A german bomber,used to bomb from an (at 1st)unreachable altitude.Then the british modified a (?)Spitfire,which went up and shot it down.This type of hi-altitude plane was not seen again.Anyone know anything about this plane?Have no idea what it was.TIA
Yes, it was the Ju-86. The Spitfire VI was developed to counter this threat but it wasn't from actions over North Africa. Britain first met the Ju-86 over Scotland - the Spitfire VI was developed from the Spitfire V to counter it.
By the time the Ju-86 started seeing action over North Africa, the Spitfire VII was operational and able to counter it.
I said it was P, because of article in some military aviation magazine that i've read a bit of time ago, which told, that only Ju-86P were used over Africa
Yes the R was put into service in limited numbers.
Some 40 old bombers were converted to Ju 86P-1 high altitude bombers and Ju 86P-2 photo reconnaissance aircraft. Those operated successfully for some years over Britain, the Soviet Union and North Africa. In August 1942 a modified Spitfire V shot one down over Egypt, and when two more were lost, Ju 86Ps were withdrawn from service 1943.
The Luftwaffe tried to develop the Ju 86R with even larger wings and prototype engines, that could have flown even higher, at 16,000 m, but production was limited to some prototypes.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_86