During World War II, the Luftwaffe has been lacking strategic bombers, focusing on tactical bombers, which led to the bombing of strategic targets such as large projects and industrial areas It is difficult to achieve the expected results, and the German high-level is not unaware of this situation at that time, German airlines have developed a variety of large bombers, such as HE 111Z, TA 400, etc., of which JU488 is an emergency plan proposed by Junkers in 1943, which has a high feasibility.
JU488 is like a stitching monster, it is not a new development, but a large number of JU188, JU288 and JU388 components, this emergency design advantage is to facilitate the establishment of the production line in the shortest possible time, to ensure the output of the bomber, the disadvantage is that the bomber performance is slightly lacking.
However, the three aircraft mentioned above are all twin-engine aircraft, and the power, load capacity, etc. are not enough, and the ju488 has obtained a new fuselage and elongated wings, which makes the bomber reach a length of about 23 meters, a wingspan of about 31 meters, a height of about 6 meters, and an empty weight of about 21,000 kilograms. On the JU488, the pressurized cabin and part of the main wing of the JU388 were installed, the rear fuselage was from the JU188, the tail part was from the JU288, and some JU88 parts were also used on the aircraft.
The bomber was originally planned to be powered by four BMW 801 14-cylinder air-cooled engines, and the BMW W-802 18-cylinder engine under development was also an option, and it would be better if the more powerful JOM222 could be obtained. The aircraft uses a diameter of 4The 2-meter four-blade constant-speed propeller, if a high-power engine is installed, the designers expect the JU488 to reach a maximum flight speed of 690 kilometers per hour, a cruising speed of 490 kilometers per hour, a maximum ceiling of 11,350 meters, and a maximum range of nearly 3,400 kilometers.
The bomber was equipped with only a crew of 3 people, who stayed in the pressurized cabin, and the aircraft self-defense ** consisted of 2 remote-controlled turrets, one planned to be mounted on the back of the aircraft, **2 20 mm cannons, and the other turret mounted on the tail to defend against tail-biting attacks, ** 2 aviation machine guns. The aircraft has a large built-in magazine with no external payload capacity, and the maximum ** payload is 5000 kg.
The JU488 was a good contingency design, and the Luftwaffe initially ordered two prototypes: the V401 and the V402, whose significance was not only to verify the performance of the aircraft, but also to verify the feasibility of such an assembled aircraft. Due to the tight production tasks of the German aircraft factories and the constant Allied air raids, the prototype was assembled in a French factory, and when the Allies landed in France from the Western Front in 1944, the Germans transferred the roughly completed two airframes back to China, which were destroyed by the Resistance on the way. The Germans also ordered two prototypes, the V403 and the V406, which were planned to be completed in China, but were terminated in November, because Germany decided that strategic bombers were no longer needed.