 88 R-1 night fighter captured by British forces at Copenhagen-Kastrup airfield, May 1945

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  A British-captured Ju 88 G-6 night fighter equipped with the FuG 240 Berlin cavity magnetron radar, with smooth radome nose

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  Junkers Ju 88A-1 of the Stab/KG 51, June 1940

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  Ju 88A, circa 1940

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  A Junkers 88 A-1, of Kampfgeschwader 51 with its crew (1940)

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  Ju 88A of LG 1 over the Eastern Front, 25 September 1941

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  Finnish Air Force Junkers Ju 88 A-4. The FAF aircraft code for Ju 88 was JK.

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  Ju 88 cockpit hood preserved at the Finnish Aviation Museum in Vantaa

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  Ju-88D (tropicalized) at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

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  A captured Junkers Ju 88A-5, RAF serial HM509, of No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft Circus) Flight based at Collyweston, Northamptonshire, in flight

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  Ju 88 heavy fighters parked beside a Reichsautobahn used as a highway strip, early 1945

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  Junkers Ju 88 D-1 trop, "Baksheesh", USAF Museum (2007)

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  Ju 88 R-1, Werk Nr. 360043, RAF Museum (2007)

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  Werk Nr. 0880119 undergoing restoration at Gardermoen, Norway, August 2013

See also

In Spanish: Junkers Ju 88 para niños