Germany's Forgotten WW2 Bombers, and Why They Failed | Junkers Ju 90, 290 & 390

foreign we're taking a look at an aircraft that has been highly requested by some viewers but it's probably quite unknown to many others it was one of the few truly large aircraft operated by the German luftwaffe during the second world war the Yonkers ju-290 after the messersmith 323 Gigante the ju-290 was the largest land plane to achieve series production in Germany during the war with a length of 28.6 meters 94 feet and a wingspan of 42 meters or 137 feet 10 inches it was only a little bit smaller than the Boeing B-29 Superfortress but unlike the B-29 which was designed from the outset as a long-range strategic bomber the origins and development cycles of the ju-290 Were Far Far Messier today's video actually looks at three Yonkers designs the ju-90 the 290 and the 390 as all three are related in this messy history and because of that it was thought better to cover all three in a single video rather than split the topic today's video has also been done in partnership with Icarus art a company that makes beautiful Aviation themed artworks whether you're into Catalina's corsairs shadukas Spitfires or ansons there's sure to be a piece that takes your fancy and if not they're constantly adding new designs and art pieces to their collection you can purchase them as either printed canvas or posters and the prices start for as little as ten dollars now Icarus kindly sent me over two samples which you'll see here along with me and mycilliness sadly there was some really noisy construction worker going on outside my window so my actual attempts to talk to the camera were a complete failure the art however wasn't and it now hangs on my walls with pride right now Icarus currently have a limited edition short Sunderland print for sale with only 100 copies available so follow the link in the description to check them out and use the code Rex at the checkout to get 10 off your order so thank you Icarus for my new eye candy and now let's get back to the Yonkers 290. the story of the younger's giant goes back to the ju-90 which itself was an enlarged version of the ju-89 bomber the ju-89 was a mid-1935 contender for the so-called Ural bomber specification issued by the rlm which outlined an aircraft capable of striking targets as far as the Euro mountains in Soviet Russia from German territory the dornier do 19 was also drawn up to this specification to which both showed relative promise and three prototypes of each design were ordered at this point it must be outlined that a huge part of the support for developing and upgrading the luftwaffe's fledgling bomber Fleet came from General Lieutenant valta veva but this came during a time when the majority of senior Lev dwaffe officials wanted to move things away from long-range strategic bombing it will come as no surprise then that whenever died in 1936 strategic bombing was swiftly put on the back burner and the eurobomber specification was outright canceled in 1937. this cancellation arose for several reasons but a big influence was that of Weber's successor Kessler ring who had a preference for twin engine medium bombers this combined with Ernst udet's preference for dive bombing Hermann goering's preference for more bombers in general and the doubts about Germany's industrial capacity to build large bombers on mass essentially killed all development for the ju-89 which at the time had two prototypes completed and one still under construction in order for it to not have been a complete waste of time and money the air Ministry did allow Yonkers to explore a conversion of the unfinished prototype to a commercial transport version fall of tanza designated as the ju-90 beginning in April 1936 as a private Venture Yonkers began production of the new aircraft which would eventually total at 16 and despite its original intent it would be primarily used by the luftwaffe whereas only a small amount actually entered the Lufthansa service the wings control service and landing gear were borrowed from the 89 with no modification though overall the ju-90 would be a far more capable aircraft than its predecessor the first flight was undertaken on the 28th of August 1937 with Captain Zimmerman at the controls overall the flight went surprisingly well with Zimmerman praising its handling characteristics in virtually all stages of flight and the only major change resulting from early flights was that the vertical stabilizer was slightly enlarged to improve directional stability however it wouldn't be long till the project would take a significant blow the Daimler Benz db600 engine intended to power the aircraft abruptly ceased production replaced by the db601 which had also been exclusively reserved for the bf-109 program as a result the next two prototypes were hurriedly fitted with BMW 132h engines a copy of the American Pratt and Whitney Hornet this was a much less powerful engine with a takeoff power of 880 horsepower and a constant power of 560. as a comparison the db600s had been outputting 1050 horsepower undertake off and 800 horsepower under normal conditions so this switch effectively halved the power output of the aircraft and significantly hampered performance the BMW powered ju-90 designated as the ju-90b was rather predictably not a stunner in the performance department and ultimately just eight would be produced the second blow which struck the program even harder followed when a ju-90 in South Africa had two engines on the same side give out during takeoff this caused a complete loss of control the aircraft veered off and cartwheeled Off The Runway killing six of the nine crew members now some of these men had been the most experienced and skilled pilots in Lufthansa service and this represented a considerable loss for the company with the originally intended engines the first ju-90 performed much better setting two World Records one was an altitude of 9312 meters or 30 500 feet whilst carrying five metric tons or 11 000 pounds of cargo and the other record was at 7242 meters or around 23 700 feet with 10 tons or 22 000 pounds these were pretty astonishing numbers for the late 1930s but with the Daimler Ben's engines out of the question and the BMW radials clearly not a satisfactory replacement junkers turned their gaze Elsewhere for a suitable power plant the new BMW 801 radial which had been in development for some time but had only just entered production in 1939 had generated much interest and Yonkers recognized that it could be a perfect match for the ju-90 outputting 1580 horsepower from 14 cylinders arranged in two rows the 801 very much represented the Forefront of German power plant developments at the time two ju-90s that had been intended for ale Lufthansa service to South Africa which had been subsequently canceled after the outbreak of wall gave Yonkers two perfect test bets the first aircraft to be refitted underwent its acceptance flight immediately after the conversion but aside from the engine swap it was practically identical to the previous version of the ju-90 unfortunately the fact that the BMW 801 was twice as heavy as either of the earlier engines was apparently overlooked as during the flight the engine the cells and then the wings and then the fuselage quite literally fell to pieces with the 26 meter long aircraft essentially disintegrating in mid-air the pilot Captain kinderman was completely unable to determine exactly what had happened and reportedly in his words suddenly found himself in the open air with his parachute Yonkers rather sheepishly went back to the drawing board and made the appropriate changes to the nacelles and airframe that came with adding an extra 2 000 kilograms and this resulted in the ju-90 V6 on top of the necessary changes the fuselage was also aerodynamically refined and given a modified control services the V6 and then later the V7 would also see the introduction of the characteristic loading ramp in the AFT fuselage fully extended the ramp opened far enough to allow cars artillery and even half tracks to drive in under their own power this kind of cargo could then be airdropped using specialized parachutes it should be noted that this was a capability that very few German aircraft had at the time which made the ju-90 stand out quite a bit the V7 was also the first to be properly armed featuring a hydraulic dl131 dorsal turret a glazed rear Gunner position with a 7.92 millimeter mg15 and two mg-81 Zeds in the underfuselage gondola one firing four and one aft numerous prototypes followed testing more powerful BMW 801 engines hydraulic flaps lengthened fuselages defensive gondolas and different Armament positions and then the ju-90 v11 the 11th prototype was built featuring an offset under nose Gondola and a revised tail section the cumulative changes were deemed enough to Warrant a change of designation and it it became known as the ju-290v1 unarmed the ju-290v1 began flight tests in August of 1942 whilst two older ju-90s were converted into the 290 specification and allotted to the new program as the V2 and the V3 prototypes as a result of the slow but steady stream of work and to development on the aircraft the ju-290 was ready for pre-production very quickly after its first test flights with the first two a series je290s rolling off the line at dassel in October of 1942. these aircraft known as the ju-290 a0s were powered by four BMW 801 L2 radials generating up to 1600 horsepower at takeoff but these remained unarmed and were retained by junkers for testing purposes early 1942 would see the first production aircraft being a batch of five ju-290 a1s the ju-290a2 would follow in the summer of 1943 which boasted a substantially more powerful defensive Armament namely the addition of a second hydraulically operated dorsal turret which housed a 20 millimeter mg-15120 cannon the a2s were also fitted with a nose mounted fug-200 radar system which was used to Aid in the maritime Patrol role in which these aircraft were often used the a3s following In late 1943 and of which only five were built substituted the rear dorsal turrets for a more aerodynamic fw20 turret the last two a3s were also re-engined with a BMW 801 D1 which offered a marginal performance in improvements over the previous L2 Autumn 1943 saw the 290 A4 which replaced the forward dorsal turret with a low drag fw-19 turret and some refinements to the gondola position as well the A5 followed in November of the same year adding self-sealing fuel tanks and significant armor protection for the crew out of the 10 produced the first nine featured the standard 13 millimeter mg-131s in the waist positions although the last work number zero one eight zero replaced these with the far more powerful mg-15120s on top of this Airstream spoilers were added to the turrets to deflect a turbulent air away from the guns and two more crew members were carried in March 1944 the first production A5 was once again re-engined with BMW 801 TL engines which featured a lower gear ratio to improve efficiency on larger and heavier aircraft the A6 of which only one was produced was initially intended to be a personal transport for Hitler himself featuring cabin pressurization and extra armor for the fuhrer's personal compartment this 290 would go on to have the distinction of being the last flyable 290 seeing Spanish service in the post-war period the E7 intended as a reconnaissance bomber appeared in the spring of 1944 and featured a new glazed nose which housed a further mg-15120 Cannon racks were re-added from the A5 version under the central fuselage and outboard Wings designed to carry either hs293 hs294 for its X's or 3000kg grams of General Ordnance this aircraft of which the luftwaffe had ordered 25 would see only half of these actually completed prior to the cancellation of all bomber types in favor of the more urgently needed Fighters the A8 of which only one had been produced by the time of the cancellation of all bomber projects was an exceptionally well-armed aircraft boasting four dorsal turrets each housing an mg-15120 then the oddly numbered A9 had in fact preceded the A7 three examples being produced in January of 1942. these were broadly similar to the a1s except with a much higher internal fuel capacity which increased the range up to 8 300 kilometers or 5150 miles the proposed But ultimately non-existent B series were to be a dedicated long-range strategic bomber variant of the 290 completes with a large internal Bombay and four 2000 horsepower BMW 801es these aircraft would have had pressurized cockpits and gun turrets along with the HD 151 Z turrets in both of the dorsal positions which featured a quad 13 millimeter mg 131 layout and to this point it's also important to debriefly touch on the ju 390 the 390 was a fascinating and distinct development of the 290 which essentially involved bolting on two additional engines and enlarging the aircraft to try and increase its huge range even further born of a specification calling for a long-range bomber capable of striking New York the so-called America bomber program Yonkers was able to quickly throw together the design for the 390 as in many respects it was identical to its smaller brother the 390 program is fairly shrouded in mystery and not much is known about it the first prototype the V1 was constructed into cell and underwent its Maiden flight in October of 1943. a second prototype was built in mid-1944 but it never flew the Japanese had shown a large interest in the project apparently considering it of utmost importance though it's not clear why considering by mid to 1944 they had other things to worry about the U.S Navy being top of the list but their interest persisted junkers had prepared all of the manufacturing and instructional documents ready to hand over to Japan but negotiations dragged on and eventually ended in January of 1945 and nothing more came of it it's unknown whether the V1 actually flew to Japan for displayed officials or if they both fell victim to Allied bombings later in the war the aircraft were built with BMW 801es though it was intended for the production variants to be powered by six jumo 223s 2500 horsepower diesel engines and they would give a range upwards of nine thousand kilometers or or just over five and a half thousand miles many secret flights of the 390 have been speculated most without validity though one does stick out among them the story of a secret ju-390 flight to New York dates back to 1955 when the British Aviation magazine RAF flying review published a report that early in 1944 two Yonkers 390s had conducted a transatlantic flight to within 19 kilometers of the New Yorkers Coast then returning to France the alleged reconnaissance photos taken on this Mission have never been found and no records of the flight exists in German archives you may have also noted that the report States two 390s conducted the flight despite the fact that the second prototype never flew and in early 1944 it hadn't even been built yet it was a dubious claim but one that nonetheless has stuck in the field of those interested in the 390 despite their apparently being no real evidence to support it moving away from conspiracy the ju-90 and 290 in all of their variants and versions would overall leave a fairly modest footprint in the second world war with only 18 and 65 being built respectively nonetheless the aircraft represented a capable fast modern and well-defended transport in the early years in 1940 they would see their first operations with the luftwaffe being used as Transport Aircraft during the short-lived Norwegian campaign lugging vast quantities of supplies ammunition and weaponry from Germany though operational usage would stay modest for the following years with some supplying the Africa core and undertaking General transport duties use of the aircraft would seriously ramp up in late 1942 as plans were put in place to form a four engine transport Squadron that would be able to supply troops deep in Soviet territory seven ju-90s two ju-290s one ju-252 and one focker wolf 200 would make up the unit flying operations unescorted during the Stalingrad airlift in a desperate attempt to meet the enormous needs of the 200 000 German soldiers encircled there deep in Soviet territory the ju-90 would be pushed to the edge of its capabilities and Beyond one such example taking place on January the 13th 1943 just three days after arriving at the front a ju-290v1 piloted by Captain honey would make a successful landing at Potomac an Airfield behind the shrinking German perimeter the 290 would load up wounded German soldiers on board in an attempt to evacuate them to safety but tragically a sharp turn on takeoff caused all 79 wounded troops on board to be thrown to the rear of the plane causing a vicious and unrecoverable stall too low to recover the 290 was completely destroyed in the ensuing crash and nobody on board survived a second je290 and a zero variant was dispatched to replace the Lost transport days later but this aircraft was intercepted by Soviet lag 3 fighters and it was extensively damaged on route to the German pocket the damage was so great that the crew decided to abort the mission and return to base for repairs and by the time it was airworthy again the Germans had lost the Airfield after the total failure of the Stalingrad airlift the unit was then sent to the Mediterranean operating out of Greece concurrently the newer 290s began to take delivery and were dispatched to fag-5 the fifth long range reconnaissance Wing throughout 1943 with their task to be conducting flights over vast swathes of the Atlantic Ocean in the hunt for Allied convoys over the course of 30 missions one 290 A2 would log a staggering 120 350 kilometers over just 415 hours though somewhat hilariously fag-5 actually determined that even the gargantuan range of the A2 which was over 8 000 kilometers or just under 5000 miles was insufficient for Atlantic duties the A5 variants which began to equip fag-5 In late 1943 featured an even longer endurance and it thoroughly outclassed the focker wolf 200s it was replacing in defensive Armament 2 the A5 was improved sporting 4 mg-15120s and four mg-131s some of these aircraft were with fag-5 even took a delivery of a conversion kit to fit a 30 millimeter mk-103 to the front Gondola with a hydraulic assist for the Gunner This was meant to be used for strafing convoys although the nature of the 290s operations meant that more often than not it shadowed convoys rather than directly attacking them though the rate of operations stayed steady for fag-5 and the ju-290s were as good an aircraft as they could reasonably hope to operate less than 10 percent of targets relayed by 290s were actually destroyed the low production rate of the aircraft was also a hindrance as despite its impressive capabilities only a few 290s were ever operationally on strength with fag-5 at a given time with the less capable dornier 217 and tankol he-111 comprising most of their inventory as a quicker side in other roles the long range of the aircraft was also being put to good use with three a9s participating in Ultra long range missions transporting valuable cargo from Ukraine to Japanese Manchuria which was a 7 000 kilometers Journey each way but for the European theater D-Day and the wave of Allied troops into France made the Atlantic patrols somewhat redundant and the mission of fag-5 was rescinded and in August 1944 the unit was disbanded altogether the remaining 290s were scattered around various transport units and theaters of war with some returning to the Mediterranean and some being transferred to one kg 200 which was a special operation Squadron six were also requisitioned by Lufthansa though they would actually remain mostly grounded for the rest of the war and were almost entirely destroyed by Allied raids on German airfields kg200 meanwhile repurposed some of their 290s for Special Operations dropping agents on special missions Behind Enemy Lines some 600 of these agents would be delivered by 290s with kg 200 until these missions too were discontinued in early 1945. as the war reached its end years a few 290s would find themselves with new owners late in 1944 1-290 A5 left intact at an Airfield in Greece had been captured by Allied Forces the Royal Air Force were briefly interested in taking it home before another 290 was captured by the US and post-war this aircraft was left in Greek hands redesignated as the Archimedes S1 the aircraft was briefly flown but quickly grounded after a lack of spare parts before being scrapped sometime after 1949. back in Germany a group of Commander Heinz Braun would fly his two 1986 to neutral Spain in April 1945 followed by an A9 four days later with both a lighting in Barcelona the Spanish government would officially purchase the A6 using it as an advanced trainer in their training school before finally being scrapped in 1952 after serviceability became somewhat of a problem due to a lack of spare parts in the chaos of the German collapse another ju-290 was to fall into Allied hands as well encircled by Soviet troops and not wanting to be captured by the Red Army a German crew carrying 80 men women and children loaded aboard one of the few large and serviceable aircraft left intact a Yonkers ju-290 A7 flying low in turbulent weather to avoid Soviet Fighters the aircraft flew Westward undetected after a successful flight the A7 landed safely in U.S occupied Munich it was then decided to send it back to the States for evaluation at right field in preparation of the transatlantic flight the aircraft was given a thorough look over the electrics Hydraulics and engines were all inspected carefully by both American and German Engineers the German oil was drained and replaced with a corresponding grade of U.S oil and two of the BMW engines which were far more worn out than the other pair were replaced with two newer ones one of which was discovered at the bottom of a Parisian swimming pool flying from Western France to Bermuda and then onto right field the Yonkers underwent its test flights in the Autumn of 1945. unfortunately at this point the airframe was not put into a museum as one might have hoped but it was cut into test sections and later melted down one considerable shock came when the aircraft was being disassembled an unexploded Dynamite charge was found in the stubborn Wing presumably placed by resistance Fighters and a defective activating pin had preserved the lives of the 80 men women and children on board the Yonkers during its flight to Munich the final hope to having a surviving 290 came when Czechoslovakian forces discovered a partially constructed A8 which in conjunction with parts from an unfinished B2 were transferred to the letoff plant where an effort began to reconstruct the airframe after the war the original propellers which were missing from both were substituted with smaller but still functional propellers from four fogger Wolf 190s the completed aircraft dubbed the l-290 oral or Eagle underwent its Maiden flight on August the 1st 1946. lasting two hours the flight was abandoned early as the crew was unable to locate at the center of gravity during trimming tests and the RL displayed some instability as a result eventually it returned to the let off plant where wooden trays containing sandbags were fastened to the floor and moved around in a more desperate attempt to solve the problem in 1947 after all attempts had failed and after just 43 flying hours the project was abandoned for the next nine years the aircraft would sit in various hangars whilst talks with potential buyers were ongoing but finally in 1956 with all interests gone the ill-fated l290 was completely scrapped this probably marked the last surviving 290 in the world the youngest Giants essentially all being shot down destroyed by bombing raids or scrapped post-war because of the lack of surviving models and because they were often used in less glorious but still important roles the ju-90 and 290 often don't get much attention for the time they were large and ambitious aircraft particularly for a country whose industry preferred more numerous medium-sized designs they were also well employed find their small numbers serving roles so widely different as supporting ground troops in Norway ferrying supplies to Far East Asia and shadowing convoys in the Atlantic this however also serves to highlight the biggest problem with the ju-290 it was used piecemeal it was scattered throughout a multitude of roles that it wasn't actually designed for being originally planned as an airliner and any losses were almost impossible to replace had they been built in larger numbers their impact could have been quite profound but that leads into other questions about Germany's industrial capacity to build something like the 290 in large numbers which is well beyond the scope of this video so we'll have to discuss that what if scenario another day as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank you of course to the patrons whose names you'll see here I apologize if the audio for today's video is a little bit off I've been struggling this week with my voice um it's been pretty croaky and I've I think I might be having a bit of a head cold and I had to redo a lot of the lines in today's video so if it comes across as a bit janky it's probably because I had to do about two billion different cuts in Premiere whilst editing the final recording for this a big thank you of course to our wing Commander tier patrons our highest tier supporters and I know I keep saying it but the special video that everyone voted on is coming there was just a bit of a delay with the editing process um basically how to start again from scratch that should hopefully be done within the next uh five to seven days so keep an eye out for that but as always thank you all for your continued support and I'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 282,843

Keywords: Junkers, junkers ju 90, junkers ju 290, junkers ju 390, junkers aircraft, ww2 history, ww2 aircraft, luftwaffe, giant aircraft, rexs hangar, rex's hangar, aviation history, military aviation, plane video, german ww2 aircraft

Id: ZAST4WFMLqc

Length: 31min 54sec (1914 seconds)

Published: Sat May 06 2023