Junkers Ju 287
| Ju 287 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Role | Bomber prototype |
| Manufacturer | Junkers |
| Designer | Philipp von Doepp |
| First flight | 8 August 1944 |
| Number built | 2 |
| Variants | OKB-1 EF 131 |
| Developed into | OKB-1 140 |
The Junkers Ju 287 was an aerodynamic testbed built in Nazi Germany to develop the technology required for a multi-engine jet bomber. It was powered by four Junkers Jumo 004 engines, featured a revolutionary forward-swept wing, and apart from the wing was assembled largely from components scavenged from other aircraft. It was one of the very few jet propelled aircraft ever built with a fixed landing gear.
The unfinished second and third prototypes, which far more accurately reflected the design of the eventual production bomber, were captured by the Red Army in the closing stages of World War II and the design was further developed in the Soviet Union after the end of the war.
The Ju 287 was intended to provide the Luftwaffe with a bomber that could avoid interception by outrunning enemy fighters. The swept-forward wing was suggested by the project's head designer, Dr. Hans Wocke as a way of providing extra lift at low airspeeds - necessary because of the poor responsiveness of early turbojets at the vulnerable times of takeoff and landing. A further structural advantage of the forward-swept wing was that it would allow for a single massive weapons bay forward of the main wing spar. Prior to the assembly of the first Ju 287, an He 177 A-5 (designated as a 177 prototype, V38) was modified at the Letov plant in Prague to examine the technical characteristics of this single large bomb bay design.
The first prototype was intended to evaluate the concept, and was assembled from the fuselage of an He 177 A-5, the tail of a Ju 388, main undercarriage from a Ju 352, and nosewheels taken from crashed B-24 Liberators, all of which were fixed to lower weight and complexity, and equipped with spats to reduce drag. Two of the Jumo 004 engines were hung in nacelles (pods) under the wings, with the other two mounted in nacelles added to the sides of the forward fuselage.
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Wikipedia