Ask Your Questions: Junkers Ju 87

Did the plane have a trim tab against prop torque.?

Chris, Dauntless or Stuka? Which was the better dive bomber?

Had another thought: we all are relatively familiar with the Stuka in German service, but could you talk about the Stuka in Italian service? How did Italian pilots rate it against domestic aircraft? Did the Regia Aeronautica adopt the Stuka because it happened to be the war aid Germany had available to give or were they interested in it to fill a combat role that domestic production could not meet?

Robert Santamaria

Was there a planned successor to the stuka? Or was it thought that a specialist dive bomber rather than ground attack was the way forward?

Scruffy

1.) What were the different loadouts of the Stuka (Bombs, Cannons, Gun Pods) and how, why and when were they developed? Are the special events that created the needs/starting points of some of the armament? 2.) What were differenced between the "normal" land based variants and the C(?) variant for the Graf Zeppelin in terms of frame(structure) and landing gear to withstand starting and landing on this new environment? 3.) What were the initial steps taken to keep the crew alive during fight and in case of a crash? Did the plane see any changes in terms of survivability for the crew during the course of the war (armor plating, equipment for the crew during flight and if the crashed)? 4.) Did the plane see any "simplifications" in terms of production until the end of the war, what were they and what impact had they? If those are too much questions I'd love to have an answer to the first one if possible. Thank you for reviving the format!

Reichsbierminister

Since I mentioned it in the Q&A support I guess I should ask it: it is 1945, post WW2 and you are the Air Minister in charge of rebuilding Elbonia's Air Force, but you are secretly a spy, you need to procure an interceptor, an attack craft, a long-range bomber, an air superiority fighter, and a transport craft; you need to procure the worst possible craft possible but not blow your cover, so the craft need to appear on the surface as sensible but in reality be crap., what would you pick; you are allowed to pick craft that are in the design stage in 1945. I realized after posting that you looking for Ju-88 questions so feel free to save this one for a more appropriate time.

Robert Henry Illston

As you know some YTers say the evidence shows AC did not knock out tanks... How does that stack up against Han Rudel and other Tank ACES ? So are AC useful to knock out tanks? Or are AC like Battleships... they were masters of sea battles in theory but not in reality?

O D

There has to be way too many studies on AC camo. Were the WW2 U.S. Navy Blue color schemes good in the Pacific. ? Why does the USAF sill use grey or black when I'm told studies show pale blues are better. ( I Get this is only visual.. so lets not waste time explaining that)

O D

There is an airworthy replica project in NZ https://flic.kr/p/2hvP9AV

Errol Cavit

How important was the Stuka in winning the Battle of France? Would Germany been able to pull off the 'Blitzkrieg' without it?

Errol Cavit

How did the rear gunner feel about things? I've never seen a lot of info on the physical and mental stresses of the gunners. Was there an "ace?"

It would be interesting to know if anti-tank claims were as exaggerated as air-to-air claims. A lot of sunk ship claims were based on seeing a huge water column anywhere in the vicinity, with no actual damage done, let alone sinking. I imagine seeing a big cloud of dust near a tank could be as easily mistaken for a kill.

Scarecrow Repair

Its in with historians now to say AC did not knock out tanks. How do you console that with Hans Rudel or all the other stories? How did pilots survive flying their kites? Clearly they flew often without fighter escort.

O D

In terms of the Dive Recovery system on the Ju-87, was that a unique feature to the aircraft or did other contemporary aircraft have similar systems? For example when Junkers built the Ju-88 as both a medium and dive bomber, did they include the dive recovery system?

Robert Santamaria

I am aware of one project currently underway in the US state of Washington aimed to get one of these historic but oh so rare planes back in the sky and not just remain a rare static display. Are you aware of any other flight worthy restorations in progress?

How did the Ju-87 compare to its contemporaries in dive bombing alone, such as accuracy, speed, pullout altitude? Ignore speed, rage, bomb load, etc, as they can be found anywhere on the web. I'm thinking specifically of the Douglas Dauntless and Aichi D3A, but I don't know what the British, French, Italians, or Russians did vis-a-vis dive bombing. I have read that the F4U Corsair was an excellent dive bomber, and the Germans used the FW-190 for ground support; did that include dive bombing specifically? What about other fighter-bombers, limiting it to a dive angle more than 50 degrees?

Scarecrow Repair