Here is what I forgot. The aircraft is being restored in Seattle.. Part of the Paul Allen collection.
Junkers Ju-87R-4 Sturzkampfflugzeug (Stuka). I have found information as to the various wrecks that make up this rebuild: Ju-87 R-4, Wk.-Nr. 6234; Ju-87R-2, Wk.-Nr. 5709; and Ju-87 R-2, Wk.-Nr. 857509 - literally pallet-loads of individual parts, airframes, wings, sections in general, and 10-12 Junkers Jumo 211 D engines from all over were acquired to help assemble one aircraft. But the bulk of this aircraft rebuild is Wk.-Nr. 6234, built as an R-4 variant (for long distance operations) in 1941, to be assigned to the North Africa campaign, but instead was diverted and first served with Lehrgeschwader 1 (Demonstration Wing 1), and then with Sturzkampfgeschwader 5 (1./St.G 5, Dive Bomber Wing 5) with the markings of Stammkennzeichen LI+KU in northwestern Russia near the Finnish border. In April 1942, it was shot down by Soviet fighters while on a mission at Murmansk (in the Murmansk Oblast in northwestern Russia) and crashed in a wilderness west of the city. There it lay until the early 1990s when a private collector recovered it and had it shipped to England. In 1997, it was acquired by the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin. It was acquired by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Warbirds, Inc. in 2010, and is now at Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM) on Paine Field north of Seattle. The rebuild process began in earnest in 2013 using reconstructed portions as well as newly manufactured wings; there were no original Junkers plans to be had but as I recall, but were drafted from existing aircraft examples. It is on display during the rest of the rebuild and will be made airworthy and as such, should be the only airworthy Stuka in the world. I have seen that by the D-3 variant, the Jericho-Trompetes had been omitted and I understand this aircraft will not be fitted with any. I understand it will be fitted with the type of autopilot described below but that it will be deactivated; and it will have wing fuel drop tanks. It has a Junkers Jumo 211 D engine and will be flown by Steve Hinton. My photos at FHCAM, including some original original wing sections and a Rheinmetall AG Bordkanone BK. 3.7 autocannon. Here is a YouTube I made of the project:
Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka” (Sturzkampfflugzeug or “dive bomber"). Its Jericho-Trompete ("Jericho trumpet") sirens and double-spar inverted gull wings are certainly iconic sounds and looks of World War II. It first saw combat in the Spanish Civil War. Powered by a Junkers Jumo 211 D engine with a crew of two. Armament varied by version, but could include two fixed 7.92 mm MG 17 forward-facing and twin 7.92 mm MG 81Z rear-mounted machine guns for the rear-facing gunner, and could carry a 250 kg. bomb under the fuselage - attached to an arm which brought the bomb away from the propeller when released - and a pair of 50 kg. bombs under each wing - or fuel tanks in their place. The Jericho-Trompetes were on the leading edges of the main landing gear legs and were electrically (solenoid) engaged by the pilot and had a brake or clutch that kept them from engaging until the dive brakes were engaged - and were known to remain engaged even after the dive brakes were released, leaving them on all the way back to base. The aircraft had an autopilot that brought it to a dive when the dive brakes were engaged and brought it out of a dive once the bomb was released (in the event the G-forces caused the pilot to pass out). There were many variants produced during its production run through the war, even though considered "obsolete" by the outbreak of the war. It served with a number of Axis forces and an estimated 6,500 of the aircraft type were built.
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