Manufacturer: Kooperativa
Scale: 1/72
Additional parts: none
Model build: Jun-Oct 2019
Junkers EF 1111
Kooperativa
1/72
1/72
The Ghost of Dessau
The biting wind of April 1945 whipped across the desolate landscape, carrying with it the faint rumble of distant gunfire. Captain Vladimir Sokolov squinted through the swirling snow, his breath misting in the frigid air. His orders were simple: capture the Dessau Junkers factory and any unfinished aircraft projects before the Americans reached it.
Dessau, once a bustling hub of German aviation, was now a ghost town. The factory, a hulking silhouette against the gray sky, looked strangely quiet. Sokolov's men, bundled in thick coats, advanced cautiously. The silence was unnerving.
Suddenly, a flurry of activity erupted from the factory doors. A group of German figures emerged, pushing a strange, sleek object shrouded in canvas. As they approached, the canvas slipped, revealing a breathtaking sight: a jet fighter unlike anything Sokolov had ever seen. Its sleek metal fuselage gleamed even in the dying light, but what truly intrigued him were the wings – a dark, skeletal structure of wood.
"What is this?" Sokolov barked, his voice hoarse from the cold.
The lead German, a weary-looking engineer named Herr Schmidt, explained, his voice laced with despair. "The EF 1111, Captain. Our last hope. A jet fighter superior to the Me 262, but…" he trailed off, gesturing towards the wooden wings. "We ran out of metal."
Sokolov understood the desperation in Schmidt's eyes. He knew the war was lost, yet these engineers had poured their hearts into this final project. His gaze swept over the gathered Germans, their faces etched with a mixture of pride and defeat.
"We can't let this fall into American hands," Sokolov declared, a resolute glint in his eyes.
The capture of the EF 1111 was a delicate operation. Time was of the essence. With the help of German engineers, the Soviets dismantled the precious aircraft, meticulously separating the wooden components from the metal fuselage. The metal parts were loaded onto trucks, while the disassembled wooden wings were carefully packed onto horse-drawn wagons.
The trek back to Soviet lines was arduous. The constant fear of American patrols kept them on edge. Yet, they persevered, driven by the knowledge that they were carrying a technological marvel that could tip the scales in the coming Cold War.
Finally, after days of relentless travel, they reached Soviet-held territory. The EF 1111 was a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be reassembled, but in the right hands, it could revolutionize Soviet aviation.
Sokolov knew the capture of the EF 1111 wouldn't be publicized. It would become a secret weapon, a ghost in the Soviet hangar, waiting for its chance to take flight and rewrite the history of jet fighters. The fate of the EF 1111, once a symbol of German desperation, now rested in the hands of the Soviets, ready to be reborn as a weapon of the coming era.
In 1944, several German aircraft companies started to plan or even build various high performance jet fighter projects. Most of them were pure concepts that were never build, but a few of them were build or were under construction at the end of World War 2.
One of the almost unknown projects was the Junkers EF 1111, only recently discovered documents from Russian archives gave knowledge to this project. The EF 1111 was a high performance jet powered fighter aircraft that should replace the Me262 with a better performance and less need of strategic material. Design started in mid 1944 and in October 1944, the first prototype was started to build at the Junkers facory in Dessau.
While the fuselage of the aircraft was made out of metal, wings and control surfaces were made out of wood to save the usage of metal. Additionally, it was planned to decentralize the construction of the plane, using smaller wood workshops around the country to produce the wings and later transport them to the final assembly site.
When Dessau - and the Junkers factory there - was captured by Soviet forces in May 1945 the first prototype was almost ready to fly and it fell into Soviet hands undamaged. Many of the Junkers engineers, aircraft and uncompleted projects were moved to the Soviet Union after the war, so this happened to the EF 1111 prototype as well.
The EF 1111 was assigned to the Lawotschkin design buro for further evaluation, and it was first flown under its control in January 1947, nearly one year ahead of the MiG 15. The aircraft showed good performance numbers, but crash landed after its 8the flight on May 8th, 1947.
Being satisfied with the aircraft, Lawotschkin used the EF 1111 to develop his Lawotschkin La 15 jet fighter. The main difference was that it was a all-metal construction compared to the metal/wood mix of the EF 1111.
Up to August 1949, more than 200 La 15 were build, but construction was stopped in favour of the MiG 15. At least one La-15 is now in a museum on display, but there are no traces left of the EF 1111.
Them model shows the first EF 1111 prototype captured by Soviet forces in May 1945.
This is a 1/72 scale Kooperativa kit of a Lawotschkin La-15. Being a Russian short-run kit, the production quality was quite bad. Some parts were almost not to be identified. So I dropped the plan to build this as a Lawotschkin LA-15 and tried to save what was left over of this kit and made the EF 1111 out of it.
After using several kilograms of putty on it (at least it felt so), the model was painted with Revell Aqua Colour. No decals were used.
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