Junkers Ju 52/3mge W Nr 5670 6309

In March 1919 a modified ex military J10 monoplane opened the first regular airline between Dessau and Weimar. This aircraft was quickly followed by the J13 designed as a transport aircraft accommodated for 4 passengers and 2 crew members. The aircraft sold under the F13 designation was a success, staying in production until 1932 with 332 examples build in 70 versions. As for the J family, metal construction and aluminium covering offered a strong and safe structure. The construction was easy. The metallic F13 was also better suited to resist to the weather elements than the other contemporary airliners. The F13 was followed by series of airliners, cargo aircraft and fast mail transports.

In 1921, Junkers founded the Junkers-luftverkehr company which merged later with other German airlines to form the Deutsch Lufthansa. The Lufthansa opened many subsidiaries in South America, Europe and Asia. The Junkers metallic aeroplanes were intensively used by the German airlines companies all over the world but also by foreign companies.

The design of the Ju52 started in 1929 under the leadership of Ernst Zindel. The prime objectives were to produce a passenger and cargo aircraft of the dimensions as the G21 but with futures needs in minds. The Ju52 prototype registered D-1974 first flow on 13 October 1930. This first Ju52 was single engined but can be easily modified to accommodate 3 engines.

The first production batch of the new transport aircraft quickly entered service with German airlines but also with foreign companies in Sweden or Canada.

During the autumn of 1931, production switched to the three engines version (designated Ju52/3m) which offered better safety in case of one engine failure. The first order for this version came from Bolivia. In 1932, the first Ju52/3mce won the Circuit des Alpes in Zurich. As an airliner, this version can carry 13 to 17 passengers with a crew of four.

Although, the then successfully Ju52/3m can accept a wide range of engines, most of the delivered machines were equipped with BMW license build Hornet engines.

In 1934, the Ju52/3mge appeared and all later civil versions were variant of this model. This model offered a take off weight of 9500 kg, a cruise speed of 283 km/h for a range of 2000 km.

Since 1935, the Ju52 is competing successfully with the Douglas DC2 and DC3. Airlines of Germany, Finland, Estonia, Austria, Denmark, USSR, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Rumania, Spain, Brazil, Columbia, South African or China operated Ju52’s before or during Word War 2. British Airways operated the three motor airliners in the UK. At least 230 Ju52 were in use with Lufthansa.

With the birth of the Luftwaffe and orders for military Ju52’s, license rights were granted to Hungary, Spain and during the war to France (Air France received 85 French build Ju52 after WW2).

Civil operated Ju52’s vanished from the sky in the late fifties but the "Tante Ju" is still a regular visitor at airshows.

As soon as 1932, Germany prepared clandestinely the creation of the Luftwaffe. One of the aircraft selected to train the future crews was logically the Ju52. A bomber version of the "Tante Ju" can carry 6 bombs of 100 Kg and possessed a defensive armament of two machine guns. In 1934 and 1935 450 Ju52’s were delivered to the Luftwaffe. When Germany decided to support the General Franco uprising in July 1936, 20 Ju52 were sent in Spanish Morocco to transport the Franco’s troops to Spain. It was the start of a long involvement of the Ju52 in the bloody Spanish civil war.

On September 1^st, 1939, 547 Ju52’s were in service with the Luftwaffe in transport units. In the first campaigns of Poland, Norway and on the Western front, the Ju52’s played a great role transporting troops, supplies and materials but the "Tante Ju" had a major impact on the operations when the aircraft was used to drop airborne troops in the Netherlands and in Belgium. However theses success had a high costs as losses were high. For example 167 Ju52 were lost during the short Holland campaign and the number of damaged aircraft counted for a further 100 units.

The next big affair for the Ju52’s of the Luftwaffe was the invasion of Crete. 493 Ju52’s and 90 DFS 30 gliders were amassed in Greece to transport the German parachute troops. 174 precious trimotors were lost during the operations and when the German troops prepared to invade USSR a few months later, it was still only 238 Ju52’s in service. Althought new designs in the form of the Ju252 or the Ju352 or revolutionary aircraft as the Arado 236 were tested, improved version of the Ju52’s stayed the major transport aircraft of the Luftwaffe until the end of the war. Losses were considerable and some of the 4835 Ju52’s produced were captured at the end of the conflict.

After World War 2, French license build Ju52’s were put in service in both the French Navy and Armée de l’air playing a major role in the first Vietnam war and in North Africa. Spain and Portugal acquired Ju52’s as bombers in the years 30’s and later these Ju52’s role switched to transport to stay in service until the year seventies.

At the end of the years thirty, the Portugal decided to acquire Junkers Ju52’s in the bomber version. A first batch of 10 machines was delivered in December 1936. The aircraft were ferried by both German and Portuguese crews and were presented at a ceremony at the Sintra airfield on December 23th. In 1937, the Ju52’s were allocated to a new created new bombing group based at Alverca and later at Ota.

With the start of the hostilities in Europe, the Ju52’s were transferred to the Azores islands where they operated since 1942. The aircraft were also used for liaisons and reconnaissance flights. With the arrivals of more modern aircraft delivered by the Allies, the Ju52’s were sent back to Portugal in 1944 and based at Ota.

In 1952, the Ju52’s were transferred at the Tancos air base where they were used for transport and liaison operations. With the creation of parachute troops within the Portuguese Army, the Ju52’s were also used for paratroops dropping carrying 12 soldiers. In 1959, a new mission was added with the training of crews (pilots and navigators) for heavy transport.

In 1971, the Ju52’s were retired from the service but the last flight of a Ju52 in Portuguese Air Force service occurred on January 3, 1973. The surviving veterans were stored at Alverca.

The first visit of a Ju52 in Belgium occurred in 1932 when the aircraft "Fritz Puetter"of the Lufthansa (D-ANEN) visited Haren (the then Brussels airport) on 01/04/1932. To replace the Fokker F-VII/3m then in service the Sabena ordered Ju52’s and Savoia Marchetti SM73. The first Ju52 was delivered in 1936 and used on the European network.

When World War two started the Sabena Ju52’s were grounded to avoid to be misidentified as Luftwaffe Ju52’s by Allies fighter. The aircraft received large Belgian identification (a large BELGIQUE on the fuselage and Belgian flags on the rudder and the wings) and were transferred to Congo (3 in 1939, 3 in January 1940).

In Africa, the Belgian Ju52’s played an important role. As civil aircraft they were a key element to ease communication in a country as big as Europe. The Ju52’s were also used in support of the Belgian troops operating in Ethiopia. They were also used to ferry pilots between the centre of Africa to Egypt.

Two additional Ju52’s were acquired from the British Airways but four aircraft were written off in accidents. The last four Sabena Ju52’s were retired in November 1946 and some are reported been sold in Angola.

In 1945, a solution was searched to ease the travel of troops on leave of the 2 squadrons of the Belgian Section of the RAF then based at Fassberg in Germany. The RAF proposed to give captured Ju52’s but due to logistical problems the solution was not accepted by Belgian authorities.

Five others captured Ju52’s were offered to Belgium from RAF stocks. The aircraft were delivered in 1946 and put in service by the Ministry of transport. It seems two aircraft were used as spare parts stocks, the others three being flow for radio navigation calibration, radio training and liaisons. The last Belgian Ju52 was retired in 1954.

The Ju52 of the Museum is one of the original aircraft procured from Germany in 1937. In Portuguese service the aircraft received in a first time the N° 109 and served with 2 night bombing squadron. The aircraft was renumbered N° 209. During World War 2, she moved with her squadron to the Azores.

After the war, the aircraft was again renumbered 6309 and served from 1958 to 1961 at Ota. At an unknown date, she received the wings of Norwegian origin Ju52. The aircraft was retired with other surviving Ju52’s at Alverca. The aircraft was exchanged for an Alouette II and a Sikorsky H19 and delivered by sea at Zeebrugge in 1985.

The aircraft was transferred to the workshop of the Sabena Old timers with the target to restore her to flying condition. The registration OO-AGU was reserved for the aircraft (OO-AGU was the registration of one of Ju52’s of the Sabena in the year thirties. The SOT started the restoration by rebuilding the central engine and started a world wide hunt for Ju52’s parts. They received some help from South Africa, Canada and Germany but after years they stopped the works on the Ju52 when they concluded the aircraft needed new wings to be back airworthy. Consequently, the aircraft stayed many years outside on the Zaventem airport. Many members of the Friends of the Brussels Air Museum deployed breathless efforts to find a restoration solution for the aircraft.

In 1998, the team leaded by Jean Michotte (who restored the Bolingbroke for the Brussels Museum) negotiated with both the Belgian Air Force and the Museum to obtain the permission to transfer the aircraft to Brustem air base and to continue the restoration operations. In 1999, most of the fuselage was ready and a frantic race started to find missing parts or build newer ones. For examples many panels of the wings were new build from scratch using machine designed and built by the team to press the corrugated aluminium typical to the Ju52 covering.

The Jean Michotte team succeed in attracting the support of medias and sponsors (for example the Junkers company).

In June 2001, the miracle happened and the Ju52 was ready for transport to the Museum she reached after a long and meticulously planned trip in September.

The aircraft is painted in the colour of a Ju52 as leaving the production plan in the years thirties.

Junkers Ju52 3mge (or Ju52 3k in the Junkers inhouse designation)

Length : 18.90 M

Height : 4.52M

Wingspan : 29.31 M

Engines : 3 BWM 132a 600 HP

Maximum speed : 290 Km/h

Cruise speed : 260 km/h

Landing speed 106 km./h.

Max speed(at 195 m.) 290 km./h.

Range : 1770 km

Ceiling : 5880 M

Empty weight 5.700 kg.

All up weight 9.500 kg.

Armament in bomber version : 2 Machine gun, 1500 kg bombs

Crew : 4

Les opérations des Junkers 52 au Portugal by Antonio Mimoso e Carvalho and Luis Tavares in Avions 94 & 95

Trusty Tri-motor by John Strout in Air International / August 1974

Iron Annie From Dessau by Eric Brown in Air International / October 1975

Belgian Civil Ju52’s by Michel Suplis in Kit IPMS Belgium

Les Junkers 52/3 M de la Sabena by André Vanthemsche in Brussels Air Museum Magazine

Le Junkers 52 by Guy Viselé in Carnets de vol

JU-52 by Engenheiro Canongia Lopes in Mais Alto April/May 1999 & June July 1999