The concept of a dive bomber emerged in world war I, when the RAF piloted the world's first dive bomber, the SE 5aE fighter, but was declared a failure due to being "devastated" by simulated anti-aircraft gun fire during the test and no further research was continued.
With the continuous development of aviation technology after the war, dive bombers gradually occupied the sky of the battlefield. Among them, as a sharp aerial weapon of Blitzkrieg, how strong was the Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber, germany's strongest bomber in World War II? The JU-87 bomber was a propeller dive bomber developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The U-87 bomber was characterized by curved gull-wing wings, stationary landing gear, and a uniquely low screech.
The aircraft has a crew of 2, single-engine tandem two-seater under the single wing conventional aerodynamic layout. In the blitzkrieg launched by Germany in World War II, the JU-87 bomber achieved major results, and after 1940, Germany invested a large number of JU-87 bombers in the African battlefield and the Eastern Front, especially in the Eastern Front, showing a strong ground attack capability. In addition, the scream of the machine's installed sounder on the ground soldiers psychological intimidation, enhances the effect of the attack.
Development of the JU-87 bomber began in 1934, it flew for the first time on September 17, 1935, and was put into mass production in 1937 to equip the troops. The machine developed a variety of models, each type manufactured a total of 5700 aircraft. The JU-87 bomber uses a single-engine tandem, two-seater, single-wing conventional aerodynamic layout, all-metal cantilevered straight wings, rear three-point landing gear, and dual front wheels are fixed, which can carry two pilots.
The main material used in the aircraft structure is duralumin, and the fuselage wing cover material is duralumin plate. The JU-87 Bomber A was fitted with a 7.92 mm MG-17 machine gun on the right side of the wing, with a reserve of 500 rounds. The rear-firing self-defense weapon on board is a movable 7.92 mm MG-17 machine gun mounted on a sliding machine gun mount. The JU-87A bomber uses Siemens ETC500/A bomb pylons, which can carry up to 500 kg of aerial bombs.
The JU-87 Bomber A was an early model of Junkers that was produced by Junkers with a Jumo-210D engine at the nose and a maximum power of 680 hp, in conjunction with an H-PA-I variable-pitch propeller. However, the wing fuel tank does not yet have the function of automatically cutting off the oil circuit after being hit. Its maximum level flight speed is 320 km per hour and its maximum dive speed is 450 km per hour.
On the basis of the JU-87A1 bomber, Junkers improved the on-board electronics, mainly upgrading the radio device, so that the pilots in the front and rear cockpits could communicate with each other through intercom devices.
The JU-87 bomber was able to play a significant role in the war because germany had an innovative positioning of the tactical position of the dive bomber and always insisted on continuous improvement to meet the needs of the development of the war under the premise of the overall structure remaining unchanged, and it was indeed relatively good. The weakness of the JU-87 bomber is also obvious, due to the large weight and poor maneuverability of the aircraft, it is extremely easy to be intercepted by enemy fighters.