Ju-87 Dive bombing system: How did it work?

[B-17engineer]

I was watching a show today, "Wings of the Luftwaffe" (A great series btw with great in depth discussion of certain planes!!) and they mentioned the Ju-87 would pull out at 1800 ft wether the pilot had stick action or not.

I knew this previously but forgot to post the question so.....

How did it work?

 

[Lucky13]

Simply put.....

A. Ju87 enters dive, here at 15,000 feet.

B. Ju87 reaches the maxium dive speed of 350 mph at a dive angle of 80%.

C. About 30 seconds after start of the dive, the Ju87 reaches the pull-out altitude, which was previously decided if the attack was planned. The pilot presses a button initiating the automatic pull-out system.

D. A few seconds after pull out is initiated, the bomb automatically releases from the plane.

E. After the pull-out, the pilot attempts to regain control of the plane, retracts the dive brakes, opens the throttle, trims for level flight and tries to get away as quick as possible to avoid being hit by the explosion and debris of the bomb!

 

[vikingBerserker]

IIRC, this was done after a few "bad" accidents.

 

[Airframes]

Yep. It consisted of A, B, C, and D - but forgot about E ! Result = BANG ! Two big holes in the ground, the second one Ju87 shaped !

 

[B-17engineer]

Thanks a ton guys and Jan for the explanation!

 

[timshatz]

Yep. It consisted of A, B, C, and D - but forgot about E ! Result = BANG ! Two big holes in the ground, the second one Ju87 shaped !

Heard about that. Automatic pullout system. Not sure if this was the cause but I had read somewhere that a squadron of 87s went into the ground during the Polish Campaign when the Sq Ldr took them down too low. 24 holes instead of 12.