Sunday, October 20, 2013

Model Laboratory No.2

Considering the fact that 16000 units with tens of variants were built of this plane; its basic structure never suffered radical changes, which proves the overall quality of the original design. However, at first the number of different uses this plane was eventually put to was never a factor taken into consideration, because the German Air Ministry (RLM) was never too confident with the success of this project, and commanded instead a fast bombardier able to carry a war load of 1800kg and to be able to reach a speed of 500km/h... almost the same speed that the newly born Hawker
Hurricane plane made. Three projects were proposed: The Henschel Hs 127, the Messerschmitt Bf 162 and the Ju 88. The first two were rejected for a number of reasons, and the Junkers followed through. Its first prototype the Ju 88 VI, crashed when performing a high speed test, but nevertheless having proven its correct design. Later prototypes got motor adjustments, cabin, weapons, etc. until the right configuration was found. In 1939 the Ju 88 was finally revealed to the world, after having kept it a secret to the British Secret Services for three years. Ernst Zindel was the engineer who took all the credit for it, but two American engineers' expert in the field of paneling worked on the project as well.

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