In the middle of 1944, the Junkers aircraft company worked on a project for a low-level ground attack aircraft to replace the Henschel Hs 129 ground attack aircraft. The fuselage was stout and tapered, and was armored throughout. Fuel was contained entirely in the armored fuselage. The wings were straight and exhibited taper on both the leading and trailing edges. A twin fin and rudder configuration was chosen with the tailplanes being horizontal. The engines were to be two Daimler Benz ZTL 109-007 double-bypass jet engines and were mounted in the wing roots. These engines were designed to allow a considerable increase in power but had a reduced fuel consumption and were designed by Prof. Dr. -Ing. Karl Leist. As a consequence of the secondary compressed airflow circuit, the intake and overall diameter of the engine was larger than the BMW 003 or Jumo 004 jet engines. The main landing gear retracted sideways into the fuselage, and the nose "gear" consisted of a retractable, pneumatically sprung skid. Two men comprised the crew and they sat in a cockpit in the aircraft's nose. Armament was to consist of one MK 103 30mm cannon in the nose and two MG 151/20 20mm cannon in the lower wing roots. The engine development dragged on at Daimler-Benz, and the fact that they started rather late in the war led to all development being stopped on this Junkers aircraft project, especially since this airframe was designed around these engines. In a way, the design lived on with the US Fairchild A-10 "Thunderbolt II" or "Warthog".