Ruined By Faulty Engines And Broken Legs: Junkers Ju 288

Video Description

In this video, we take a look at the Junkers Ju 288, a German medium bomber and multi-role aircraft from World War II. We first talk about why new aircraft designs end up failing, from poor performance to weight issues to issues outside of the plane's control. We then talk about the issue of engine failure, and how that on its own can make or break a design. We then talk about Junkers' early effort to replace the Ju 88, starting back when the Ju 88 was still a prototype. We talk about how the early Ju 288, known as the EF 73, wanted to improve upon the Ju 88 design, with more modern features and a much stronger still-in-development engine. We talk about the design competition the Reich Air Ministry created for the design, how the design was altered frequently in its early stages, how it won the competition, and how its choice of engine became a major issue for the project. We talk about the attempts to work around the engine issues, how the design's landing gear kept breaking, and how these combined to ruin the project.