Interesting Stuka

[rfl51]

Normally Stukas do not have Oil-coolers like on this picture - who can tell me more about this plane?
One of my friends send me this picture. Source is unknown!

Rudolph

[Graham Boak]

Looks like an upright V-12 installation, Merlin or HS. I suspect a fake.

PS. Not just oil-cooler, but main coolant radiator.

[Snautzer]

apparantly this plane was used for evaluation trials with new cooling and dust filter systhems this plane seen at naberm near kirchheimm/teck may have been one of the experimental testbeds flown by daimler benz at the nearby stuttgart-echterdingen airfield


Fotofax stuka

[cproyston]

Although similar to Snautzer's description, I have this noted as a "Ju 87 Bertha fitted with an outsize radiator in an attempt to improve performance, tested at Naberth".

I didn't note where the source was for this, but suspect Peter C. Smith's Ju 87, published by Crowood.

Cheers,
Chris

[Graham Boak]

I might accept that the apparent raised thrust line may not be real, but an artefact of the camera angle. The thin propellor and spinner (with its central hole?) may be that of a B-1. It's a shame that the exhausts aren't visible. However, this does not explain the deep nose.

[Snautzer]

another view

[edwest]

While a fake cannot be ruled out, there is a reference here to a test installation of a Kestrel:

Scroll down about a third.


http://www.vectorsite.net/avstuka.html




Ed

[SMF144]

Why do "we" always jump to the conclusion that something must be fake for the simple reason that it doesn't compute with the little we know of the subject? The photos look fine to me and who's to say that Junkers, or, whom ever, wasn't experimenting with an engine from a Dornier etc? I have a picture, a real honest period picture of a Ju-52 with a DB 60_ something on the nose with one helluva rad below it. Never seen one before or since, but it certainly must be a fake. Right....

[Graham Boak]

With two photos, it is unlikely to be a fake. However, there is a history of fakes in every field of life, this one included. When an unusual version of a popular aircraft appears, that has not been published in the past sixty-odd years of intense historical study, it would be foolish to accept it completely without some reserve.

To me, what looked odd (and still looks odd) was the apparent appearance of a non-inverted V engine on a German type.

I don't think the use of a Ju 52 as an engine testbed is in quite the same league.

[Harri Pihl]

The nose shape is very much like some Hispano-Suiza (or Klimov) engined types like Graham noted above.