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Hitlers Frankenstien's monster - the Ju 287 even had parts from two B-24s
 The first (V1) prototype continued on 17 test flights without crashing, but they all must have been at slow speed. The test pilot found the plane to be very manoeuvrable. In light of the failures of other cutting edge projects, that was not a bad introduction, and the flights enabled some sorting out of jet engine issues and the like. sourceOne of the strangest looking Luftwaffe aircraft to take to the skies was the Junkers Ju 287.
Begun in early 1943, the Ju 287 incorporated many advanced aerodynamic concepts, the most striking being the swept forward wings. This design feature was deemed radical enough to warrant the construction of a test bed aircraft. The test bed- flew on August 16, 1944. The aircraft was a Frankenstien’s monster, pieced together from several different aircraft. Included were the nose wheels from two B-24 Liberators, the fuselage of an He 177, main wheels off a Ju 352, and the tail was constructed of Ju 388 parts.
The Junkers Ju 287 was a Nazi Germany aerodynamic test bed built to develop the technology required for a multi-engine jet bomber. It was powered by four Junkers Jumo 004 engines, featured a revolutionary forward-swept wing, and apart from the wing was assembled largely from components scavenged from other aircraft.
 Featured a revolutionary forward-swept wing. sourceThe unfinished second and third prototypes, which far more accurately reflected the design of the eventual production bomber, were captured by the Red Army in the closing stages of World War II and the design was further developed in the Soviet Union after the end of the war. The Ju 287 was intended to provide the Luftwaffe with a bomber that could avoid interception by outrunning enemy fighters. The swept-forward wing was suggested by the project’s head designer, Dr. Hans Wocke as a way of providing extra lift at low airspeeds – necessary because of the poor responsiveness of early turbojets at the vulnerable times of takeoff and landing. A further structural advantage of the forward-swept wing was that it would allow for a single massive weapons bay forward of the main wing spar. Prior to the assembly of the first Ju 287, an He 177 A-5 (designated as a 177 prototype, V38) was modified at the Letov plant in Prague to examine the technical characteristics of this single large bomb bay design.
The first prototype was intended to evaluate the concept, and was assembled from the fuselage of an He 177 A-5, the tail of a Ju 388, main undercarriage from a Ju 352, and nosewheels taken from crashed B-24 Liberators. Two of the Jumo 004 engines were hung under the wings, with the other two mounted in nacelles added to the sides of the forward fuselage.
Flight tests began on 16 August 1944 with the aircraft displaying extremely good handling characteristics, as well as revealing some of the problems of the forward-swept wing under some flight conditions. The most notable of these drawbacks was ‘wing warping’, or excessive inflight flexing of the main spar and wing assembly. Tests suggested that the warping problem would be eliminated by concentrating greater engine mass under the wings. This technical improvement would be incorporated in the subsequent prototypes. The 287 was intended to be powered by four Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 engines, but because of the development problems experienced with that engine, the BMW 003 was selected in its place. The second and third prototypes, V2 and V3, were to have employed six of these engines, in a triple cluster under each wing. Both were to feature the all-new fuselage and tail design intended for the production bomber, the Ju 287A-1. V3 was to have served as the pre-production template, carrying defensive armament, a pressurised cockpit and full operational equipment.
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