Junkers Ju 187

The Junkers Ju 187 was a German projected dive bomber designed to replace the ageing Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. The Ju 187 was cancelled in 1943.

Design
By the time of the Battle of Britain the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka had proved very vulnerable to enemy fighters and needed replacement, so after rejection of the Ju 87F proposal a new dive bomber was designed under the designation Ju 187.

The projected aircraft kept some of the features of the earlier Ju 87, such as the inverted gull wing and two man crew. It would have added retractable landing gear, the nose of the aircraft would have been elongated for a better view for the pilot, as well as improved armour and armament. Most notably, the Ju 187 incorporated a rotating vertical tail. When rotated down, the tail would give the air gunner, armed with a rear turret, an unobstructed field of fire. It is not known how the aircraft would have handled with the tail rotated.

The Ju 187 project was cancelled by the Reich Air Ministry in autumn 1943 because the aircraft's projected performance, when fully loaded, was estimated to be no better than the latest Ju 87D variant (estimated maximum speed: 248 mi/h).