Country of origin:

Germany

Description:

Two-seat dive-bomber and ground attack monoplane

Power Plant:

(Ju 87B-2)

One 895 kw (1,200 hp) Junkers Jumo Da twelve-cylinder inverted VEE liquid-cooled engine

Armament:

Two 7.9 mm (0.311 in) MG17 fixed forward-firing machine guns; one 7.9 mm (0.311 in) MG15 machine gun on flexible mount in rear cockpit; one 500 kg (1,102 lb), or one 250 kg (551 lb) and four 50 kg (110 lb) bombs

Specifications:

History:

Designed and built by Junkers Flugzeug Und Motorenwerke AG, the Ju 87, known as the Stuka, was perhaps the most famous dive-bomber of World War II. Known in the early days as “the scourge of Europe”, it achieved great notoriety during Blitzkreig operations against Poland, the Balkans, Crete, etc. However, it proved to be slow and unwieldy when faced with strong fighter opposition, such as during the Battle of Britain.

Construction of the prototype of the series began in 1935, and this (Ju 87V-1), powered by a 477 kw (640 hp) Rolls Royce Kestrel V twelve-cylinder VEE engine, was first flown with twin-fins and rudders, but was destroyed when tail flutter developed and the aircraft crashed. Subsequently the tail was re-designed and a 455 kw (610 hp) Junkers Jumo 210Aa engine was fitted.

Further prototypes were built, the Ju 87-V2 (D-UHUH) having a Junkers Jumo 210Ac engine and the third, the Ju 87-V3 (D-UKYQ), joining the test program. Competing designs were the Heinkel He 118, Arado Ar 81 and Hamburger Flugzeugbau Ha 137, comparison of the designs taking place at Rechlin.

Initial production model at the Dessau assembly line was the Ju 87A-1 with a 474 kw (635 hp) Junkers Jumo Da engine. In order to obtain operational experience a small number saw service with the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The type continued to be developed throughout the war. Aircraft were supplied to Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria, and the type was evaluated by Japan.

Main variants built were the Ju 87A, B, C, D, F, G, and H, with sub-variants of each, ie Ju 87A-0, A-1, A-2, etc. The Ju 87R series was manufactured in parallel with the Ju 87B-2, the ‘R’ denoting Reichweite or range, minor structural changes enabling a 240 litre (52.8 Imp gal) tank to be fitted in each wing root to supplement the 150 litre (33 Imp gal) auxiliary tank in each outer wing panel. With ‘wet points’ it was able to carry two 300 litre (66 Imp gal) drop tanks, reducing bomb load to one 250 kg (551 lb) bomb. Other ‘R’ variants were the R-2, R-3, R-4, each differing in the equipment installed.

One of the great exponents of the type was Hauptmann Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Commander of III/S.G.2 on the Eastern Front, flying Ju 87s fitted with a pair of 37 mm Flak 18 cannon. Rudel flew 2,530 operational sorties, was shot down 30 times, and was credited with destroying 519 Soviet tanks. He survived the war and died in the late 1990s.

A couple of Ju 87s have survived in museums: A Ju 87D-5 (494083) at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum at Hendon; a Ju 87R-2 (5954) captured in Libya and displayed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Illinois; parts of one (16970) at the National Museum at Valetta, Malta; and parts of a Ju 87B-2 stored at the Yugoslav Aviation Museum in Belgrade. The wreck of a Ju-87B (1643) has been displayed at the Auto und Technik Museum at Sinsheim, Germany. In 2006 a Ju 87D-3 wreck (100375) was recovered from the Aegean Sea off Rhodes for the Hellenic Air Force Museum at the Dekelia Air Base in Acharnes, north of Athens, Greece. Other wrecks have been located but not recovered.

During 1993 the wrecks of two Ju 87s were imported from their crash sites in the Soviet Union to the Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka, NZ, where they were placed on display for a period. These were a Ju 87R-4 (werke nr 6234 – code LF + FW), which crashed on a mission to Murmansk in north-western Russia on 24 April 1942 and served with StG5; and in 1995 a Ju 87R-2 (werke nr 5856 – code LI + BL), which served with 3/StG5 and crash landed near Murmanskaja on 2 July 1942. It was planned to rebuild one aircraft to airworthy status from the two, using parts from other crash sites, but this did not occur and eventually they were exported to the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin in 1997 where Ju 87R-2 (werke nr 5856) was placed on display in its damaged condition and Ju 87R-4 (werke nr 6234) was placed in storage. It was later registered with RLM Aviation at Fairoaks in the United Kingdom as G-STUK as a project from 20 March 2007 but was never completed.  It was later again obtained by the Flying Heritage Museum at Everett Field in Washington DC, USA, where work commenced to restore it to airworthiness.

In 2002 work commenced at Blenheim in New Zealand to build a replica of a Ju 87, this machine to be powered by a V-12 Jaguar motor vehicle engine and only be able to taxi. It was initially painted in western desert colours and displayed at the 2005 Easter air show but was badly damaged afterwards in a windstorm. It was rebuilt and in 2009 was displayed again, this time in temporary Italian markings. Work continued during the following years to complete the aircraft for taxiing. In 2011 for the Easter display it was painted as T6 + CK in Luftwaffe markings and has been regularly seen on display at aviation events in Omaka.