Editing Junkers Ju 388 (section)

==Surviving aircraft==
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2016}}
[[File:Junkers Ju388L-1.jpg|thumb|This is the captured [[airplane]], ''Werknummer'' 560049 ([[United States Army Air Forces|USAAF]] foreign evaluation serial number T2-4010), currently awaiting restoration at the [[Smithsonian Institution]], Silver Hill, Maryland, USA]]

One Ju 388 survives today. The Ju 388L-1 reconnaissance version with construction number (''Werknummer'') 560049 was the eighth of the series manufactured at ''Weser Flugzeugbau's'' Nordenham plant. Parts of the airframe were also built at ATG in [[Altenburg]] and at ''Niedersächsische Metallwerke Brinckmann & Mergell'' in [[Harburg, Hamburg|Hamburg-Harburg]]. The aircraft was completed early in 1945.  It was captured by U.S. troops in May 1945 at the Junkers plant in [[Merseburg]], then flown to [[Kassel]]/Waldau.

The aircraft was examined and test flown by [[Operation Lusty#Watson's "Whizzers"|"Watson's Whizzers"]], led by [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] Harold E. Watson, as part of [[Operation Lusty]] and it is believed that Watson himself flew in the aircraft in preparation for flying it directly back to the U.S. Instead, on 17 June 1945 the aircraft was flown to [[Cherbourg-Octeville|Cherbourg]], [[France]] where it was shipped to the United States aboard the [[Royal Navy]] [[escort carrier]] {{HMS|Reaper|D82|6}} together with other captured German aircraft for detailed evaluation in the U.S.

The aircraft was flown to Freeman Field in [[Indiana]] for evaluation, and in September 1945 made a flight demonstration for the press. The Ju 388 was flown for 10 hours of flight tests at [[Wright Field]] near [[Dayton, Ohio]] with the "foreign evaluation" serial number FE-4010 (later changed to T2-4010). Following these tests the aircraft was displayed at the Dayton, Ohio Air Show at Wright Field in 1946 along with other captured German aircraft.

On 26 September 1946, 560049 was transferred to Orchard Place Airport in [[Park Ridge, Illinois]], near the present [[O'Hare International Airport]]. This temporary storage facility was a vacant [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. Government]]-owned factory previously used by the [[Chrysler]] Corporation to build the [[Douglas Aircraft Company|Douglas]] [[Douglas C-54 Skymaster|C-54]]. The Ju 388 was donated to the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s National Air Museum on 3 January 1949 and arrived at [[Silver Hill, Maryland]], for storage in November 1954.

Today the aircraft is disassembled and remains in generally good condition, having never been stored outside. The cockpit area is in particularly good condition and complete with all instruments. The aircraft is just one of several unique German aircraft still awaiting restoration at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]'s [[Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility]] in [[Silver Hill, Maryland]], all intended to be transferred in the coming years to the [[Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center]]'s restoration annex of the Smithsonian, on the [[Dulles International Airport]] property.<ref>{{cite web|title=Junkers Ju 388 L-1|url=http://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/junkers-ju-388-l-1|website=Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum|access-date=26 April 2017|archive-date=29 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429005811/https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/junkers-ju-388-l-1|url-status=dead}}</ref>