Junkers Ju 88

The Junkers Ju 88 is a German twin-engine combat aircraft, built by the Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works and conceived from its first flight in December 1936 as a fast bomber intended to outrun enemy fighters, entering squadron service with the Luftwaffe shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Its airframe proved unusually adaptable, and over the course of the war the Ju 88 was produced in bomber, dive bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance and heavy fighter versions, making it one of the most versatile combat aircraft used by any air force in the conflict and one of the Luftwaffe's most important and heavily used types throughout the war. More than 15,000 were built in total, a production run exceeded among bombers of any nation only by the American Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and the type remained in front-line Luftwaffe service in one variant or another until Germany's defeat in 1945.