Kiwiguy
Ju-390 Project Pilot Hans Pancherz, employed by Junkers as a test pilot, claimed in interview by UK's Daily Telegraph from September 1969 that he flew the Ju-290 to South Africa during the war. He produced logbook and diary accounts of the flight.
The distance from Mont de Marsan to Cape Town (if that was the route) far exceeds the 6,200nm distance from France to New York.
In fact the Ju-390's maximum certified take off weight was increased from 75,500kg to 80,500kg in May 1944 along with stripping of 5,000kg from the empty weight. This then allowed a payload of 8,000kg to be flown 11,000nm.
Critics of the New York flight forget that radio broadcast towers were easy homing beacons and their frequencies and aerial tower locations were well known before the war.
It is a simple task to navigate and fix position by triangulation of known radio stations.
There were two Ju-390 aircraft built and flown. The Ju-390 V1 was flown to the Junkers factory strip at Dessau in November 1944. It was stripped of propellers and lay derelict until mid january when a straffing raid by allied fighters set it alight. The Ju-390 V1 was destroyed forever, but there were numerous sightings of another Ju-390 well documented after November 1944. These included two flights by Oberleutnant Eissermanns on 9 February 1945.
The distance from Mont de Marsan to Cape Town (if that was the route) far exceeds the 6,200nm distance from France to New York.
In fact the Ju-390's maximum certified take off weight was increased from 75,500kg to 80,500kg in May 1944 along with stripping of 5,000kg from the empty weight. This then allowed a payload of 8,000kg to be flown 11,000nm.
Critics of the New York flight forget that radio broadcast towers were easy homing beacons and their frequencies and aerial tower locations were well known before the war.
It is a simple task to navigate and fix position by triangulation of known radio stations.
There were two Ju-390 aircraft built and flown. The Ju-390 V1 was flown to the Junkers factory strip at Dessau in November 1944. It was stripped of propellers and lay derelict until mid january when a straffing raid by allied fighters set it alight. The Ju-390 V1 was destroyed forever, but there were numerous sightings of another Ju-390 well documented after November 1944. These included two flights by Oberleutnant Eissermanns on 9 February 1945.