Junkers Ju 287 V2

[Vahe Demirjian]

These are historically significant photos taken of the second Junkers Ju 287 prototype in Brandis (you can find them on page 71 of Horst Lommel's book Junkers Ju 287: The World's First Swept-Wing Aircraft). Although the Ju 287 V2 was similar to Ju 287 V1 in that it was cobbled using components of other planes, note that this aircraft has attachment joints for the four BMW 003 turbojets* as well as bright-colored nose wheel undercarriage pants (in contrast to undercarriage pants being dark-colored in Ju 287 V1).

* The Ju 287 V2 was originally to have four of the six turbojets in underwing pairs and the other two mounted on both sides of the forward fuselage, but to save testing time Junkers changed the engine configuration to a triple pack whereby three jet engines were mounted under each wing (see above photo).

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

I've posted additional illustrations of the second Ju 287 prototype on pages 73 and 74 of Horst Lommel's 2004 book Junkers Ju 287.

Junkers Ju 287 V2 after it was blown up the Nazis at Brandis to avoid capture by US forces (in the top photo, US Army First Sergeant Gorman Gillian stands in front of the horizontal stabilizers, which are situated 12 inches lower in contrast to the horizontal stabilizers of the Ju 287 V1, and attachment points for the BMW 003 and Jumo 004 turbojets are seen beneath the wing, while the support struts of landing gear are slanted inwards)

Sketch from Junkers documents showing how to tow the second Ju 287 prototype without engines from the tail