Junkers EF-132T1-6, KG200, August 1945

[nönöbär]

Junkers EF-132T1-6

Introduction:

At the end of WW2, several jet aircraft projects were under construction in Germany. Among those was the Junkers EF-132. A four engined long range jet bomber. A wooden mock-up was already build but the end of the war prevented further development. After the war, the Soviets were very interested in the development made at Junkers in Dessau. Under their command, some of the projects were slowly continued until most of the personal was "invited" to mode to Russia and to work there. Some of the projects, like the development based on the Ju 287, led to prototype aircraft that were flown in the Soviet Union, partly of former German test pilots.
Although the EF-132 was quite advanced, this project was not developed into a flying prototype. However, the research work influenced the construction of the first generation of Soviet Jet Bombers like the My-4 or Tu-16

The Plane:

As those Russian bombers were influenced by the German designs, the idea for this aircraft was to use a Tu-16 as an advanced Junkers bomber.
In early 1942, Germany occupied the Azores islands to use it as a base for long range sea reconnaissance aircraft and to be able to fly attack runs on the American East coast. With several "Amerikabomber" projects ongoing, like the Me 264 or the Ta-400, those piston engine aircraft lacked the speed to escape the growing number of American defence fighters. Therefore, Junkers advanced the EF-132 model into the EF-132T1-6.
Equipped with two Jumo-160 jet engines, this aircraft was able to outrun all piston driven fighter aircraft.

The Ju EF-132T1-6 was first flown in March 1945 and put into small scale production shortly after this. Construction was made decentralized in segments: The centre section with wings and engines was produced in Dessau (where the final assembly too place), the cockpit section was build in Ascherleben while the tail in Magdeburg.
By late summer of 1945, eight of them were stationed on the Azores and were used to do fast hit&run attacks on ports of the American east coast.

As tests with in-flight refuelling did not succeed very well, the ER-132T1-6 was equipped with a huge drop tank which allowed the aircraft to reach targets as far as Chicago. Although the bomber could use conventional bombs, it was mostly equipped with two Hs-393 rocket propelled bombs. Those were enlarged versions of the Hs-293 which was successfully used in the Med against allied shipping. The Hs-393 could carry 3 times the bomb load of a Hs-293.







The Model:

The plane was build using a Trumpeteer 1:144 scale Tu-16, which is a quite good model. The model is more or less build OOB, the only additions are the drop tank and the HS-393 bombs. The drop tank is from the spare box, while the HS-393 are some HS-293 from an 1:72 scale Airfix He 177 kit, so its no surprise that those HS-393 are double sized HS-293s... 

[Logan Hartke]

That looks very "right".  Well done!

Cheers,

Logan

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That will fool a few! Very good looking model.

[dumaniac]

very nice build

[albeback]

 

I have GOT to get me one of these!! . Fortunately, I happen to have the 1/72 TU - 16 available.

[pyro-manic]

That really does feel right, doesn't it?

[lancer]

Oh that is very very good.....