Junkers Ju 88 – Schnellbomber of the Luftwaffe


Junkers Ju-88 Luftwaffe fast bomber
Junkers Ju-88, the Luftwaffe’s fast bomber on display at Technik Museum Sinsheim in Germany – photo 2019

During World War Two the twin-engined Junkers Ju 88 would develop into the Luftwaffe’s most important multirole combat aircraft. The aircraft was designed as a so-called Schnellbomber (Eng “fast bomber”) in the idea that it would be too fast for the fighters of it’s time. Although initially its development and early operations were plagued by technical problems, once those were dealt with the Junkers Ju 88 became one of the most versatile combat aircraft of WW2. It served as a bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance plane, heavy fighter and was even transformed into a flying bomb at the end of the war. Between 1936 and 1945 more than 15,000 Ju 88s in different variants rolled off the assembly line.

Ju 88-A5

This Junkers Ju 88-A5 is only partly original. It was salvaged in 1986 from lake Toernetraesk in Sweden where it had made an emergency landing on the ice in the spring of 1945 and sunk when this melted. The aircrafts nose, cockpit en parts of the wings and fuselage have been reconstructed in a simplified way.

Junkers Ju-88 Luftwaffe fast bomber
Junkers Ju-88 Luftwaffe fast bomber at Technik Museum Sinsheim in Germany – photo 2019
Junkers Ju 88 Tail rudder
Junkers Ju 88 close up of tail rudder – photo 2019
Junkers Ju 88 Tail
Junkers Ju 88 Tail – photo 2019
Junkers Ju 88 Tail
Junkers Ju 88 Tail – photo 2019
Junkers Ju 88 cockpit
Junkers Ju 88 reconstructed cockpit – photo 2019

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