WW2 German Luftwaffe Aircraft – COCKPIT & FUSELAGE RELICS – Ju88 – WITH HISTORY!

On 21 December 1936, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. During late 1937, the Ju88 was developed into a heavy dive bomber, but this proved to be too stressful for the airframe even with modifications. A series of technical problems troubled its development, delaying its introduction to squadron service from 1938 to September 1939, by which point the Second World War had commenced; the Ju88 first saw action during the invasion of Poland. Despite its protracted development, the Ju88 became one of the Luftwaffe’s most important aircraft. The aircraft, akin to several other German bombers of the era, served as a bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and heavy fighter. Perhaps most unusually, it was adapted into a flying bomb towards the end of the war. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945, building in excess of 15,000 Ju88s across dozens of variants, making it the second-most produced bomber of all time, behind the four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and the most-produced twin-engine German aircraft of the period. Throughout its production run, the basic structure of the Ju88 remained unchanged.