Junkers Ju 388 - Background

Background

The Reich Air Ministry (RLM) first learned of the American B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber in late 1942, possibly from the sighting of a YB-29 nicknamed the "Hobo Queen" at RAF Bovingdon, which had made a headline photo appearance in a news article in the Völkischer Beobachter newspaper. The performance estimates of this aircraft were cause for great concern in the Luftwaffe. The B-29 had a maximum speed of around 560 km/h (348 mph), and would attack in a cruise at about 360 km/h (224 mph) at 8,000-10,000 m (26,247-32,810 ft), an altitude where no current Luftwaffe aircraft was effective.

To counter the B-29, the Luftwaffe would need new day fighters and bomber destroyers. The fighter chosen was the Focke-Wulf Ta 152H. This was based on the Fw 190D with longer wings and the new high-altitude "E" model of the Junkers Jumo 213 engine. An alternative was the Messerschmitt Me 155B, a long-winged development of the Bf 109 which had already undergone several stages of design and would ultimately be built in prototype form by Blohm & Voss.

For the bomber destroyer and night fighter roles, the Ta 154 and Heinkel He 219 had the performance needed to catch the bomber; but each of those designs only gained that performance by mounting short wings which were inadequate for flight at high altitude. The Junkers Ju 88 had already been modified for high-altitude use as the S and T models, but these did not have the performance needed. Similar high-altitude modifications to the Ju 188 were being looked at as the projected Ju 188J, K and L models, which included a now nearly-standard "stepless" pressurized cockpit that fully enclosed the entire nose, and wing and elevator deicing equipment for extended flights at very high altitude. These were selected for development, and renamed Ju 388.