Junkers Ju 87 RAF aircraft on the ground and a great many of the airfield's buildings. Detling was not an RAF Fighter Command station. The Battle of Britain proved for the first time that the Junkers Ju 87 was vulnerable in hostile skies against well-organised and determined fighter opposition. The Ju 87, like other dive bombers, was slow and possessed inadequate defences. Furthermore, it could not be effectively protected by fighters because of its low speed, and the very low altitudes at which it ended its dive bomb attacks. The Stuka depended on air superiority, the very thing being contested over Britain. It
Junkers J 1 a series of fully cantilevered all-metal monoplanes. Upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Junkers decided to direct his efforts towards projects which would have potential military value. During this era, the majority of aircraft designers were relatively conservative and, save for some isolated examples, no advancements were achieved; according to aviation historian Charles Gibbs-Smith, the pioneering work of Hugo Junkers was a notable exception. It was Junkers' efforts, along with those of collaborators such as engineers Otto Reuter, Otto Mader, head of Junkers' "Forschungsanstalt", and Hans Steudel, director of Junkers' structural materials and testing department that