Junkers Ju 52

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52

The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed Tante Ju ("Aunt Ju") and Iron Annie) is a German
trimotor transport aircraft manufactured from 1931 to 1952. Initially designed
with a single engine but subsequently produced as a trimotor, it saw both
civilian and military service during the 1930s and 1940s. In a civilian role, it
flew with over twelve air carriers including Swissair and Deutsche Luft Hansa as
an airliner and freight hauler. In a military role, it flew with the Luftwaffe
as a troop and cargo transport and briefly as a medium bomber. The Ju 52
continued in postwar service with military and civilian air fleets well into the
1980s.

The Ju 52 was similar to the company's previous Junkers W 33, although larger.
In 1930, Ernst Zindel and his team designed the Ju 52 at the Junkers works at
Dessau. The aircraft's unusual corrugated duralumin metal skin, pioneered by
Junkers during World War I, strengthened the whole structure.

The Ju 52 had a low cantilever wing, the midsection of which was built into the
fuselage, forming its underside. It was formed around four pairs of circular
cross-section duralumin spars with a corrugated surface that provided torsional
stiffening. A narrow control surface, with its outer section functioning as the
aileron, and the inner section functioning as a flap, ran along the whole
trailing edge of each wing panel, well separated from it. The inner flap section
lowered the stalling speed and the arrangement became known as the Doppelflügel,
or "double wing".

The outer sections of this operated differentially as ailerons, projecting
slightly beyond the wingtips with control horns. The strutted horizontal
stabilizer carried horn-balanced elevators which again projected and showed a
significant gap between them and the stabilizer, which was adjustable in-flight.
All stabilizer surfaces were corrugated.

The fuselage was of rectangular section with a domed decking, all covered with
corrugated light alloy. There was a port side passenger door just aft of the
wings, with windows stretching forward to the pilots' cockpit. The main
undercarriage was fixed and divided; some aircraft had wheel fairings, others
not. There was a fixed tailskid, or a later tailwheel. Some aircraft were fitted
with floats or skis instead of the main wheels.

In its original configuration, designated the Ju 52/1m, the Ju 52 was a
single-engined aircraft, powered by either a BMW IV or Junkers liquid-cooled
V-12 engine. However, the single-engine model was underpowered, and after seven
prototypes had been completed, all subsequent Ju 52s were built with three
radial engines as the Ju 52/3m (drei motoren—"three engines").

Role
Transport aircraft, medium bomber, airliner

Manufacturer
Junkers

Designer
Ernst Zindel

First flight
13 October 1930 (Ju 52/1m); 7 March 1932 (Ju 52/3m)

Status
In limited Use

Primary users
Luftwaffe
Luft Hansa
Spanish Air Force

Produced
1931–1945 (Germany)
1945–1947 (France)
1945–1952 (Spain)

Number built
4,845

In 1932, James A. Richardson's Canadian Airways received (Werknummer 4006)
CF-ARM, the sixth ever-built Ju 52/1m. The aircraft, first re-fitted with an
Armstrong Siddeley Leopard radial engine and then later with a Rolls-Royce
Buzzard and nicknamed the "Flying Boxcar" in Canada, could lift approximately
three tons and had a maximum weight of 7 tonnes (8 tons). It was used to supply
mining and other operations in remote areas with equipment too big and heavy for
other aircraft then in use. The Ju 52/1m was able to land on wheels, skis or
floats (as were all Ju 52 variants).

Before the Nazi Government seized control of Junkers in 1935, the Ju 52/3m was
produced principally as a 17-seat airliner. It was used mainly by Luft Hansa and
could fly from Berlin to Rome in eight hours. The Luft Hansa fleet eventually
numbered 80 and flew from Germany on routes in Europe, Asia and South America.

During the North African Campaign, the Ju 52 was the mainstay reinforcement and
resupply transport for the Germans, starting with 20 to 50 flights a day to
Tunisia from Sicily in November 1942, building to 150 landings a day in early
April as the Axis situation became more desperate. The Allied air forces
developed a counter-air operation over a two-month period and implemented
Operation Flax on 5 April 1943, destroying 11 Ju 52s in the air near Cap Bon and
many more during bombing attacks on its Sicilian airfields, leaving only 29
flyable. That began two catastrophic weeks in which more than 140 were lost in
air interceptions, culminated on 18 April with the "Palm Sunday Massacre" in
which 24 Ju 52s were shot down and another 35 staggered back to Sicily and
crash-landed.

The Swiss Air Force also operated the Ju 52 from 1939 to 1982 when three
aircraft remained in operation, probably the last and longest service in any air
force. Museums hoped to obtain the aircraft, but they were not for sale. They
are still in flying condition and together with a CASA 352 can be booked for
sightseeing tours with Ju-Air. During the 1950s the Ju 52 was also used by the
French Air Force during the First Indochina War as a bomber. The usage of these
Junkers was quite limited.

The Spanish Air Force operated the Ju 52, nicknamed Pava, until well into the
1970s. Escuadrón 721 flying the Spanish-built versions, was employed in training
parachutists from Alcantarilla Air Base near Murcia.

Some military Ju 52s were converted to civilian use. For example, British
European Airways operated eleven ex-Luftwaffe Ju 52/3mg8e machines, taken over
by the RAF, between 1946 and retirement in 1947 on intra-U.K. routes before the
Douglas DC-3 was introduced to the airline. French airlines such as Societe de
Transports Aeriens (STA) and Air France flew Toucans in the late 1940s and early
1950s.

A Ju 52 and a Douglas DC-3 were the last aircraft to take off from Berlin
Tempelhof Airport before all operations ceased there on October 30, 2008.

Specifications (Junkers Ju 52/1m ce)

General characteristics
Crew: Two
Capacity: 1,820 kilograms (4,010 lb) of cargo
Length: 18.5 m (60 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 29.5 m (96 ft 9 in)
Height: 4.65 m (15 ft 3 in)
Wing area: 116 m2 (1,250 sq ft)
Empty weight: 4,000 kg (8,818 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 7,000 kg (15,432 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × BMW VIIaU V12 engine, 507 kW (680 hp) (690 PS)
Propellers: 4-bladed

Performance
Maximum speed: 195 km/h (121 mph; 105 kn) at sea level
Cruise speed: 160 km/h (99 mph; 86 kn)
Range: 1,000 km (621 mi; 540 nmi)
Service ceiling: 3,400 m (11,200 ft)
Rate of climb: 2.3 m/s (450 ft/min) at sea level
Time to altitude: 8.6 min to 1,000 m (3,300 ft); 20.5 min to 2,000 m (6,600 ft)
Wing loading: 60.34 kg/m2 (12.36 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 13.8 kg/kW


Specifications (Junkers Ju 52/3m ce)

General characteristics
Crew: Two
Capacity: 17 passengers
Length: 18.9 m (62 ft 0 in)
Wingspan: 29.25 m (96 ft 0 in)
Height: 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 110.5 m2 (1,189 sq ft)
Empty weight: 5,970 kg (13,162 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 9,210 kg (20,305 lb)
Powerplant: 3 × BMW Hornet A2 radial engines, 386 kW (518 hp) each (525 PS)

Performance
Maximum speed: 271 km/h (168 mph; 146 kn) at 900 metres (3,000 ft)
Cruise speed: 222 km/h (138 mph; 120 kn)
Range: 950 km (590 mi; 513 nmi)
Service ceiling: 5,200 m (17,100 ft)
Rate of climb: 3.9 m/s (770 ft/min)
Wing loading: 83.35 kg/m2 (17.07 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 7.95 kg/kW


Specifications (Junkers Ju 52/3m g7e)

General characteristics
Crew: three (two pilots, radio operator)
Capacity: 18 troops or 12 litter patients
Length: 18.90 m (62 ft 0 in)
Wingspan: 29.25 m (95 ft 10 in)
Height: 4.5 m (14 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 110.5 m² (1,190 ft²)
Empty weight: 6,510 kg (14,325 lb)
Loaded weight: 9,200 kg (20,270 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 10,990 kg (24,200 lb)
Powerplant: 3 × BMW 132T radial engines, 533 kW (715 hp) each

Performance
Maximum speed: 265 km/h (165 mph) at sea level
Cruise speed: 211 km/h (132 mph)
Range: 870 km (540 mi)
Service ceiling: 5,490 m (18,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 2.99 m/s; 17 minutes to 3,050 m (10,000 ft)

Armament

Guns:
1 × 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine gun in a dorsal position
2 × 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine guns
Bombs: up to 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of bombs (some variants)





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