JUNKERS JU-86 A1

The Junkers Ju 86 was a German medium-range bomber and a low-wing passenger plane from the interwar period and World War II. The drive - in the basic version - was provided by two engines Jumo 205C-4 with 600 HP each. The flight of the prototype took place in 1934, and the serial production began in 1936, ending with the production of about 900 aircraft of this type. The deck armament consisted of three 7.92 mm machine guns. The plane could also take loads of up to 1,000 kilograms. Work on the Ju 86 began in 1934, when an order for a passenger plane (Lufthansa) and a medium-range bomber (Luftwaffe) were placed at this airline company. A relatively high pace of work on the new plane was also imposed. On the one hand, it led to the prototype test in the same year (1934), but also made it impossible to select the engines for the new machine more carefully, which became its Achilles' heel. The machine was also not liked by the pilots due to the high failure rate of the entire structure and poor visibility from the cabin - especially in the first production versions. All this resulted in the appearance of many versions of the aircraft, in which attempts were made to correct any flaws in the design - not always in a successful way. One of the first versions was the Ju 86 D (bomb version). Later, a version of the Ju 86 P-1 (high-altitude bomber powered by Jumo 207B engines) or the Ju 86 R-1 (photo reconnaissance version) appeared. Ju 86 bombers were used in combat during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and during the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Ju 86 planes were exported to e.g. Bolivia, Chile and Hungary.