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In 1942, the Luftwaffe issued competition calling for a long
range bomber capable of striking targets in the U.S. east coast,
primarily New York city. Junkers took parts in a competition with its
Ju.390 design. Other competitors were Heinkel with He.277, Messerschmit
with Me.264 and Tank with Ta.400. In order to build the first prototype
extremely quickly, Junkers chose the most simple path, enlarge the
Ju.290 with six engines. Since the majority of components for the
construction came from elements of the Ju.90 and Ju.290, the first
flight of the Ju.390 took place as early as 1943. The Ju.390 was claimed
to have made a test flight from Germany to Cape Town, and other test
flight from France to a point 19 km off US east coast in 1944. Not only
the Luftwaffe interested, but also Japan Army Air Force considered for
its potential for striking U.S. western coast. The detailed
manufacturing drawings were scheduled to hand over to Japan in 1945.
However, at the end of 1944, the Ju.390 program was cancelled on the
orders of RLM for allocating design time to other more pressing
projects.
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