(Junkers) Ju 388 @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Junkers Ju 388 L-1 Junkers Ju 388 L-1
    Junkers Ju 388 L-1
  • Ju 388 L-1 (W.Nr. 560049, FE-4010), Wright Field (1946) Ju 388 L-1 (W.Nr. 560049, FE-4010), Wright Field (1946)
    Ju 388 L-1 (W.Nr. 560049, FE-4010), Wright Field (1946)
  • Victory display, Wright Field (1946) Victory display, Wright Field (1946)
    Victory display, Wright Field (1946)
  • Captured Ju 388 L-1 V6 (PE+IF), Farnborough (1945) Captured Ju 388 L-1 V6 (PE+IF), Farnborough (1945)
    Captured Ju 388 L-1 V6 (PE+IF), Farnborough (1945)
  • W.Nr. 560049, now with the Smithsonian W.Nr. 560049, now with the Smithsonian
    W.Nr. 560049, now with the Smithsonian
  • BMW 801 J engine and<br>four-blade VDM propeller BMW 801 J engine and<br>four-blade VDM propeller
    BMW 801 J engine and
    four-blade VDM propeller
  • Leipzig-Mockau (April 1945) Leipzig-Mockau (April 1945)
    Leipzig-Mockau (April 1945)

Junkers Ju 388 Störtebeker

The Junkers Ju 388 Störtebeker was a German multi-role aircraft of the Second World War, derived from the Junkers Ju 88 by way of the Junkers Ju 188. It differed from its predecessors in being designed for operations at very high altitude, with a pressurised cockpit for its crew. Planned as a heavy fighter and night fighter (Ju 388 J), a high-altitude bomber (Ju 388 K) and a photo-reconnaissance aircraft (Ju 388 L), it was introduced very late in the war, and production problems together with the deteriorating situation of Germany meant that only about a hundred were built. Its name refers to Klaus Störtebeker, a famous German pirate of the late 14th century.

Background

The Ju 388 was born largely of German concern about the Allies' fast, high-altitude heavy bombers. The Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), the German Air Ministry, first learned of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress in late 1942, and serious worries about its capabilities grew in early 1944. An American German-language propaganda leaflet dated 29 February 1944 hinted at the new bomber, and on 11 March 1944 the YB-29 "Hobo Queen" made a highly publicised appearance in England. German estimates gave the B-29 a cruising speed of about 360 km/h at 8,000 to 10,000 m, an altitude at which no Luftwaffe aircraft was really effective and which only the rarely deployed 12.8 cm FlaK 40 anti-aircraft gun could reach.

To counter this threat, the Luftwaffe needed new day fighters and bomber destroyers with much better performance at extreme altitude. The Focke-Wulf Ta 152H was chosen as the single-seat high-altitude fighter, with the Messerschmitt Me 155B and the Dornier Do 335 as alternatives. The twin-engined Focke-Wulf Ta 154 and Heinkel He 219 lacked the wing needed for very high altitude, and the high-altitude Ju 88 S and T versions did not have the required performance either. Junkers had, however, been studying high-altitude versions of the Ju 188, projected as the Ju 188 J, K and L. These were selected for development and renamed Ju 388.

Design and development

The Ju 388 kept the general layout of the Ju 188, but received a pressurised, stepless cockpit enclosing the whole nose with fewer glazed panels than the Ju 188, as well as de-icing equipment for the wings and elevators for long flights at very high altitude. According to the Smithsonian, its design was led by Bernhard Cruse, who had already developed the Ju 188.

To improve performance, almost all defensive armament was removed. The manually operated guns around the cockpit of the Ju 88 were replaced by a single remote-controlled tail barbette (Hecklafette) carrying two 13 mm MG 131 machine guns, aimed by the crew through a periscope sight from the cockpit. As this turret had an excellent field of fire directly to the rear, the ventral "Bola" gondola under the nose of the Ju 88 and Ju 188 was omitted, which improved the aerodynamics.

The aircraft was to be built in three versions, the J, K and L, each to be offered with three engine options:

  • -1 : BMW 801 J turbocharged radial engine, rated at 1,810 PS (1,331 kW) for take-off.
  • -2 : Junkers Jumo 222 A/B or E/F 24-cylinder liquid-cooled engine of about 2,500 hp (1,864 kW), the E/F having a two-stage supercharger.
  • -3 : Junkers Jumo 213 E liquid-cooled inverted V12, with a similar high-altitude supercharger.

As the Jumo 222 never progressed beyond development, with just under 300 built, only the BMW 801 and the Jumo 213 were actually used on the Ju 388. With either engine, the fighter versions were expected to reach about 616 km/h, some 25 km/h less as night fighters because of the radar aerials and the Schräge Musik installation; with the Jumo 222, about 700 km/h was expected. This was similar to the speed of existing night fighters, but the Ju 388 kept it at much higher altitude.

The first prototype, the Ju 388 L-0/V7, built mainly from Ju 188 production components, made its first flight on 22 December 1943. With its enlarged tail surfaces, it showed better handling at altitude than the Ju 88 S, and much better directional stability than the Ju 88, although American pilots later found its landing characteristics worse. Six further prototypes followed, two for each version. Delays in engine deliveries slowed down production, and by the time the engines were available it was clear that the B-29s were being sent to the Pacific and would not appear over Germany. The need for the J and K versions faded, and production concentrated on the L reconnaissance version.

Variants

  • Ju 388 J : Heavy fighter and night fighter. The day version had a solid nose with two 30 mm MK 103 and two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon; on the night fighter, the MK 103s were replaced by lighter 30 mm MK 108s, and a second pair of MK 108s was mounted behind the cockpit in a Schräge Musik installation, firing obliquely upwards. The night fighter carried a FuG 218 Neptun radar with its nose aerials. Two J-1 prototypes and three J-1 production aircraft were built; versions J-2 (Jumo 222), J-3 (Jumo 213 E) and J-4 (with two 50 mm MK 114 cannon) were planned.
  • Ju 388 K : High-altitude bomber, with a pannier under the fuselage enlarging the bomb bay, which could carry up to 3,000 kg of bombs internally. Two K-1 prototypes were built, and about fifteen K-1 in all. The K-2 (Jumo 213 E) and K-3 (Jumo 222) were not built.
  • Ju 388 L : Photo-reconnaissance aircraft, its ventral pannier housing cameras and additional fuel tanks. Two L-1 prototypes were built, then about 47 production aircraft, mostly L-1s with BMW 801 J engines and four-bladed VDM propellers, plus three L-3s with Jumo 213 E engines.
  • Ju 388 M : Proposed torpedo bomber derived from the Ju 388 K.
  • "145" : A Ju 388 L captured by the Soviets and fitted with an early "fly-by-wire" control system, as part of the development of the OKB-1 150 jet bomber.

Production

Deliveries began in August 1944, but few aircraft were completed. The total is difficult to establish, as some pre-series aircraft were used as prototypes, others were destroyed by bombing, and several records are incomplete or contradictory. The following aircraft are generally accepted:

  • 6 prototypes (two each for the J-1, K-1 and L-1).
  • 20 Ju 388 L-0, including prototypes V7, V8 and V30 to V34.
  • 10 Ju 388 K-0 (first batch), two of which were converted into the Ju 488 V401 and V402 prototypes, which never flew.
  • 1 Ju 388 K-1 built by ATG in July 1944 for static tests.
  • 46 Ju 388 L-1 built by ATG in 1944, and at least 8 more in 1945.
  • Up to 10 Ju 388 L-1 built by Weser Flugzeugbau (Weserflug), initially planned as K-1s.

A second batch of 10 K-0s was partially completed and a third batch of 30 was planned, of which only a few were finished, while an unknown number of L-1s and Js were in advanced stages of production at the end of the war. In all, about 100 Ju 388s were built (the Smithsonian gives a higher figure, with 176 aircraft completed under the "Hubertus" programme, mostly by ATG at Leipzig-Mockau and by Henschel at Schönefeld, but only 23 received by the Luftwaffe).

In August 1944, the Japanese Major-General Osamu Otani, serving in Berlin, expressed interest in licence production of the Ju 388. Complete sets of drawings and the licence rights were reportedly handed over, but there is no evidence that the documents ever reached Japan, and Otani was captured in Berlin in May 1945.

Operational history

The Ju 388 was mainly operated by test units: the Erprobungskommando Ju 388, and the 3rd Staffel of the Versuchsverband OKL, which used the Ju 388 V32 (W.Nr. 300 295, T9+DL). A few reconnaissance missions were flown in the last days of the war, generally attributed to L models. Four pre-production Ju 388 J-0 night fighters were operated by Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (NJG 2) under trial conditions in April and May 1945.

After the war, several Ju 388s were evaluated by the Allies. The Ju 388 L-1 V6 (W.Nr. 500006, PE+IF), the last of the six prototypes, was captured at the Tarnewitz armament test centre on the Baltic coast and flown to Farnborough, arriving on 1 September 1945. Given the Air Ministry number 83, it was shown at the German Aircraft Exhibition at Farnborough in October and November 1945, and was scrapped at Cranfield around 1950.

Surviving aircraft

Only one Ju 388 survives. Ju 388 L-1 Werknummer 560049 was the eighth aircraft built at the Nordenham plant of Weser Flugzeugbau, with parts made by ATG at Altenburg and by Niedersächsische Metallwerke at Hamburg-Harburg. Completed in early 1945, it was captured by American troops at the Junkers plant at Merseburg in May 1945. It was then flown to Kassel/Waldau and evaluated by Colonel Harold E. Watson's "Watson's Whizzers" as part of Operation Lusty. On 17 June 1945 it was flown to Cherbourg and, under "Project Sea Horse", shipped to the United States aboard the Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Reaper together with other captured German aircraft.

After reassembly, it was flown to Freeman Field, Indiana, where it took part in a press demonstration in September 1945, then completed 10 hours of test flights at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, under the Foreign Evaluation number FE-4010 (later T2-4010). It was shown at the Wright Field air show in 1946, then transferred on 26 September 1946 to Orchard Place Airport at Park Ridge, Illinois, a former Douglas C-54 factory used as a storage depot. Donated to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum on 3 January 1949, it arrived at Silver Hill, Maryland, for storage in November 1954. It is now kept disassembled at the Paul E. Garber Facility, awaiting restoration; it is in generally good condition, with a complete cockpit and instruments.

Operators

  • Germany : Luftwaffe.
    • Erprobungskommando Ju 388.
    • 3./Versuchsverband OKL.
    • Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (operational trials).
  • United Kingdom : Royal Aircraft Establishment (post-war evaluation).
  • United States : United States Army Air Forces (post-war evaluation).
  • Soviet Union : evaluation and research ("145" aircraft).

References

  • Vernaleken, Christoph and Handig, Martin. Junkers Ju 388: Development, Testing and Production of the Last Junkers High-Altitude Aircraft. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7643-2429-1.
  • Vernaleken, Christoph and Handig, Martin. Junkers Ju 388 - Entwicklung, Erprobung und Fertigung des letzten Junkers-Höhenflugzeugs. Oberhaching: Aviatic Verlag, 2003.
  • Nowarra, Heinz J. Die Deutsche Luftrüstung 1933-1945, Vol. 3. Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1993.
  • Green, William. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1970.
  • Smith, J. R. and Kay, Antony. German Aircraft of the Second World War. London: Putnam, 1972.
  • Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Junkers Ju 388 L-1 (A19600325000).

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Junkers Ju 388 of Wikipedia ( authors )

Junkers Ju 388 Störtebeker

  • Role : Heavy fighter, night fighter, high-altitude bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.
  • Manufacturer : Junkers.
  • First flight : 22 December 1943 (Ju 388 L-0/V7).
  • Introduction : late 1944.
  • Retired : 1945.
  • Status : retired.
  • Primary user : Luftwaffe.
  • Produced : 1943 to 1945.
  • Number built : about 100.
  • Developed from :
  • Developed into : Junkers Ju 488 (project).

    • Specifications (Ju 388 L-1, BMW 801 J)

  • Crew: three.
  • Length: 15.2 m (49 ft 10 in).
  • Wingspan: 22 m (72 ft 2 in).
  • Height: 4.35 m (14 ft 3 in).
  • Wing area: 56 m² (600 sq ft).
  • Max takeoff weight: 14,000 kg (30,865 lb).
  • Powerplant: 2 × BMW 801 J 14-cylinder air-cooled turbocharged radial engines, 1,331 kW (1,810 PS) each for take-off.
  • Propellers: 4-bladed VDM.
  • Maximum speed: 616 km/h (383 mph) at 12,285 m (40,305 ft).
  • Cruise speed: 540 km/h (340 mph).
  • Landing speed: 175 km/h (109 mph).
  • Range: 2,250 km (1,400 mi).
  • Service ceiling: 13,100 m (43,000 ft).
  • Rate of climb: 6.3 m/s (1,240 ft/min).
  • Armament: 2 × 13 mm MG 131 machine guns in a remote-controlled tail barbette.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Junkers Ju 388 of Wikipedia ( authors )
Junkers Ju 388 Störtebeker : Your comments on this subject
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