Hello everyone, I recently heard that Lutz Budraß in his book "Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung in Deutschland 1918-1945" that the Jumo 222 was ready to go but was killed by Milch by administrative means. Is this true? Does anyone have his book? Did the Jumo 222 ever get ready in its C/D or E/F form either? Thank you.
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Jumo 222 What's the Truth?
- Thread starter SpicyJuan
- Start date
IMHO , if one studies the history of JUMO engines, a common theme is the inability of Junkers to meet development schedules that it had set for itself and commited to. This is true for the Jumo 211, 213, 222 and 004. There was a lot of politics involved with the operation and management of Junkers from the time of its takeover by the nazi government in the mid 1930s to its end in 1945, but in my opinion that was not the primary cause of the company's problems. If one compares the starting dates of engine development programs, it appears that the 222 did not really get underway until 1938. The most comparable USA engine was perhaps the Wright duplex cyclone which was probably two years ahead in development at that point and even with the much greater resources of the USA company, had a number of teething problems into 1945. Junkers, with less manpower and resources was trying to develop three engines of quite different characteristics at the same time. The original target service date for Jumo 222 was 1942 and it was clear that this date had been missed before Milch was in the position that would have affected that process. I believe (don't have my copy of Budrass at hand) that there are tables of R&D expenditures for the period in question, and they should show that high levels of funding continued into 1943. IIRC, Milch did kill the Ju 288 program in 1943 (the original primary intended recipient of 222s), but that did not stop Jumo 222 development and it was actually produced in small quantities before the war ended. In the USA, primary documentation for this subject may be found at the US National Archives, which has copies of the JFM monthly reports and the USSBS field report files for Junkers. The US National Air and Space Museum has microfilm copies of many of the research reports related to Jumo 222 development from both JFM and Rechlin.
Best Regards,
Artie Bob
Best Regards,
Artie Bob
Artie Bob said:IMHO , if one studies the history of JUMO engines, a common theme is the inability of Junkers to meet development schedules that it had set for itself and commited to. This is true for the Jumo 211, 213, 222 and 004. There was a lot of politics involved with the operation and management of Junkers from the time of its takeover by the nazi government in the mid 1930s to its end in 1945, but in my opinion that was not the primary cause of the company's problems. If one compares the starting dates of engine development programs, it appears that the 222 did not really get underway until 1938. The most comparable USA engine was perhaps the Wright duplex cyclone which was probably two years ahead in development at that point and even with the much greater resources of the USA company, had a number of teething problems into 1945. Junkers, with less manpower and resources was trying to develop three engines of quite different characteristics at the same time. The original target service date for Jumo 222 was 1942 and it was clear that this date had been missed before Milch was in the position that would have affected that process. I believe (don't have my copy of Budrass at hand) that there are tables of R&D expenditures for the period in question, and they should show that high levels of funding continued into 1943. IIRC, Milch did kill the Ju 288 program in 1943 (the original primary intended recipient of 222s), but that did not stop Jumo 222 development and it was actually produced in small quantities before the war ended. In the USA, primary documentation for this subject may be found at the US National Archives, which has copies of the JFM monthly reports and the USSBS field report files for Junkers. The US National Air and Space Museum has microfilm copies of many of the research reports related to Jumo 222 development from both JFM and Rechlin.
Best Regards,
Artie Bob
Hello Artie Bob, thanks for the response! I have a few questions: You say that the Jumo 222 count meet its date of 1942 before Milch got his position of power, but according to Ferdinand Brandner the reason why the Jumo never got into production was because [Milch] continually advanced the airframe (the Ju 288) and required the engines to catch up, and thus the Jumo 222 was "developed to death". Brandner also states that in 1942 production was planned from October 1944 to September 1945. In addition, in the summer of 1944 th German's sold the blueprints to Japan. Would these be signs that on the technical side the engine was ready? Does Budrass ever state that the engine was? Many thanks.
Kugelblitz
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Never heard about it being killed by "administrative Means", but it was troubled until the E/F version, which is supposed to have worked as advertised sometime late-war, when Junkers-Dessau was bombed, creating new problems for any planned production.
Hello, Kugelblitz! I have heard that the E/F worked, but never found anything on it, would you please provide a source?Kugelblitz said:Never heard about it being killed by "administrative Means", but it was troubled until the E/F version, which is supposed to have worked as advertised sometime late-war, when Junkers-Dessau was bombed, creating new problems for any planned production.
