Junkers Ju 287

The Junkers Ju 287 was a multi-engined tactical jet bomber built in Germany in 1944, notable for its forward-swept wing. The first two prototypes were aerodynamic testbeds and among the very few jet-propelled aircraft ever built with fixed landing gear; they were assembled from parts of other aircraft, including the fuselage of a Heinkel He 177 A-3 and the tail of a Ju 188 G-2. Flight tests began on 8 August 1944 with pilot Siegfried Holzbaur and showed extremely good handling, but also revealed excessive flexing of the main spar and wing under some flight conditions. Its specification lists four Junkers Jumo 004B-1 turbojets, while the planned production versions used six engines in two underwing triple clusters. A third prototype with a fully glazed pressurized cockpit and retractable landing gear was about eighty to ninety percent complete at the end of the war.