Hello all:
I'm well aware that the Stuka design was pretty much obsolete early on in the war and the aircraft was easy meat for allied fighters if it travelled without escort.
However, when I think about the aircraft and it's mission, I can see a design that could be cleaned up and perhaps married to a turboprop for use as a COIN platform in post war Latin America.
So let's say, for the sake of example, that an employee of the nationalized Junkers firm who was more loyal to Hugo Junkers ideals than those of the Nazis, flees Germany with a copy of the Stuka blueprints and technical notes and gets to South America with them and revises them.
While the basic slim fuselage and gull wing planform are kept, several refinements are made within those dimensions:
Much reduced weight through lightened structure and reduced armor
Wings cleaned up and retracting main gear incorporated
Revised cockpit area with new canopy of much reduced framing, single and two seat variants made
Early versions replaced Jumo engine with piston engine more suited to COIN mission
Later versions were turboprop powered
Those are just a few refinements I've thought of putting in the design while thinking about how to smooth out the Stuka, and still keep the general Stuka look, over the years.
So, what do you all make of that idea?
What else could be done with a Stuka?
