The surviving Junkers Ju 88R-1 Werknummer 360043, now displayed at the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands, is one of the most historically significant Luftwaffe aircraft to survive the Second World War. Originally built in 1942 as a Ju 88 bomber before conversion into a radar-equipped night fighter, it served with Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 as aircraft “D5+EV.” On 9 May 1943, pilot Oberleutnant Herbert Schmid and part of his crew defected to Britain, flying the aircraft to RAF Dyce in Scotland. The Ju 88 carried the advanced FuG 202 Lichtenstein airborne interception radar, whose capture provided British scientists with invaluable intelligence that helped develop effective radar-jamming countermeasures against German night fighters. After extensive testing by the RAF and use with No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight, the aircraft survived the war and was eventually preserved at Cosford, where it remains one of only two substantially complete Ju 88s in existence anywhere in the world.

Always a sight!