Bomber
Bomber
History:
In late 1942 the RML placed an order with Junkers for a four engined jet powered
bomber. Designed by Hans Wocke who after extensive wind tunnel testing, elected
for a forward swept wing design to improve the sub sonic performance, the V1
was made to test out this new lay out in real life. The aeroplane was constructed
from various different types of aircraft, the undercarriage from a B-24 Liberator,
forward and rear fuselage of an He 177, and the tail from a Ju 188, the only
new parts being the wings and center fuselage and powered by four Junkers Jumo
004 engines. It made it's first flight on the 16/8/1944 and after 17 test flights
proved the concept to have excellent handling at all speeds, the second prototype
V2 had a new fuselage, cockpit and undercarriage, powered by six BMW 003 engines
two under each wing and one each side of the cockpit. When the Soviets occupied
Dessau the V2 was near to being finished, also there were the all components
for the V3 and a number of other aircraft.
|
The Soviet administration gave approval for continued development, after the factory was rebuilt work started on the Ju 287 again. Now called the EF 131 a large amount of developmental work was done and the aircraft was ready to fly in the summer of 1946. At this point the aircraft, it's German team with flight crew etc, were shipped to Podberez near Moscow soon after followed by the whole factories contents. In the winter of 1946/47 the EF 131 (Ju 287) took to the air with a German flight crew! The final tail in this story is the EF 140R a high speed reconnaissance aircraft based on the EF 131 designed and made by the Junkers team in 1949 powered by 2x Mikulin AM-2 turbojets. |
Specifications for EF 140R
|
|
